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It is not the case that Cognitive traits are properly attributed to the level of abstraction at which they are functionally realized, not to the substrate.
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1.
Substrate properties (temporal dynamics, energy constraints, noise characteristics) causally determine which functional organizations are actually realizable.
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2.
Consciousness and intentionality may intrinsically depend on specific physical properties like biological integration that no functional description captures.
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3.
Attributing cognition only to abstraction levels risks treating functionally identical but causally inert descriptions as genuinely explanatory of real phenomena.
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Reasons Against
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Reason against
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1.
Multiple physical substrates (biological, silicon, quantum) can implement identical functional organizations and produce identical cognitive outputs.
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2.
Identity conditions for mental states track functional roles and causal relations, not material composition, as evidenced by thought experiments like inverted qualia.
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3.
Scientific explanation of cognition succeeds by abstracting away substrate details to reveal general principles, suggesting cognition exists at that level.
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