Computational
Explores the nature of computation, its role in reality, and what it takes to define computation adequately.
Supporting Arguments (4)
Church Turing Thesis
Most natural processes are computable, so it's likely consciousness is too.
Cognitive Science & AI Success Argument
Computational models have been very successful at reproducing cognition, so they will eventually reproduce phenomenal consciousness too.
Ontic Structural Realism
If reality is fundamentally just a set of relationships, then consciousness is also defined by its relational (and thus functional) structure.
Informational Ontologies
If reality is fundamentally made of information, then consciousness is a form of (substrate independent) information processing.
Challenging Arguments (8)
Problem of Many Minds
Sub-algorithms of a CF algorithm may constitute independent minds themselves.
Simulation Equivalence Argument
Simulating a thing (like weather) is not the same as instantiating it physically.
Possibility of Analogue Computation
Consciousness might depend on continuous (analogue) processes, not discrete (digital) ones.
Fractional / Borderline Qualia
Inexact computation could result in incomplete or "fractional" states of consciousness.
Unfolding Problem
Any recurrent neural network can be made feedforward-only, conflicting with evidence of recurrency and self-reference in humans.
Pen & Paper Argument
The algorithm that is conscious in a computer can, by CF assumption, be replicated in all relevant aspects of its function by writing it out by hand on pen and paper, e
Counterfactual Computation Critique
Computation is typically defined in terms of counterfactuals – what a system would do with different inputs is an important part of its causal structure
Neural Replay
It is plausible the brain operates based on what does happen rather than what could have happened, unlike computation which is typically defined via counterfactuals