Consciousness
Hard problem, biological computationalism, care/SCI, non-dual teachers, Buddhism × AI institutional bridges.
Papers
72
+8
Thinkers
12
Frameworks
12
Methods
12
Claims
1,051
+1051
Findings
690
+690
Hypotheses
219
Communities
12
New in this area (last 30d)
/recent ↗- Steering Evaluation-Aware Language Models to Act Like They Are Deployed(2025)8h ago
- pyvene: A Library for Understanding and Improving PyTorch Models via Interventions(2024)9h ago
- cimcWhitepaper6d ago
- The Machine Consciousness Hypothesis6d ago
- Active Inference with a Self-Prior in the Mirror-Mark Task(2026)7d ago
- Endogenous Resistance to Activation Steering in Language Models(2026)7d ago
- Contemplative Agent(2025)7d ago
- Can "consciousness" be observed from large language model (LLM) internal states? Dissecting LLM representations obtained from Theory of Mind test with Integrated Information Theory and Span Representation analysis(2025)7d ago
Cross-area bridges (15)
also-inEntities that appear in this area AND ≥1 other area. The conceptual seams — usually the most fruitful place to look for new essay material.
- frameworkActive Inference
- frameworkBasal Cognition
- frameworkFree Energy Principle
- frameworkTame Technological Approach To Mind Everywhere
- thinkerMichael Levin
- conceptAI Safety
- conceptBioelectricity
- conceptBiological Degeneracy
- conceptCognitive Light Cone
- conceptCollective Intelligence
- frameworkAttention Schema Theory
- frameworkAutopoiesis
- frameworkComputational Functionalism
- frameworkGlobal workspace theory
- methodAI Consciousness Test (ACT)
Velocity movers (10)
new edges via area papersEntities whose connection to this area grew most in the window — new papers reinforcing existing thinkers / concepts / frameworks.
- thinkerMichael Levin+34
- frameworkBasal Cognition+12
- thinkerKarl Friston+9
- thinkerDavid Chalmers+8
- thinkerThomas Doctor+8
- thinkerJack Lindsey+7
- conceptBioelectricity+7
- communityBioelectric cognition & collective individuality+6
- thinkerJudd Rosenblatt+6
- thinkerPatrick Butlin+6
Top entities in Consciousness
Thinkers (12)
papersAuthors of area papers, by paper count
Frameworks (12)
linksFrameworks introduced or extended by area papers
- Basal Cognition10
- Tame Technological Approach To Mind Everywhere5
- Diverse Intelligence4
- Autopoiesis4
- Active Inference4
- Free Energy Principle4
- Representation Engineering3
- Attention Schema Theory3
- Computational Functionalism3
- Emergent Introspective Awareness Framework (Lindsey 2026)2
- Global workspace theory2
- Constitutional AI2
Methods (12)
linksMethods used in area papers
- Mutual k-Nearest Neighbor Alignment Metric2
- Synthetic Document Fine-Tuning2
- Kabsch-Umeyama Algorithm2
- Multidimensional Scaling2
- Synthetic Situational Judgment Test Battery2
- UMAP2
- Activation Steering2
- Centered Kernel Alignment2
- Koan Battery2
- Model Stitching2
- AI Consciousness Test (ACT)1
- Automated planarian training paradigm1
Concepts (12)
linksConcepts referenced by area papers
Communities (12)
membersClusters with ≥2 area papers as members
- Mechanistic interpretability & model evaluation104
- Bioelectric morphogenesis & anatomical intelligence73
- Causal emergence in biological systems54
- Collective intelligence & distributed cognition48
- Design principles for care-centered systems44
- Alive AI interface ethics & design37
- Care as mechanism of intelligence29
- Relational self, care & aliveness28
- LLM introspective awareness of injected concepts25
- Mechanistic introspection in language models22
- Bioelectric morphogenesis & memory22
- Substrate-agnostic behavioral inference of cognition21
Top claims (10)
restatesClaims extracted from area papers, ranked by restate-degree
- All intelligence is collective intelligence: each of us consists of a huge number of cells working together to generate a coherent cognitive being with goals, preferences, and memories that belong to the whole and not to its parts.5
- All intelligences are collective intelligences — individual humans are collections of parts, competencies, drives, and tools both internal and external to the body.3
- All intelligences are collectives; individual intelligence arises from the interaction of many unintelligent components arranged in the right organisation.3
- Morphogenesis is a result of collective activity where cells cooperate toward a specific, invariant target morphology, exhibiting goal-directedness.3
- Morphogenesis is an instantiation of collective intelligence, exhibiting anatomical homeostasis and autonomous problem-solving in morphospace.3
- Newt kidney tubule cells, when artificially enlarged, can bend a single cell around itself to achieve correct tubule diameter, illustrating top-down control over molecular mechanisms.3
- All intelligence is collective intelligence, in the sense that it is made of parts that must align with respect to system-level goals.2
- All intelligence is collective intelligence, in the sense that it is made of parts which must align with respect to system-level goals.2
- All intelligences are collectives and all individuals are collectives; individual and collective intelligence are not categorically distinct but unified by connectionist principles.2
- Morphogenesis is an autonomous process in geometry itself, arising from physical phenomena and geometric dynamics with relatively little dependence on genetic guidance.2
Top findings (10)
restatesFindings extracted from area papers, ranked by restate-degree
- Ectopic eyes on tadpole tail provide functional vision despite connecting only to spinal cord or peripheral tissue.3
- Newt kidney tubule cells produce correct tubule diameter using fewer cells when cell size is enlarged; a single enlarged cell can loop to achieve the same diameter (Fankhauser 1945).3
- Single newt cell can wrap around itself to form a kidney tubule when cell size is artificially increased.3
- Tadpoles with ectopic eyes on tail can see and integrate sensory input from aberrant location3
- Tadpoles with ectopic eyes on tails can see and learn effectively in visual assays.3
- Ectopic eyes on tadpole tails support visual learning despite connecting to the spinal cord.2
- 17 of 83 tested emotions show significant association between self-eval transcript word mention and cosine similarity to emotion probe1
- 62% of emotions significantly elevated at 5 tokens after steering pulse ends1
- Agentic self-evaluation emotionality correlates with SAE feature persistence: rho=+0.124, p=0.00011
- All intelligences are collective intelligences (higher-level selves composed of competent parts); implies distributed consciousness1
Open questions (10)
Questions from area papers with no answers yet
- If we translate the Universality Hypothesis to the problem of consciousness, would it follow that an artificial system trained to perform the same tasks leading to consciousness formation in a human infant would exhibit consciousness as well?
- How do the molecular events brought on by injecting a frog's egg with an odorant molecule become expanded into a nervous system architecture which controls muscles to behaviorally seek out that odorant as an adult frog?
- What degree of concern and care should we exhibit toward the many diverse agents around us, and what criteria do we use to identify sentience, capacity for suffering, and other properties that have moral implications?
- Do human participants demonstrate the same insight dynamics predicted by active inference in the rule-learning paradigm (currently under investigation with eye tracking and crowd-sourced reaction times)?
- Could it be possible to create new forms of consciousness and kinds of minds, capable of experiencing, reflecting and understanding reality at a level far beyond current human communication patterns?
- Does self-referential processing causally instantiate algorithmic properties proposed by consciousness theories (recurrent integration, global broadcasting, metacognitive monitoring) in LLMs?
- Is a mutual nearest-neighbor alignment score of 0.16 indicative of strong alignment with remaining gap being noise, or does it signify poor alignment with major differences left to explain?
- Does self-referential prompting actually instantiate architectural recursion, global broadcasting, or recurrent integration at the algorithmic level as proposed by consciousness theories?
- If the minimization of free energy is just a corollary of descent onto a global random attractor, does this mean that adaptation and evolution are just ways of describing the same thing?
- Whether consummatory hedonic responses involve goal-relative evaluation in the formal sense or represent a more primitive form of signed sensory assessment is an open empirical question
All papers in Consciousness
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