Physicist pushes back on "AI is just matrix multiplication" consciousness argument

burny_tech · x · 2026-10-04

Mathew Calkins argues that dismissing machine consciousness with the form "[process] is just [microscopic abstract description] therefore not sentient" misses the essential difficulty. Under a quantum-mechanical description, his own progressive time-evolution is also "just" infinite-dimensional matrix multiplication — so the reductionist argument proves too much, undercutting itself for humans and AI alike.

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