# Why Is Anything Conscious?

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.14545 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14545/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 19 of its 149 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 22 Sep 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [Robust agents learn causal world models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.10877/) (2024)
- [The AGI Containment Problem](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.00545/) (2016)
- [Path integrals, particular kinds, and strange things](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.12761/) (2022)
- [Bad Universal Priors and Notions of Optimality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1510.04931/) (2015)
- [There's Plenty of Room Right Here: Biological Systems as Evolved, Overloaded, Multi-scale Machines](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.10675/) (2022)
- [The Optimal Choice of Hypothesis Is the Weakest, Not the Shortest](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.12987/) (2023)
- [Emergent Causality and the Foundation of Consciousness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.03189/) (2023)
- [A Theoretical Computer Science Perspective on Consciousness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.09850/) (2020)
- [Philosophical Specification of Empathetic Ethical Artificial Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.10715/) (2021)
- [Computational Dualism and Objective Superintelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.00843/) (2023)
- [Awareness as inference in a higher-order state space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.00728/) (2019)
- [Compression, The Fermi Paradox and Artificial Super-Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.01835/) (2021)
- [Does Thought Require Sensory Grounding? From Pure Thinkers to Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.09605/) (2024)
- [Computable Artificial General Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.10513/) (2022)
- [On the Computation of Meaning, Language Models and Incomprehensible Horrors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.12686/) (2023)
- [Is Complexity an Illusion?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.07227/) (2024)
- [Are Biological Systems More Intelligent Than Artificial Intelligence?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.02325/) (2024)
- [Extending Environments To Measure Self-Reflection In Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.06890/) (2021)
- [Enlarging the scope: grasping brain complexity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1310.7277/) (2013)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Unplugging a Seemingly Sentient Machine Is the Rational Choice -- A Metaphysical Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.21016/) (2026)
- [From cacophony to hierarchy: a principled framework for assessing AI consciousness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.35618/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We tackle the problem of consciousness by taking the naturally selected, embodied organism as our starting point. We provide a formalism describing how biological systems such as human bodies self-organize to hierarchically interpret unlabelled sensory information according to valence. The system is attracted and repelled at different spatial and temporal scales. This is a qualitative interpretation of an unlabelled physical state. We show how such interpretations imply behavioural policies which are differentiated from each other only by this qualitative aspect of information processing. Natural selection favours systems that actively intervene in the world to achieve homeostatic and reproductive goals. Put provocatively, death grounds meaning. This means that in living systems information processing is necessarily subjective, that is, it has quality embedded into its very core. Qualitative information processing involves interoceptive and exteroceptive classifiers, and determines priorities for self-survival. We formulate The Psychophysical Principle of Causality as a theorem, and prove generalisation optimal learning forces this valence first ontology. Qualitative good or bad processing necessarily comes textitbefore quality neutral representations of properties (i.e. ``red'' is constructed from valence). Under selection pressures like sophisticated predation this produces a hierarchy of selves, of which reafference and reflective self awareness are a consequence. We discuss this in light of the seminal distinction between phenomenal and access consciousness. We claim that phenomenal consciousness without access is likely common, but the reverse is implausible. Our proposal lays the foundation of a formal science of consciousness, closer to human fact than zombie fiction.