The unbearable hardness of inferring being: Comment on "preliminaries to artificial consciousness" by Evers et al.
Physics of life reviews March 1, 2026 Robert Chis-Ciure
A commentary argues that a proposed multidimensional heuristic for structuring artificial consciousness research cannot determine whether phenomenal consciousness is nomologically possible in machines. Behavioral-cognitive profiles lack a justified principle linking function to experience, and the awareness case study shows that externally specified goals can produce as-if control rather than original intentionality. The heuristic overlooks that substrate similarity to the adult human brain is currently indispensable for justifiably inferring consciousness. Thus the framework provides a blueprint for a more sophisticated philosophical zombie but cannot tell whether anyone is there.