There are significant differences between IIT and AST (and Aaronson doesn’t go much beyond refuting IIT).
IIT and AST both start (or argue) from first principles—information processing. But differently:
IIT is self-contained and refers to the amount of information processing
AST related the information processing directly to processes about attention and the information in reports about consciousness.
AST has a neuropsychological plausibility, and processing can be located in specific brain regions. IIT does almost no such thing.
AST makes testable predictions about consciousness. IIT can only be tested on the plausibility of the information processing (though that you can do that is better than most other theories of consciousness).
There are significant differences between IIT and AST (and Aaronson doesn’t go much beyond refuting IIT).
IIT and AST both start (or argue) from first principles—information processing. But differently:
IIT is self-contained and refers to the amount of information processing
AST related the information processing directly to processes about attention and the information in reports about consciousness.
AST has a neuropsychological plausibility, and processing can be located in specific brain regions. IIT does almost no such thing.
AST makes testable predictions about consciousness. IIT can only be tested on the plausibility of the information processing (though that you can do that is better than most other theories of consciousness).