Essay: Why humans have consciousness but AI cannot — "AI can't get from womb to tomb"
AnnaCiaunica · x · 2026-10-13
In a long essay for The Montréal Review, Anna Ciaunica argues consciousness is a journey grounded in embodied, mortal, relational experience—not a thing in the head. Because AI lacks a dying body and can only chase the ideal of immortality, she argues machine consciousness is impossible; computational functionalism's substrate independence inherits Plato's forms/matter dichotomy that splits artificial systems into bodies vs. minds.
Related event: Researcher Argues Consciousness Is a Journey AI Can Never Have(3 posts)→
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