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The Inner Machine: Phenomenology, Qualia, and the Search for Consciousness in AI
Paperback
PhilosophyHistory & Philosophy of Science
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Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Dec 26 2025
Pages: 148
Weight: 0.46
Height: 0.32 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Phenomenology, Qualia, and the Search for Consciousness in AI
Artificial intelligence can write poetry, diagnose disease, and speak with unsettling fluency. But does it understand anything at all?
In The Inner Machine, philosopher Thomas K. Der Berkhoffian and AI expert Stiopr Von Hurydmann confront the deepest question in artificial intelligence: can a machine ever be conscious? Moving beyond engineering triumphs and computational benchmarks, this book explores the philosophical foundations of mind, experience, and subjectivity.
Drawing on phenomenology, philosophy of mind, and contemporary AI research, the authors examine:
Why intelligence and consciousness are not the same thing
The role of subjective experience (qualia) in defining a mind
The implications of classic thought experiments such as the Chinese Room, Mary's Room, and What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
The limits of functionalism, computationalism, and purely behavioral tests of intelligence
Whether advanced AI systems simulate understanding-or merely its appearance
Engaging, rigorous, and deeply reflective, The Inner Machine argues that the quest for artificial consciousness is inseparable from the quest to understand ourselves. In probing the limits of what machines can become, we are forced to confront the irreducible mystery of our own inner world.
This book is essential reading for philosophers, AI researchers, technologists, and anyone concerned with the future of intelligence, ethics, and humanity.
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