The Simulation Theory of Consciousness

This short book argues that every cyber-physical system (that is, every software-reliant physical system) that creates and executes a real-time simulation of itself and its environment is conscious in the sense of being subjectively aware of that simulation. Just as neuroscientists have studied consciousness in terms of the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC), software and system engineers can study artificial consciousness in terms of the cyber correlates of consciousness (CCC). Thus, the second part of the title states that autonomous vehicles are sentient.