Claims
This is the compact public claims ledger. It is intentionally short and public-facing.
Evidence legend
- Primary paper: a claim, definition, model, or argument drawn from The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis.
- Supporting source: a talk or interview used to clarify or extend a formulation.
- Project synthesis: this site’s source-grounded bridge across one or more passages.
- Open question: the sources and current evidence do not settle the matter.
“Supports” identifies provenance and argumentative support. It does not by itself mean independent replication, empirical validation, or scientific consensus.
CLM-0001
Mind is best modeled as a model-building control system, not merely as passive representation or as explicit reasoning.
Basis: Project synthesis from the primary paper and a supporting source.
Supports:
CLM-0002
Consciousness is not synonymous with self, mind, or intellect.
Basis: Primary paper.
Supports:
CLM-0003
The contents of consciousness include percepts, feelings, thoughts, imaginations, and intuitions.
Basis: Primary paper.
Supports:
CLM-0004
The psyche can be described as a personal self plus motivational “strings” within a mind that models self, interests, and world.
Basis: Primary paper.
Supports:
CLM-0005
Consciousness can be described phenomenologically as second-order perception: the experience that representation is taking place now, including present and presence, and sometimes an observing self in a world.
Basis: Primary paper; this is a proposed phenomenological account.
Supports:
- Primary paper: Machine Consciousness Hypothesis@ p15-16
- Primary paper: Machine Consciousness Hypothesis@ p20
CLM-0006
Realness is a representational feature: the representation of something currently being the case.
Basis: Primary paper.
Supports:
CLM-0007
Consciousness appears to serve concrete functions and can be modeled as a coherence-maximizing operation on mental states.
Basis: Primary paper; this is a functional proposal.
Supports:
CLM-0008
Directed attention is part of how consciousness orchestrates the mind’s active contents.
Basis: Primary paper; this is a functional proposal.
Supports:
- Primary paper: Machine Consciousness Hypothesis@ p16-18
- Primary paper: Machine Consciousness Hypothesis@ p20
CLM-0009
The Genesis Hypothesis says consciousness may arise early in development and help create coherent world- and self-models, rather than appearing only as a late byproduct of intelligence.
Basis: Primary paper; this is explicitly a hypothesis.
Supports:
CLM-0010
There can be no purely behavioral Turing Test for consciousness, because consciousness is not just externally visible performance but a particular internal organization.
Basis: Primary paper; this is an argument, not a validation result.
Supports:
CLM-0011
The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis treats machine consciousness as a serious empirical possibility, but does not imply that present computers are conscious.
Basis: Primary paper; this is explicitly a hypothesis.
Supports:
- Primary paper: Machine Consciousness Hypothesis@ p6-8
- Primary paper: Machine Consciousness Hypothesis@ p20-23
CLM-0012
Free will is better framed as a control capacity — the ability to act from endorsed higher-order commitments — rather than as magic outside causality.
Basis: Project synthesis from supporting sources.
Supports:
- talk: The Ghost in the Machine@ 00:36:40
- talk: Self Models of Loving Grace@ 00:32:16
CLM-0013
The self is a model of the agent used for self-prediction, governance, and coordination.
Basis: Project synthesis from supporting sources.
Supports:
- talk: Mind from Matter (Lecture By Joscha Bach)@ 00:16:47
- interview: Joscha Bach Λ Karl Friston: Ai, Death, Self, God, Consciousness@ 00:25:57
CLM-0014
Some contemplative reports can be interpreted as changes in self-modeling and observer-construction rather than as evidence against all mechanistic explanation.
Basis: Project synthesis from the primary paper.
Supports:
CLM-0015
Current LLM fluency and self-report style do not by themselves establish qualia.
Basis: Project synthesis from the primary paper and supporting sources.
Open question: Whether any present LLM has qualia remains an Open question.
Supports: