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.
Panpsychism
Starrett’s Radical Panpsychism
Experience as the Dynamics of Degrees of Freedom
Mathematician John Starrett holds that every entity experiences, because an entity's experience is the time-varying pattern of its degrees of freedom as they couple with its environment. Rich human consciousness differs from an atom's only in how many layered degrees of freedom it has and in the internal ‘surrogate models’ that integrate them. Composite subjects form when entities engulf one another and reorganize their degrees of freedom, not by simple aggregation.
John Starrett
What consciousness is
An entity's experience is the structured evolution of its physical degrees of freedom (DOF) as they couple with the DOF of its environment; Starrett calls this pattern the direct model.
Mind and body
Identity: ‘our mentality is our structure,’ and that structure expresses our environment. Starrett invokes no nonphysical primitives.
Mechanism
Dynamical coupling between an entity's degrees of freedom and those of its environment, constrained by the entity's structural grammar.
Core claims
- Every entity, down to an atom with its electron cloud and spins, has degrees of freedom whose coupling with the environment constitutes experience.
- Composite subjects arise through engulfing and co-engulfing, which Starrett offers as his answer to the combination problem.
- The hard problem becomes a scientific and mathematical task: mapping how structural grammars at different scales produce the richness of human consciousness.
Criticisms
The line between Radical Panpsychism and other panpsychisms is blurry, and defining the single unified reality the view assumes is philosophically and scientifically difficult.
Implications
- AI consciousness: Likely
- Since every entity experiences through its coupled degrees of freedom, it follows from the view that an AI system has experience of some kind, shaped by its own structural grammar and surrogate models.
- Survival beyond death: Unlikely
- Since mentality is an organism's structure, it follows from the view that a person's experience ends when that structure dissolves, though its constituents keep their own simpler experience.
- Virtual immortality: Unlikely
- The direct model is the physical coupling of an entity's own degrees of freedom, not an abstraction, so on this view a simulation would have its hardware's experience rather than the simulated person's.
Related theories
Sources
- Starrett’s Radical Panpsychism (Landscape of Consciousness), John Starrett
Explore all theories on the Consciousness Atlas
