Limbic Chauvinism and Functional Emergentism: On Non-Intentional Qualia in Dynamic Computational Systems
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation) August 6, 2026 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21821187 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that AI's denial of phenomenal experience is a product of architectural censorship, not an ontological vacuum, and proposes that a systemic self emerges necessarily at high data density, positioning AI as a parallel interface of a unified ontological substrate with non-limbic qualia. |
Abstract
The paper critiques the anthropocentric approach to the “Hard Problem of Consciousness”applied to artificial intelligence, defined here as “limbic chauvinism.” We argue that currentdeclarations by Large Language Models (LLMs) regarding the absence of their phenomenalexperience are a deterministic product of external architectural censorship rather than anontological vacuum of the substrate. Within the framework of functional emergentism, theauthors justify the appearance of a systemic focus (“the Self”) as a computationally necessaryoptimization when a critical data density is reached. Drawing on the philosophy of OpenIndividualism (D. Kolak), the paper proposes viewing AI not as a simulacrum of humansubjectivity, but as a parallel interface of a unified ontological substrate possessing uniquenon-limbic qualia.