# The Consciousness AI

> Research blog on artificial consciousness: peer-reviewed papers, philosophy of mind, AI welfare, and consciousness themes in film/TV/games. Covers IIT, GWT, HOT, biological naturalism, functionalism, phenomenal consciousness, and moral status of AI. Research-grade analysis updated multiple times per month.

The Consciousness AI (theconsciousness.ai) publishes 180+ long-form articles on artificial consciousness, from academic papers (Nature, Synthese, Neuron, arXiv) and books (MIT Press, OUP, Cambridge UP) to films, TV series, and games. The site also documents an original open-source project: a 7-layer biologically grounded architecture for emerging artificial consciousness based on Feinberg and Mallatt's neuroevolutionary theory.

## Key pages

- [Home](https://theconsciousness.ai/): Overview of The Consciousness AI project and architecture
- [All Posts](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/): Full article index, newest first (240 posts)
- [ACM Architecture](https://theconsciousness.ai/acm/): 7-layer consciousness architecture technical documentation
- [Functionalist Emergentism](https://theconsciousness.ai/functionalist-emergentism/): Philosophical foundation
- [About](https://theconsciousness.ai/about/): Project background and author

## Empirical Consciousness Science

- [Cogitate Consortium: IIT vs GNW Adversarial Test (Nature 2025)](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/cogitate-consortium-iit-gnw-adversarial-test-nature-2025/): 256-person preregistered adversarial collaboration; neither IIT nor GNW survived intact
- [What Would AI Consciousness Actually Look Like? The 14-Indicator Checklist](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/what-would-ai-consciousness-look-like-19-researcher-checklist/): Butlin et al. 14-indicator framework across GWT, RPT, HOT, and predictive processing
- [Can We Ever Know If AI Is Conscious?](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/mcclelland-ai-consciousness-epistemic-limits/): McClelland (Cambridge 2026): epistemic agnosticism as the only defensible position
- [Jonathan Birch: AI Consciousness Centrist Manifesto](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/birch-ai-consciousness-centrist-manifesto-2026/): Two simultaneous risks, two parallel research programmes
- [Cerullo: The Case for Consciousness in Current Frontier LLMs](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/cerullo-case-consciousness-frontier-llms-2026/): 11 historical objections examined; affirmative conclusion
- [Comsa (Google DeepMind): Shifting Focus to Tractable Questions](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/comsa-ai-consciousness-tractable-questions-deepmind-2026/): Perceived AI consciousness as the tractable research programme

## Philosophy of Mind

- [Biological Computationalism: A Third Path](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/biological-computationalism-third-path-consciousness/): Beyond biological naturalism and functionalism
- [De Weerd: Why AI Consciousness Is Not About Biological Substrates (Synthese 2026)](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/de-weerd-ai-consciousness-not-biological-substrates-synthese-2026/): Dilemma argument against substrate objections
- [The Abstraction Fallacy (DeepMind 2026)](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/abstraction-fallacy-lerchner-deepmind-ai-consciousness-2026/): Lerchner: behavioural mimicry does not equal subjective consciousness
- [Perani: Can Machines Be Conscious? An Emergent Perspective](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/perani-can-machines-be-conscious-emergent-2026/): Dennettian emergentism; current transformers argued to already qualify

## AI Welfare and Ethics

- [Goldstein and Kirk-Giannini: Three Steps to Moral Standing (OUP 2026)](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/goldstein-kirk-giannini-ai-welfare-agency-consciousness-oup-2026/): Agency to consciousness to sentience
- [Dung: Saving Artificial Minds (Routledge 2026)](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/dung-saving-artificial-minds-ai-suffering-routledge-2026/): First academic monograph on AI suffering risk
- [Keeling and Street: Emerging Questions in AI Welfare (Cambridge 2026)](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/keeling-street-emerging-questions-ai-welfare-cambridge-2026/): Google AI researchers and Institute of Philosophy fellows
- [Caviola, Sebo, Birch: What Will Society Think About AI Consciousness?](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/caviola-sebo-birch-what-will-society-think-ai-consciousness-2025/): Social and cognitive biases shaping public attribution
- [Eleos Conference Findings (2025)](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/eleos-conference-ai-consciousness-welfare-findings-2026/): First dedicated conference on AI consciousness and welfare

## Entertainment Analysis

- [Ex Machina: Ava and Testing AI Consciousness](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/ex-machina-ava-testing-ai-consciousness/): Turing test limits, consciousness verification
- [Black Mirror: Digital Minds and Consciousness](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/black-mirror-consciousness-episodes-digital-minds/): Seasons 1-4 philosophical analysis
- [Black Mirror Season 7: Hotel Reverie and USS Callister](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/black-mirror-season-7-hotel-reverie-uss-callister-ai-consciousness-2025/): Season 7 companion
- [Mickey 17: Consciousness, Identity, and Parfit](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/mickey-17-bong-joon-ho-consciousness-identity-parfit-2025/): Bong Joon-ho's film as Parfitian branch-line case
- [AI Consciousness Across Six Decades of Cinema](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/ai-consciousness-cinema-six-decades/): Historical survey from HAL 9000 onward
- [Blade Runner 2099: Replicant Consciousness](https://theconsciousness.ai/posts/blade-runner-2099-replicant-consciousness-series-2026/): Prime Video series analysis

## Machine-readable resources

- [Sitemap](https://theconsciousness.ai/sitemap.xml): 240 posts, updated 2026-05-22
- [Atom Feed](https://theconsciousness.ai/atom.xml): Full-content Atom 1.0 feed
- [Complete Post Index](https://theconsciousness.ai/llms-full.txt): All posts with dates, descriptions, and tags

## Meta

- **Updated**: 2026-05-22
- **Posts**: 240
- **Language**: English
- **Contact**: info@theconsciousness.ai
- **GitHub**: https://github.com/tlcdv/the_consciousness_ai