Multiple Realizability

Philosophical framework asserting same function can be implemented by very different systems; key to arguing sentience is substrate-independent.

Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count

Papers (1)

paper

Multiple ways to implement and infer sentience
citesmentions

Thinkers (3)

thinker

Michael Levin
cites
Nicolas Rouleau
cites
Co-author; neuroscientist studying embodied and bioengineered tissues to model neural diseases and minimal cognitive systems.
John Bickle
studies
Philosopher cited for the concept of multiple realizability.

Communities (2)

community

Substrate Independence
members_of
Multiple Realizability Sentience
members_of

Claims (2)

claim

Cognitive functions, including sentience, can potentially be achieved by very different systems and their disparate substrates.
supports
Central multiple-realizability claim of the paper, from abstract and §2.
System-agnostic approach to sentience evaluation
extends
Rouleau & Levin's position: evaluation criteria should focus on observable response patterns without reference to the substrate producing them.

Concepts (3)

concept

Biological Degeneracy
associated_withextends
Concept that structurally dissimilar brain regions achieve same functional outcomes; supports claim that different substrates can realize same cognition.
Sentience
supports
Central concept: the capacity to experience as a subject; core focus of the paper's argument about multiple substrates.
Substrate Independence
associated_with
Idea that functions can be achieved without contingency of particular material or physical medium; used to argue sentience need not require neural tissue.

Hypotheses (2)

hypothesis

Sentience Can Be Implemented in Multiple Substrates
associated_with
Felt states can be achieved in multiple ways and by many different biological substrates, analogous to how computation is multiply realizable.
implements
Foundational hypothesis bridging multiple realizability principle to consciousness; core argument for plant sentience possibility.

Artifacts (1)

artifact

Bickle (2006)
about

Events (1)

event

Multiple ways to implement and infer Consciousness (Rouleau & Levin, 2023)
cites
Commentary on Segundo-Ortin & Calvo (2023) arguing for plant sentience via multiple realizability and substrate independence, published in Animal Sentience.

Related by similarity (8)

cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edge

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

Realnessconcept0.746
The representation of something currently being the case; a variable feature dimension of conscious contents distinguishing ideas from hallucinations of factuality
Multi-scale competency greatly accelerates evolution and enables generalization.claim0.745
Central thesis about the role of agency in evolutionary dynamics.
The resulting features are highly abstract: multilingual, multimodal, and generalizing between concrete and abstract references.claim0.742
Features respond to concepts across languages and in images, not just text.
The underlying truth representation may generalize across lexical choices and languageshypothesis0.741
Suggested by non-English Yes/No outputs post-intervention, requiring further investigation
Practicalityconcept0.739
The directness of motivation by practical concerns, characteristic of living processes in the examples.
Multi Informationconcept0.734
Multivariate information transmission (McGill 1954); a measure of total dependence among variables.
what is the precise characterization of the perceptual representational format in which information exists as a specific, sustained, globally constitutive structure?question0.732
Open theoretical problem CIMC acknowledges: precisely characterizing the representational format of perception
Does the multi-directional nature of truth imply an underlying nonlinear representation, or is it compatible with linear separability?question0.731
Theoretical open question about the geometry of truth in LLMs raised in Discussion