# A Mind Cannot Be Smeared Across Time

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.11620 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.11620/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 5 of its 37 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 11 Jan 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence: Insights from the Science of Consciousness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.08708/) (2023)
- [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)
- [Computable Artificial General Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.10513/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Whether machines can be conscious depends not only on what they compute, but when they compute it. Most deployed artificial systems realise their functions via sequential or time-multiplexed updates, yet a moment of conscious experience feels unified and simultaneous. I prove that this difference matters. I augment Stack Theory with algebraic laws relating within time-window constraint satisfaction to conjunction. I introduce a temporal semantics over windowed trajectories τDelta and prove that existential temporal realisation DiamondDelta does not preserve conjunction. A system can realise all the ingredients of experience across time without ever instantiating the experienced conjunction itself. I then distinguish two postulates, Chord and Arpeggio. Chord is the position that conscious unity requires textitobjective co-instantiation of the grounded conjunction within the window, like a musical chord. Arpeggio only needs the ingredients to textitoccur within window, like a melody. I formalise concurrency-capacity to measure what is needed to satisfy co-instantiation. Finally, I review neurophysiological evidence suggesting that consciousness depends on phase synchrony and effective connectivity, and that loss of consciousness is associated with its breakdown. Under Chord, software consciousness on strictly sequential substrates is impossible for contents whose grounding requires two or more simultaneous contributors. The hardware matters.