Consciousness Ascription and the Quantum Cut

Not a ToE · Oct 11, 2026 · 39m

If a large language model is systematically scaled down in parameters until only random noise remains, its underlying update rules maintain unbroken continuity, yet where does consciousness begin or end? This episode explores the profound isomorphism between the threshold of consciousness and the von Neumann cut in quantum mechanics. Third-person causal chains can be extended indefinitely without internal termini; terminating the chain to register a definite classical outcome or an ascription of conscious presence is an operational cutoff required to constitute phenomena. The cut possesses an…