Theoretical analysis demonstrates that temporal continuity defines functional interiority in cognitive systems, indicating history-dependent material changes are necessary for consciousness.
The discussion addressed two boundaries established by the essay: from detection to functional interiority, and from functional interiority to consciousness. The example of colour tested whether discrimination and the retention of a classification, accompanied by a report, would suffice to warrant interiority. The exchange shifted the question towards the organisation’s temporal continuity: a present occurrence acquires an internal function when it enters a material history that conditions future operations and can, in turn, be altered by the present. Beyond reproducing the abstract in full, the minutes do not repeat the essay’s general exposition. They record the objections that required criteria and distinctions to be made more precise, identify the limits acknowledged, and preserve the empirical conditions that remain to be established.
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David Cota (2026) studied this question.
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