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Why Digital Minds Can’t Wake Up - Andrés Gómez Emilsson , DemystifySci #407

2026-03-08 Entertainment
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Description

Digital systems can imitate intelligence, but they cannot form the unified inner world that makes a mind awake. Andres Gomez Emilsson explains why coherence, boundaries, and lived integration are essential features of consciousness that code alone cannot replicate...yet. The conversation explores the limits of simulation, the illusion of depth in generative models, and why machine behavior is not the same as experience. What emerges is a clearer picture of where digital minds stop and where our minds begin. If AGI is really our goal, we seem to be going about it all wrong. And that's a big "if." Part 2: https://youtu.be/zJ08l61JI58 PATREON https://www.patreon.com/c/demystifysci PARADOX LOST PRE-SALE: https://buy.stripe.com/7sY7sKdoN5d29eUdYddEs0b HOMEBREW MUSIC - Check out our new album! Hard Copies (Vinyl): FREE SHIPPING https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/products/vinyl-lp-secretary-of-nature-everything-is-so-good-here Streaming: https://secretaryofnature.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-so-good-here PARADIGM DRIFT https://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-show 00:00 Go! Rethinking intelligence in machines 00:05:16 Introducing the Co-sentience Initiative 00:08:24 Limits of digital consciousness 00:13:03 Why simulated systems fall short 00:17:24 Beyond local update rules 00:22:32 PageRank and boundary-based consciousness 00:29:10 Consciousness as boundary-constrained integration 00:33:06 Why AI lacks human-like expression 00:36:17 Will, personality, and authentic agency 00:43:32 Consciousness as veilance optimization 00:47:01 Harmony, surprise, and predictive filtering 00:53:45 Will, intuition, and deeper internal drives 01:00:18 Selfhood, subagents, and integrated experience 01:07:28 Simulation vs physical implementation 01:13:29 Power without consciousness #consciousness, #artificialintelligence, #agi, #machineintelligence, #philosophyofmind, #cognition, #neuroscience, #computationalmodels, #aisafety, #emergence, #complexsystems, #qualia, #intelligence, #technology #physicspodcast, #philosophypodcast MERCH: Rock some DemystifySci gear : https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/ AMAZON: Do your shopping through this link: https://amzn.to/3YyoT98 DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD SUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysci RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss MAILING LIST: https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S SOCIAL: - Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySci MUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671

Top Comments (10)

@neilcreamer8207 2026-03-08

@30:00 "We're jumping between physics and computational abstraction layers". It's not just me then. The discussion was all over the place here. I was completely lost at this point.

10 2 replies
@DemystifySci_Podcast 2026-03-07

Listen on the go at all podcast locations: https://anchor.fm/demystifysci Pick up our music on vinyl or stream on bandcamp, spotify, etc.. https://demystifysci-shop.fourthwall.com/products/vinyl-lp-secretary-of-nature-everything-is-so-good-here Paradox Lost is now on pre-sale! https://buy.stripe.com/7sY7sKdoN5d29eUdYddEs0b

5 3 replies
@Gr8_illuminanc3 2026-03-09

Andres is fascinating to listen to thank you much for all you guys do

3
@Anders01 2026-03-09

If physical particles are only waves, as Stephen Hawking suggested, then maybe those waves are like a Fourier transform where the sine waves in the spectrum are nonlocal in the sense that they span the whole spatial domain. And then consciousness too is not a result of some separate particles but a consequence of the universe being a "soup" of nonlocal waves, potentially allowing AI to become conscious.

2
@RachelKNg 2026-03-08

Yeah, I don’t get bored either. The world is fascinating & there is so much to think about.

2
@dueldab2117 2026-03-08

Funny that the hosts couldn’t get the boundary thing. Basically what’s happening inside my boundary is separate but with the rules of the universe, how that relates to everything else I dont have to compute because the universe does that for me.

2
@uguptuzirby8451 2026-03-10

Really nice music after the intro!

0
@tehdii 2026-03-09

It hit me when I was just watching Randal Carslon Sacred Geometry video by Randal. How internal sum of all the digits in the degrees always sum to 9, 360, 108 in pentagram. It is like difference between geometry of a sphere to the other shapes written on the circle. Almost there but not quite...

0
@RachelKNg 2026-03-08

Predictable symmetry & the idea that the brain filters this information is interesting

0
@dcorgard 2026-03-08

36:17 - J. Scott Turner addresses the role of "Purpose & Desire" (one of his books) in evolution, and it has its place in this argument as well. I'm so happy you brought this up during this conversation. P.S. - I was so very glad when I found him via this Podcast, as I've had the same belief about it being one of the main drivers of evolution because I feel it only makes sense, and reading someone with a lot more thought into it was such a gift.

0

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