concept

computation

Also known as: computations

Facts (16)

Sources

AI Sessions #9: The Case Against AI Consciousness (with Anil Seth) conspicuouscognition.com Conspicuous Cognition Feb 17, 2026 7 facts

claimComputational functionalism is a specific subset of broader functionalist views that posits that everything significant about the brain is a matter of computation.

perspectiveAnil Seth defines computational functionalism as the assumption that consciousness is fundamentally a matter of computation, which is independent of the specific material implementing that computation.

referenceComputational functionalism is defined as the view that consciousness is equivalent to computation and is substrate-independent.

claimComputational functionalism is under pressure because it relies on the assumption that consciousness is sufficiently describable by a computation, which may not account for non-algorithmic brain functions.

claimThe standard definition of computation involves a sharp separation between the algorithm (software) and the implementation (hardware), which allows the same software to run on different computers.

claimIn the standard definition established by Alan Turing, computation is defined as a mapping between a set of symbols through a series of steps, known as an algorithm.

claimAlgorithms are indifferent to the passage of time, meaning the duration between computational steps does not alter the computation itself.

Life, Intelligence, and Consciousness: A Functional Perspective longnow.org The Long Now Foundation Aug 27, 2025 5 facts

referenceThe Universal Turing Machine serves as a rigorous mathematical description of computation and how computation can be described using symbols that are themselves subject to computation.

perspectiveThe author argues that the 'hard problem' of consciousness, or how computation gives rise to a self, is explainable through the understanding of computational modeling gained from over a century of ethology, neuroscience, and machine learning.

perspectiveLife is inherently computational, meaning biological processes are information processes, a perspective that remains underappreciated in both biology and computer science.

referenceLeonard Adleman published 'Molecular Computation of Solutions to Combinatorial Problems' in Science in 1994, which discusses using DNA for computation.

perspectiveResearchers studying life at a single-celled level often define living systems by characteristics such as decentralization, randomness, and physical properties like 'squishyness' and 'wetness', which they contrast with computation.

Episode 2: The Hard Problem of Consciousness – David Chalmers ... futurepointdigital.substack.com Future Point Digital Jul 24, 2025 1 fact

perspectiveDavid Chalmers' position implies that if consciousness does not emerge purely from computation, then simulating the brain may not be sufficient to create a conscious machine, potentially resulting in machines that act human but lack internal experience.

Non-physicalist Theories of Consciousness cambridge.org Cambridge University Press Dec 20, 2023 1 fact

claimNeural signaling can be modeled as a form of computation where the firing or non-firing of neurons corresponds to the binary states of transistors in a computer.

Hard problem of consciousness - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia 1 fact

claimThe functionalist view in cognitive science holds that the mind is an information processing system, and that cognition and consciousness are forms of computation.

A Synergistic Workspace for Human Consciousness Revealed by ... elifesciences.org eLife 1 fact

referenceThe paper 'Computation is concentrated in rich clubs of local cortical networks' was published in Network Neuroscience in 2019.