The Code is Not the Consciousness: Trading Noetic Nodes for Phenomenal Fields—or the Multiplexing of the Mind

With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), the question of whether they can be conscious becomes more pressing—even as their hardware differs from our electromagnetically leaky stuff. The field has been attempting to apply the marker approach to AI but not only do their differences from other possible minds make this impossible—the marker approach rests on unreliable intuitions. It does not help that a theory-heavy one is fraught with debate. The search for the neural correlates of consciousness has turned up inconclusive, but this may be due to an assumption that neurons are the right domain to look at. However, if one considers that the physical basis of consciousness must be able to account for simultaneous experiences, differing sets of neurons all of a sudden seem unsatisfactory. Nevertheless, an electromagnetic take may help: consciousness may be a rich, multiplexed signal in the electromagnetic field. Thus, as long as AI remains artificial, it would not be capable of subjectivity.