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> What we want is a theory for deriving organizational subjectivity from a non subjective substrate. What might this look like?

I think the Reinforcement Learning framework is useful here. An agent exists inside an environment, it has some rewards, it is capable of sensing and acting, and its goal is to maximise its rewards over time. This implies learning, exploration, planning and the ability to model itself and the world. Of course it is possible for many agents to share the same environment and have different bodies, rewards and needs.

I think sensing, learning and evolution are good filters for judging if something could be conscious.



this totally elides over the problem of consciousness, of qualia, which is the essential question




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