Is Consciousness Computation? A Debate From Roundworm Neurons to Drug-Altered Minds
ctjlewis · x · 2026-09-18
ctjlewis defended the view that consciousness is computational: a roundworm's few hundred neurons clearly compute actions and control its body with no need for a "magical soul-experience," and we can reliably program subjective experience with drugs like ethanol, Adderall, or antipsychotics — hard to call that non-computational.
TomWright pushed back: medical "signs of consciousness" differ from the subject's actual experience, and some arguments suggest the brain constrains conscious experience rather than creating it.
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