Epiphenomenalism

Questions whether consciousness has any causal efficacy, warning that if mental states are just side-effects of physical processes, they play no role in producing behaviour.

2 supporting13 challenging

Supporting Arguments (2)

Ontic Structural Realism

If reality is fundamentally just a set of relationships, then consciousness is also defined by its relational (and thus functional) structure.

Methodology, Epiphenomenalism, Ontology, Computational, Promotes functionalism

Informational Ontologies

If reality is fundamentally made of information, then consciousness is a form of (substrate independent) information processing.

Methodology, Epiphenomenalism, Ontology, Computational, Promotes digital CF

Challenging Arguments (13)

Phenomenal Binding Problem

How do CF algorithms give rise to ontologically unified moments of experience?

Key Argument, Phenomenology, Epiphenomenalism, Targets digital CF

Staccato Consciousness Problem

Would computational consciousness just be a series of disconnected moments?

Phenomenology, Identity, Epiphenomenalism, Targets all CF

US Economy Argument

Under CF, any sufficiently complex system, like an economy, could be conscious, however abstract.

Identity, Epiphenomenalism, Entity predictions, Targets functionalism

Leibniz's Mill / Chinese Nation

If a conscious machine were huge, you would only see its parts, not a mind.

Epiphenomenalism, Substrate, Entity predictions, Targets all CF

Problem of Many Minds

Sub-algorithms of a CF algorithm may constitute independent minds themselves.

Identity, Epiphenomenalism, Computational, Targets functionalism

Slicing Problem

A trivial physical operation on a 3D Turing machine could theoretically multiply the number of minds at no cost.

Identity, Substrate, Epiphenomenalism, Targets digital CF

Individuation Problem

Identifying which algorithm a system is running is an arbitrary, observer-dependent choice.

Identity, Methodology, Epiphenomenalism, Targets all CF

Lightcone Reification Problem

If the last step of an algorithm cannot know the full history of its inputs, those inputs cannot causally affect the current moment.

Epiphenomenalism, Identity, Ontology, Targets all CF

Free Will Argument

Deterministic computation seems incompatible with the experience of free will.

Epiphenomenalism, Identity, Targets all CF

Unfolding Problem

Any recurrent neural network can be made feedforward-only, conflicting with evidence of recurrency and self-reference in humans.

Substrate, Epiphenomenalism, Computational, Targets digital CF

Pen & Paper Argument

CF says you could create a conscious experience by manually computing an algorithm on paper over thousands of years.

Substrate, Epiphenomenalism, Entity predictions, Computational, Targets digital CF

Counterfactual Computation Critique

CF says consciousness depends on what a system could do (counterfactuals), not what it actually does, which can lead to odd results.

Key Argument, Epiphenomenalism, Computational, Targets all CF

Neural Replay

Artificially replaying neural firing patterns would produce the same output without the causal structure CF requires.

Epiphenomenalism, Ontology, Computational, Targets all CF