Causal Architecture Discrimination Protocol (CADP): An Experimental Design for Discriminating Organisational and Intrinsic Causal Power Accounts of Consciousness

A novel experimental protocol, the Causal Architecture Discrimination Protocol (CADP), is proposed to distinguish between two competing theories of consciousness: those that attribute causal power to the intrinsic properties of a system and those that attribute it to the organizational structure of that system. The protocol leverages differences in how these accounts predict the causal effects of interventions on a system's components. By specifying a concrete experimental design, the paper aims to provide a method for empirically testing these foundational metaphysical claims about the nature of consciousness, moving the debate beyond purely theoretical arguments.

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Abstract

Causal Architecture Discrimination Protocol (CADP): An Experimental Design for Discriminating Organisational and Intrinsic Causal Power Accounts of Consciousness