Thought Experiment: Would Serial-Processing Aliens Change Our Consciousness Judgments?
eschwitz · x · 2026-10-09
Philosopher eschwitz discusses a consciousness thought experiment: if we discovered naturally evolved aliens behaviorally as sophisticated as us, we would assume they're conscious — but would we withdraw that assumption if their processing turned out to be fast and serial rather than parallel?
He argues that if such a discovery could move our judgment, then fine-grained functional differences do matter for consciousness, challenging views that they are irrelevant.
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