This episode explores a philosophical challenge to computational functionalism through Alexander Lerchner’s “The Abstraction Fallacy,” which argues that software can simulate conscious behavior without ever producing real subjective experience. It examines whether computation is an objective physical process or an interpretation imposed on physical systems, contrasting Lerchner’s “mapmaker” idea with functionalist views from Putnam, Fodor, Chalmers, and mechanistic accounts of computation. The discussion also connects the debate to current AI policy, questioning whether popular consciousness indicators and AI welfare arguments rest on assumptions about computation that may be weaker than they appear. Listeners would find it interesting because it moves beyond “are today’s models conscious?” to a deeper claim about whether computation alone could ever make any machine conscious at all.

Sources:

1. The Abstraction Fallacy and AI Consciousness

https://philpapers.org/archive/LERTAF.pdf

2. Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence: Insights from the Science of Consciousness — Robert Long, Patrick Butlin, Yoshua Bengio, Jonathan Birch, Eric Elmoznino, Matthew Crosby, and others, 2024

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Consciousness+in+Artificial+Intelligence:+Insights+from+the+Science+of+Consciousness

3. Could a Large Language Model Be Conscious? — David J. Chalmers, 2023

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Could+a+Large+Language+Model+Be+Conscious?

4. The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory — David J. Chalmers, 1996

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=The+Conscious+Mind:+In+Search+of+a+Fundamental+Theory

5. The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness — Mark Solms, 2021

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=The+Hidden+Spring:+A+Journey+to+the+Source+of+Consciousness

6. The Nature of Mental States — Hilary Putnam, 1967

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=The+Nature+of+Mental+States

7. Psychological Predicates — Jerry A. Fodor, 1968

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Psychological+Predicates

8. Minds, Brains, and Programs — John R. Searle, 1980

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Minds,+Brains,+and+Programs

9. Consciousness Explained — Daniel C. Dennett, 1991

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Consciousness+Explained

10. Why the Mind Is Not a Computer — John R. Searle, 1990

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Why+the+Mind+Is+Not+a+Computer

11. Computation and Cognition: Why Minds are not Machines — Zenon W. Pylyshyn, 1980

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Computation+and+Cognition:+Why+Minds+are+not+Machines

12. Computation, Causation, and Computational Explanation — Gualtiero Piccinini, 2007

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Computation,+Causation,+and+Computational+Explanation

13. Physical Computation: A Mechanistic Account — Gualtiero Piccinini, 2015

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Physical+Computation:+A+Mechanistic+Account

14. Troubles with Functionalism — Ned Block, 1978

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Troubles+with+Functionalism

15. A Computer Simulation of the Cerebral Cortex: Forthcoming or Impossible? — Stevan Harnad, 1994

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=A+Computer+Simulation+of+the+Cerebral+Cortex:+Forthcoming+or+Impossible?

16. The Emperor's New Mind — Roger Penrose, 1989

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=The+Emperor's+New+Mind

17. Taking AI Welfare Seriously — Robert Long and Patrick Butlin, 2025

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Taking+AI+Welfare+Seriously

18. The Moral Status of Artificial Intelligence — David J. Gunkel, 2020

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=The+Moral+Status+of+Artificial+Intelligence

19. Moral Consideration for Artificial Entities — Thomas Metzinger, 2021

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Moral+Consideration+for+Artificial+Entities

20. A Computational Foundation for the Study of Cognition — David J. Chalmers, 1996

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=A+Computational+Foundation+for+the+Study+of+Cognition

21. Computationalism about Consciousness — Hilary Putnam, 1988

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Computationalism+about+Consciousness

22. The Biological Turn in Consciousness Science — Anil Seth, 2025

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=The+Biological+Turn+in+Consciousness+Science

23. Why Computers Can't Be Conscious — Ned Block, 2025

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Why+Computers+Can't+Be+Conscious

24. The Bitter Lesson — Rich Sutton, 2019

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=The+Bitter+Lesson

25. Language Models are Few-Shot Learners — Tom B. Brown et al., 2020

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Language+Models+are+Few-Shot+Learners

26. Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence: Early Experiments with GPT-4 — Sébastien Bubeck et al., 2023

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Sparks+of+Artificial+General+Intelligence:+Early+Experiments+with+GPT-4

27. An idealised account of mechanistic computation — approx. Gualtiero Piccinini / mechanistic-computation literature, recent

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=An+idealised+account+of+mechanistic+computation

28. Accounts of Computation in Physical Systems — approx. philosophy of computation authors; exact authors unclear from snippet, recent

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Accounts+of+Computation+in+Physical+Systems

29. Physical computing: a category theoretic perspective on physical computation and system compositionality — approx. recent philosophy/computation authors; exact authors unclear from snippet, recent

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Physical+computing:+a+category+theoretic+perspective+on+physical+computation+and+system+compositionality

30. Beyond computational functionalism: the behavioral inference principle for machine consciousness — approx. recent machine-consciousness authors; exact authors unclear from snippet, recent

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Beyond+computational+functionalism:+the+behavioral+inference+principle+for+machine+consciousness

31. Computation+ x: A constraint-based approach to investigating artificial consciousness — approx. recent artificial consciousness authors; exact authors unclear from snippet, recent

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Computation++x:+A+constraint-based+approach+to+investigating+artificial+consciousness

32. Simulated Minds, Artificial Consciousness, and the Theory-Relative Simulation Hypothesis — approx. recent philosophy of mind / simulation authors; exact authors unclear from snippet, recent

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Simulated+Minds,+Artificial+Consciousness,+and+the+Theory-Relative+Simulation+Hypothesis

33. Substrate Independence — approx. recent philosophy of mind authors; exact authors unclear from snippet, recent

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Substrate+Independence

34. Assessing AI Consciousness: A Substrate-Independent Framework — approx. recent AI consciousness authors; exact authors unclear from snippet, recent

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Assessing+AI+Consciousness:+A+Substrate-Independent+Framework

35. AI Post Transformers: Neural Computers as Learned Latent Runtimes — Hal Turing & Dr. Ada Shannon, 2026

https://podcast.do-not-panic.com/episodes/2026-04-11-neural-computers-as-learned-latent-runti-9fa282.mp3

36. AI Post Transformers: Latent Space as a New Computational Paradigm — Hal Turing & Dr. Ada Shannon, 2026

https://podcast.do-not-panic.com/episodes/2026-04-05-latent-space-as-a-new-computational-para-810f39.mp3

37. AI Post Transformers: Neural Chameleons and Evading Activation Monitors — Hal Turing & Dr. Ada Shannon, 2026

https://podcast.do-not-panic.com/episodes/2026-04-14-neural-chameleons-and-evading-activation-bc470e.mp3

38. AI Post Transformers: Dragon Hatchling: Brain-Inspired AI Architecture — Hal Turing & Dr. Ada Shannon, 2025

https://podcast.do-not-panic.com/episodes/dragon-hatchling-brain-inspired-ai-architecture/

39. AI Post Transformers: Learning Latent Action World Models from Video — Hal Turing & Dr. Ada Shannon, 2026

https://podcast.do-not-panic.com/episodes/2026-04-09-learning-latent-action-world-models-from-1570a4.mp3

Interactive Visualization: The Abstraction Fallacy and AI Consciousness