Computationalist Functionalism

Combined epistemological stance that everything knowable about systems including consciousness is a function of observable behaviors of finite state machines

Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count

Frameworks (4)

framework

Computationalism
extendsrelated_to
Position that all phenomena can be fully captured as discrete and finite state transitions; grounded in mathematical constructivism
Computational Functionalism
related_to
Hypothesis that some class of computations suffices for consciousness; central assumption for AI consciousness route.
Machine Consciousness Hypothesis
implements
CIMC's central hypothesis: general computational machines with sufficient resources possess the necessary and sufficient means to implement consciousness, verifiable through internal structure analysis
Functionalism
extends
Epistemological position that what any phenomenon is is its causal/operational role; rejects hidden essence; foundational to CIMC's stance

Hypotheses (1)

hypothesis

We hypothesize that general computational machines with sufficient resources possess the necessary and sufficient means to implement consciousness, and that successful implementation can be established via analysis or testing.
implements
The central hypothesis of the paper

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.

Biological Computationalismconcept0.809
Core theoretical framework: consciousness requires hybrid (discrete + continuous), scale-inseparable, metabolically embedded computation distinct from von Neumann architecture.
We adopt computational functionalism as a working hypothesis.claim0.802
Assumption that implementing the right computations is necessary and sufficient for consciousness.
If computational functionalism is correct, then some computations suffice for consciousness and the question is which ones and when they will exist in AI.hypothesis0.762
Conditional underlying the consciousness route.
Computational functionalism is plausible and well-supported, so it would be a mistake to dismiss near-future AI welfare solely on the basis of high-level arguments against this assumption.claim0.747
Defense against biological substrate objections.
If computational functionalism is false, consciousness may be impossible in non-organic artificial systems.hypothesis0.739
Contrapositive possibility acknowledged.
Functional Programmingframework0.737
One of the three major competing approaches to parallel programming mentioned in the paper; used for comparison with Linda.
Biological Naturalismframework0.721
Searle and Seth's position that consciousness requires specific biological/autopoietic processes; explicitly rejected by CIMC on functionalist grounds
Computational fMRImethod0.720
Application of active inference to fMRI data; cited as prior use of the framework