The Consciousness Atlas is an interactive web app that visualizes more
than 450 theories of consciousness. It is based on Robert Lawrence
Kuhn's 2024 paper,
"A Landscape of Consciousness". The Atlas maps theories that address phenomenal consciousness - the
subjective feel of experience, such as the redness of red.
What the Atlas is
The Atlas is a visual reference built on Kuhn's taxonomy. It presents
the full set of theories at once so you can explore the field visually
and open any theory to read its entry, like an encyclopedia with
structured entries. Each theory entry shows a concise identity line,
conceptual ground, suggested mechanism, empirical notes, implications,
and sources.
Why this exists
Consciousness is studied across disciplines - neuroscience,
philosophy, and sometimes spiritual or anomalous-state research.
Kuhn's paper collects and organizes hundreds of theories along a
spectrum from most physical to least physical. The Atlas puts that
organization into a visual form so readers, students, and researchers
can quickly see how different positions relate and where each theory
sits on the spectrum.
How it works
Theories are grouped into ten main categories, arranged by their
stance on the physical-to-nonphysical spectrum. Examples of categories
include Materialism, Non-Reductive Physicalism, Functionalism,
Quantum-based theories, Panpsychism, Monism, Dualism, Idealism,
Anomalous States, and Challenge Theories. The app shows the whole map
at once. Click any theory to read its structured entry, which includes
references to canonical sources and named thinkers.
Who it is for
- Students learning philosophy of mind and cognitive science
-
Researchers and lecturers looking for an at-a-glance comparative
resource
-
Journalists and writers who need a quick reference to the range of
positions
-
Curious readers who want a clear view of what people mean when they
talk about consciousness
What the Atlas does not do
The Atlas does not endorse or rank theories. It is a visualization and
reference based on Kuhn's taxonomy - collect and present, not judge.
It does not attempt to settle the hard problem of consciousness. It is
a tool for exploration and comparison.
A note from Kuhn
Kuhn explicitly states the project's purpose: "collect and categorize,
not assess and adjudicate." The Consciousness Atlas follows that
approach. The data and structure are derived from Kuhn's paper;
feedback and suggested corrections are welcome, but the app is a
visualization layer on top of Kuhn's work.
Kuhn was not involved in the design or content of the Consciousness
Atlas, other than his original paper, 'A Landscape of Consciousness,'
which is the sole source.
FAQ
What is phenomenal consciousness?
Phenomenal consciousness refers to subjective experience - the
qualitative feel of being aware, like the taste of coffee or the
redness of red.
How many theories does the Atlas include?
The Atlas visualizes over 220 individual theories, grouped into ten
broad categories.
Does the Atlas show which theory is true?
No. The Atlas presents theories neutrally. It is a map, not an
argument for any single position.
Is the Atlas academic?
The Atlas is based on an academic source - Robert Kuhn's 2024 paper,
"A Landscape of Consciousness" - and links to canonical sources
where available.
Summary
The Consciousness Atlas is a straightforward visualization tool: it
presents Kuhn's taxonomy as a single, explorable map and lets users
open individual theory entries to read structured, referenced
summaries. It is designed to make this complex field easier to survey
and to serve as a practical reference.
Materialism › Computational
Agüera y Arcas’s Computational Functionalism
Consciousness as Predictive, Social Computation
Blaise Agüera y Arcas argues that consciousness is an emergent function of the right kinds of computation, and that life itself is computation. Brains build predictive models of the world, of other minds, and of themselves; consciousness grew out of a social arms race in modeling other minds, so that theory of mind is its origin and mechanism.
Blaise Agüera y Arcas
What consciousness is
Consciousness is a relational, computational process: an organism’s ongoing model of the world, other agents, and itself, built to predict and influence its future.
Mind and body
Mental states are defined by their causes and effects, not by their substrate. Agüera y Arcas calls this functionalism ‘not reductive’ because it accepts emergence and felt experience while explaining both through functional relationships in brain and body, with no soul or spirit.
Mechanism
Theory of mind. Agüera y Arcas says ‘In a sense, theory of mind is mind’: modeling others who model you back, then applying that modeling to yourself, produces consciousness.
Core claims
- Agüera y Arcas defines life as computation and argues that ‘everything alive is a computer’, following Turing and von Neumann.
- Intelligence is the ability to model, predict, and influence one’s future, and all living things have some of it.
- Theory of mind, honed by social competition, is the origin and mechanism of consciousness.
- Consciousness and free will are coarse-grained models and as real as temperature.
- The hard problem is an illusion born of an individualistic, dualist outlook.
Criticisms
Defenders of the hard problem would say that dismissing it leaves felt experience unexplained. Agüera y Arcas draws on Graziano’s Attention Schema Theory, which calls consciousness an illusion, yet he declines to call it one.
Implications
- AI consciousness: Likely
- Since mental states are defined by function rather than substrate, an artificial system running the right predictive, self-modeling computations would be conscious on this view.
- Survival beyond death: No
- Agüera y Arcas rejects soul, spirit, and dualism, so consciousness ends when the living computation that produces it stops.
- Meaning and purpose: Humanistic only
- Purpose is a computational feature of living systems that persist by predicting their future, with no cosmic design.
- Virtual immortality: Possible
- Substrate independence implies that a faithful functional copy of a mind could in principle continue it, though Agüera y Arcas does not argue this directly.
Related theories
Sources
- What Is Intelligence? Lessons from AI About Evolution, Computing, and Minds, Blaise Agüera y Arcas
- What Is Life?, Blaise Agüera y Arcas
- Agüera y Arcas’s Computational Functionalism (Landscape of Consciousness), Blaise Agüera y Arcas (2025)
Explore all theories on the Consciousness Atlas
