Essay argues consciousness is an embodied biological journey AI can never have
AnnaCiaunica · x · 2026-10-14
Researcher Anna Ciaunica publishes a long-form essay in The Montréal Review arguing that consciousness is not a computational abstraction but an embodied, relational journey bound to biological survival and mortality.
Key points:
- Consciousness is like climbing a mountain: every cellular bodily step matters equally; you can't reduce it to the neural "summit."
- Artificial systems process quantitative information without bodily constraints, homeostatic vulnerability, or mortality risk — the preconditions for genuine lived experience.
- The argument directly subverts computational functionalism: an entity that cannot be born, suffer, or die cannot truly experience the world.
- Conclusion: corporate pursuit of artificial sentience is a category error that mistakes high-speed data processing for lived vulnerability.
A strongly argued philosophical piece — one contested position, not scientific consensus — offering a complete embodied-cognition case for why AI may never be conscious.
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