Consciousness is not "universal" but depends on specifically organized biological affordances.

Authors

Eva Jablonka, Simona Ginsburg, Zohar Z Bronfman

Published in

The Behavioral and brain sciences. Volume 49. Pages e340. Sep 17, 2026. Epub Sep 17, 2026.

Abstract

Seth's claim that only biological or biological-like systems can be conscious leaves open the question of what renders only some organisms conscious. We address this question by pointing to the material, ontogenetic, memory, and evaluative affordances of living organisms and arguing that evolved, minimal consciousness requires complex cognitive-affective architecture for which these biological affordances are obligatory. Conscious thinking of humans cannot be separated from minimal consciousness, and non-biological AI robots' computations do not render these operations conscious.

PMID:
42750508
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 17 Sep 2026.

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