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.
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.
Informational Ontologies
If reality is fundamentally made of information, then consciousness is a form of (substrate independent) information processing.
Challenging Arguments (13)
Phenomenal Binding Problem
How do CF algorithms give rise to ontologically unified moments of experience?
Staccato Consciousness Problem
Would computational consciousness just be a series of disconnected moments?
US Economy Argument
Under CF, any sufficiently complex system, like an economy, could be conscious, however abstract.
Leibniz's Mill / Chinese Nation
If a conscious machine were huge, you would only see its parts, not a mind.
Problem of Many Minds
Sub-algorithms of a CF algorithm may constitute independent minds themselves.
Slicing Problem
A trivial physical operation on a 3D Turing machine could theoretically multiply the number of minds at no cost.
Individuation Problem
Identifying which algorithm a system is running is an arbitrary, observer-dependent choice.
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.
Free Will Argument
Deterministic computation seems incompatible with the experience of free will.
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