Beyond Consciousness: Why AGI Never Feels

This essay argues that artificial general intelligence (AGI), no matter how advanced, will never possess consciousness because consciousness is not a computational function but a mode of existence rooted in ontogenetic history, embodiment, and homeostatic self-regulation. Drawing on the hard problem of consciousness (Chalmers), the ontogeny argument, and the paradox of unconscious power, the essay shows that intelligence without a witness is not only possible but likely — and more dangerous than any “evil AGI” scenario. The second, expanded version adds a comparative analysis of how industry leaders (Musk, Altman, Hassabis, LeCun, Sutskever) think about machine consciousness, a critique of functionalism as a cognitive style, a discussion of recent work on evolvable AI (Kun et al., 2026), and a new general conclusion. The essay concludes that if artificial consciousness is ever to exist, it will not be compiled or uploaded — it will have to be born.