Does the Body Matter? Perspectives on the Embodied Nature of Consciousness

Abstract

The chapter investigates how agents represent space through egocentric and allocentric coordinates, the relationship between bodily constraints and intelligence, and the role of internal bodily signals, known as interoception, in creating the “feeling” of being in the world. It also addresses complex counterarguments, such as locked-in syndrome and blindsight, to demonstrate that even in states of paralysis or unawareness, conscious experience remains fundamentally grounded in the body. Ultimately, the authors provide readers with a comprehensive scaffold for understanding why subjective awareness cannot be replicated by information processing alone, suggesting that future advancements in artificial intelligence must prioritise robotics and embodied experience to model conscious awareness.

Publication
In Perspectives on Machine Consciousness