arXiv:2606.15348q-bio.NCcs.AI2026-06

提出新理论,解释为何某些模拟系统可能具备意识。

Intrinsic Computational Functionalism and Simulated Consciousness

  • 从内在计算功能主义出发,强调意识取决于系统自身的因果结构。
  • 证明只要满足特定内在实现关系,人工或模拟系统也能具备相同意识属性。
  • 适合对意识本质、人工智能哲学感兴趣的读者深入思考。

针对人工或模拟意识的常见质疑——模拟大脑不比模拟水更湿润——本文从内在计算功能主义(ICF)视角回应:若意识由计算构成,则其不依赖外部描述,而取决于系统自身因果动力学组织所实现的计算结构。此前我们提出规范功能主义作为反诠释主义框架的数学精确特例,通过固定接口下的完整输入-输出角色定义功能态。但此输入-输出构造仅为行为边界情况,会导致查表系统与展开系统在边界行为上等价,无法区分内在机制。因此,我们引入机制增强型规范结构,建立内在于因果-计算实现(ICCR)关系,该关系保留物理实现、内在状态个体化、转换结构、干预特征及主体-身体-世界边界。核心结论为:若意识属性是内在因果-计算组织的不变量,则任何满足ICCR的系统——无论生物、人工或模拟——均实现相同的意识相关属性。讨论了生物自然主义与整合信息论等反对观点。最终指出,若否认模拟系统的意识,必须明确其未实现某种意识相关的内在因果-计算结构。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

A common objection to artificial or simulated consciousness is that a simulated brain is no more conscious than simulated water is wet. We address this from the perspective of Intrinsic Computational Functionalism (ICF): if consciousness is computationally constituted, it depends not on externally imposed descriptions but on the computational structures a system physically realizes in virtue of its own causal-dynamical organization. In previous work we developed Canonical Functionalism as a mathematically precise special case of this anti-interpretivist program, identifying functional states by their complete future input-output roles under a fixed interface. Here we argue that this input-output construction, though important, is incomplete: as a behavioral boundary case of ICF, it makes lookup tables and unfolded systems that preserve the same boundary behavior canonically equivalent. A consciousness-relevant canonical representation must instead include internal mechanisms, interventions, and joint readouts belonging to the relevant intrinsic organization. We therefore define a mechanism-enriched canonical structure and use it to formulate Intrinsic Causal-Computational Realization (ICCR), a realization relation preserving physical implementation, intrinsic state individuation, transition structure, intervention profiles, and the relevant agent-body-world boundary. The central result is conditional: if conscious properties are invariants of intrinsic causal-computational organization, then any system satisfying ICCR realizes the same consciousness-relevant properties, whether biological, artificial, or simulated. We discuss objections including biological naturalism and integrated information theory. We conclude that to deny consciousness to a simulation, one must identify a consciousness-relevant intrinsic causal-computational structure that the simulation fails to realize.

意识研究功能主义模拟意识计算哲学

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