Researcher maps 350+ consciousness theories and their impact on AI, free will

Robert Lawrence Kuhn has compiled over 350 theories of consciousness into an interactive digital “landscape,” revealing how different explanations for human experience shape fundamental beliefs about free will, artificial intelligence, and life after death. This comprehensive mapping project, developed with collaborators and published as both a peer-reviewed paper and website called the Landscape of Consciousness, demonstrates that whichever theory of consciousness you embrace determines many of your core worldview assumptions.

The big picture: Consciousness theories span from pure materialism (only physical states are real) to idealism (only mental states are real), with each category leading to dramatically different conclusions about AI consciousness, virtual immortality, and human agency.

How the landscape works: Kuhn, a brain researcher turned television host, organizes theories into 10 broad categories arranged from physicalist to non-physicalist approaches.

• The first major division separates dualist theories (mental and physical as distinct substances) from monist theories (reality consists of one fundamental “stuff”).
• A second split distinguishes theories that conform to classical physics and neurobiology from those that operate outside typical scientific frameworks.
• Categories range from traditional neuroscience explanations to quantum consciousness theories to parapsychological phenomena.

Key theoretical divisions: The landscape reveals several crucial decision points that determine a theory’s implications.

• Whether consciousness is fundamental and primitive versus accidental and derived from something else.
• If consciousness is real or merely an illusion created by brain processes.
• Whether consciousness emerges weakly (fully explainable by science) or strongly (always escaping reductive explanation).

What this means for AI consciousness: Most consciousness categories suggest artificial intelligence consciousness (AIC) is technically achievable, though timelines vary dramatically.

• Materialist theories like computational functionalism make AIC “inevitable” once functions are identified and replicated.
• Quantum theories could accelerate development through quantum computing.
• Panpsychist theories support AIC since consciousness is woven into reality’s fabric.
• Only dualist theories, which posit consciousness as radically separate non-physical substance, would prevent AIC regardless of technological sophistication.

Implications for virtual immortality: Digital preservation of individual consciousness faces even greater challenges than general AI consciousness.

• Virtual immortality requires duplicating specific individual consciousness with “innumerable qualities that neuroscientists are only beginning to pinpoint.”
• Materialist theories make natural survival after death “almost impossible,” motivating some to pursue technological solutions.
• Dualist theories guarantee some form of life after death since consciousness exists as non-physical substance.
• Idealist frameworks suggest consciousness might blend with cosmic consciousness or undergo reincarnation.

Free will connections: Consciousness theories directly determine whether humans possess genuine choice.

• Materialist theories make libertarian free will “unlikely” due to physical causation chains.
• Quantum theories enable free will by leveraging superposition and entanglement effects.
• Idealist theories strongly support free will since mental states cause physical states rather than being constrained by them.

The scope of materialism: Nearly half of the 350+ theories fall under materialism, distributed across 12 subcategories.

• Neurobiological theories propose consciousness emerges when mental states “win” competitive access to the brain’s global workspace.
• Electromagnetic field theories identify consciousness with electrical current patterns across the brain.
• This dominance reflects that “there are more ways to explain consciousness with physical models than with non-physical models.”

What experts are saying: Kuhn emphasizes the practical importance of theoretical diversity rather than investing in single explanations.

• “I have come to love this blizzard of theories because I take consciousness to be the central question of existence, regardless of its ultimate answer.”
• He advocates for “identity theories” where removing whatever causes consciousness also eliminates consciousness itself.
• The project remains “a work-in-progress – permanently” as new theories continue emerging.