A Simulation of Fire Can't Burn: The Hard-to-Refute Case Against LLM Consciousness
EmilMieilica · x · 2026-10-07
Emil Mieilica argues that numerical simulation of a substrate isn't equivalent to the substrate itself—a simulation of fire can't ignite real objects—so LLMs may at best host 'simulated consciousness.' Josh Purtell responds that in the worst case a simulator would need to model the entire history of the universe, and even a perfect simulation might not work; the answer hinges on whether consciousness stems from quantum fields, electrical activity, or something unknown.
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