The Station and the Toll: The Structural Cost of Ruling on Presence
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) June 29, 2026 D. Berkla
Any theory that turns a structural description into a verdict about whether consciousness is present incurs a cost: it equates a structural measure with experience. This cost applies to both positive (identity) and negative (elimination) verdicts. A structure-first program that describes disclosed structure without issuing a verdict avoids this cost because it never aims to determine presence. The argument is one of preclusion, not refutation, and depends on the framework's materiality-as-exchange posit. The claim is developed against Integrated Information Theory, Global Workspace Theory, Higher-Order Theory, and the Attention Schema Theory, locating where each converts structural description into a ruling on presence.