Beyond Simulation: What Would It Take for Matter to Feel? An Explainer on a Falsifiable Programme for Primary Interoceptive Sentience
Abstract
A popular-science explainer (not a scientific contribution in its own right) on the research programme "Necessary Conditions for Primary Interoceptive Sentience in Continuous Substrates: A Falsifiable Programme" (doi:10.5281/zenodo.22895484). It covers the No-Go Theorem for Consciousness on a Chip as heuristic motivation, the three operational demarcation criteria, the five necessary conditions, the thermodynamic valence functional Ψ(t) and its software proxy, the minimal self-agency extension, the negative controls and abandonment criteria, recent criticisms (biological naturalism, the unfolding argument, indicator-based approaches), precautionary ethics, and the four structural limits declared by the programme's own critical assessment. Version 2 (September 2026): replaces version 1, which overstated the programme's conclusions (including in its title, "Why Digital AI Will Never Be Conscious"), presented the software's proxy of Ψ(t) as the programme's definition, described simulations as experimental results, and cited the No-Go Theorem as a preprint. The explainer now states that no experiment has been carried out, shows the current digital-twin output together with its known discrepancy, and adds recent criticisms, ethics and a reference list.
