Glossary

This glossary is intentionally short. It defines the terms that carry the most weight across the site.

Agency

We will use agency to mean: the capacity of a system to regulate the future using models, rather than only reacting to the present. talk: Self Models of Loving Grace

Attention

We will use attention to mean: the selective allocation of limited processing resources so that some contents become more available for control, learning, and coordination. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis

Coherence

We will use coherence to mean: a reduction of contradiction or constraint violation among simultaneously active mental contents, so the system can act more like one agent. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis

Computationalism

We will use computationalism to mean: the view that the relevant organization of mind can, in principle, be implemented as computation rather than being tied only to one biological material. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis

Computationalist functionalism

We will use computationalist functionalism to mean: the joint stance that conscious mind depends on functional organization, and that such organization may be implementable on computational machines. This does not imply that current computers are conscious. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis

Consciousness

We will use consciousness to mean: a special mode of mental organization in which content is present to the system as present, often via second-order perception, and in which mental states are made more coherent for agency. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis@ p15-18, p20

Feeling

We will use feeling to mean: a consciously accessible evaluation of reality and the self that carries valence and shapes attention, learning, and action. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis

Free will

We will use free will to mean: the capacity of an agent to act according to higher-order commitments rather than being overruled by compulsive local loops. talk: The Ghost in the Machine

Genesis Hypothesis

We will use Genesis Hypothesis to mean: the idea that consciousness appears early in development and may play an instrumental role in building coherent reality-models, selfhood, and intelligent agency. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis

Imagination

We will use imagination to mean: hypothetical or internally generated world-content produced by the same broad modeling machinery as perception, but with weaker present sensory constraint. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis

Intellect

We will use intellect to mean: the more explicit, reflective, concept-using aspect of the mind associated with symbolic thought, planning, and analysis. It is part of mind, not the whole of it. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis

Mind

We will use mind to mean: the larger modeling-and-control matrix in which perceptions, feelings, thoughts, intuitions, imaginations, self-models, and action policies are organized for agency. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis talk: Self Models of Loving Grace

Perception

We will use perception to mean: the structuring of sensory input into usable representation. In this framework, perception is already constructive rather than a raw copy of physics. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis

Phenomenal reality

We will use phenomenal reality to mean: sensory representation that is currently being confirmed. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis

Presence / presentness

We will use presence or presentness to mean: the felt fact that experience is happening now; one of the central phenomenological markers of consciousness. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis@ p15, p20

Psyche

We will use psyche to mean: the combination of a personal self and the motivational “strings” that pull on it, within a mind that models self, interests, and world. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis

Qualia

We will use qualia to mean: the qualitative character of experience, what a state is like from the inside. interview: Joscha Bach Λ Karl Friston: Ai, Death, Self, God, Consciousness

Realness

We will use realness to mean: the representation of something currently being the case. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis

Self

We will use self to mean: the model of the agent as me — with a point of view, boundaries, concerns, commitments, and a story across time. talk: Mind from Matter (Lecture By Joscha Bach) interview: Joscha Bach Λ Karl Friston: Ai, Death, Self, God, Consciousness

Self-model

We will use self-model to mean: the explicit or implicit representation a mind builds of itself as an agent inside its own world-model. talk: Mind from Matter (Lecture By Joscha Bach)

Second-order perception

We will use second-order perception to mean: awareness not only of content, but of the fact that representation is taking place now. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis@ p14-15, p20

Third-order perception

We will use third-order perception to mean: awareness of the self as the observer within the act of observation — a more explicit first-person standpoint. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis

Valence

We will use valence to mean: the positive or negative significance of states for the system; the broad way a mind marks what counts as better, worse, urgent, dangerous, or rewarding. essay: The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis talk: The Ghost in the Machine

Virtualism

We will use virtualism to mean: the view that the experienced world and self are real as implemented model-objects or causal structure, not as separate substances outside physics. talk: Synthetic Sentience talk: Virtualism as a Perspective on Consciousness by Joscha Bach