On the evolutionary cognitive pressure for experiential awareness: do machines need it?
arXiv Preprint Archive October 17, 2025 Warisa Sritriratanarak, Paulo Garcia
Whether machines can be conscious is debated, but an orthogonal question is whether consciousness is required for machines. Focusing on experiential awareness, a constituent of consciousness, the authors examine from a computational perspective why it evolved in biological organisms. They argue that due to evolutionary "baggage"—autonomous neurological reactions—experiential awareness is necessary for higher-level reasoning in biology. However, because artificial systems lack such legacy constraints, they can be designed with arbitrary intelligence without experiential awareness. This suggests ethical considerations for AI may be simplified and opens new approaches to discerning artificial consciousness.