# A Theory of Consciousness from a Theoretical Computer Science Perspective: Insights from the Conscious Turing Machine

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2107.13704 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.13704/

## Key facts

- Cited by 22 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 3 of its 173 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 29 Jul 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Deep Learning and the Global Workspace Theory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.10390/) (2020)
- [A Consciousness-Inspired Planning Agent for Model-Based Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.02097/) (2021)
- [A Theoretical Computer Science Perspective on Consciousness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.09850/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [Foundations and Trends in Multimodal Machine Learning: Principles, Challenges, and Open Questions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.03430/) (2022)
- [On the link between conscious function and general intelligence in humans and machines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.05133/) (2022)
- [Improving Empathetic Dialogue Generation by Dynamically Infusing Commonsense Knowledge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.04657/) (2023)
- [Dissociating Artificial Intelligence from Artificial Consciousness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04571/) (2024)
- [Eight challenges in developing theory of intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.11232/) (2023)
- [A Categorical Framework of General Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.04571/) (2023)
- [Brainish: Formalizing A Multimodal Language for Intelligence and Consciousness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.00001/) (2022)
- [AI Consciousness is Inevitable: A Theoretical Computer Science Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17101/) (2024)
- [Enhancing Long Context Performance in LLMs Through Inner Loop Query Mechanism](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.12859/) (2024)
- [Survey of Consciousness Theory from Computational Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.10063/) (2023)
- [ITCMA: A Generative Agent Based on a Computational Consciousness Structure](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.20097/) (2024)
- [A Theoretical Computer Science Perspective on Free Will](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.13942/) (2022)
- [On the Computational Complexity of Ethics: Moral Tractability for Minds and Machines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04218/) (2023)
- [If consciousness is dynamically relevant, artificial intelligence isn't conscious](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.05077/) (2023)
- [Report on Candidate Computational Indicators for Conscious Valenced Experience](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.16696/) (2024)
- [What Capable Agents Must Know: Selection Theorems for Robust Decision-Making under Uncertainty](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.02491/) (2026)
- [CTM-AI: A Blueprint for General AI Inspired by a Model of Consciousness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.04097/) (2026)
- [A Universal Knowledge Model and Cognitive Architecture for Prototyping AGI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.06256/) (2024)
- [Federated Learning Inspired Fuzzy Systems: Decentralized Rule Updating for Privacy and Scalable Decision Making](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.06652/) (2025)
- [Consciousness as a Functor](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.17561/) (2025)
- [AI Consciousness and Existential Risk](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.19115/) (2025)
- [Discovering Machine Correlates of Consciousness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.28824/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The quest to understand consciousness, once the purview of philosophers and theologians, is now actively pursued by scientists of many stripes. We examine consciousness from the perspective of theoretical computer science (TCS), a branch of mathematics concerned with understanding the underlying principles of computation and complexity, including the implications and surprising consequences of resource limitations. In the spirit of Alan Turing's simple yet powerful definition of a computer, the Turing Machine (TM), and perspective of computational complexity theory, we formalize a modified version of the Global Workspace Theory (GWT) of consciousness originated by cognitive neuroscientist Bernard Baars and further developed by him, Stanislas Dehaene, Jean-Pierre Changeaux and others. We are not looking for a complex model of the brain nor of cognition, but for a simple computational model of (the admittedly complex concept of) consciousness. We do this by defining the Conscious Turing Machine (CTM), also called a conscious AI, and then we define consciousness and related notions in the CTM. While these are only mathematical (TCS) definitions, we suggest why the CTM has the feeling of consciousness. The TCS perspective provides a simple formal framework to employ tools from computational complexity theory and machine learning to help us understand consciousness and related concepts. Previously we explored high level explanations for the feelings of pain and pleasure in the CTM. Here we consider three examples related to vision (blindsight, inattentional blindness, and change blindness), followed by discussions of dreams, free will, and altered states of consciousness.