After the Lateness Problem: An Evolutionary Challenge to Generator Theories of Consciousness
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) May 23, 2026 Max Wharton
Generator theories of consciousness—which hold that consciousness is produced by sufficiently complex physical systems—face a structural evolutionary problem. Any such theory must simultaneously explain how consciousness originated in evolutionary history, how it persisted and remained the same kind of thing through changing biological forms, and how independently evolved lineages came to exhibit similar phenomenal structures. The paper demonstrates that generator models cannot coherently provide all three accounts, and the failure is structural, not contingent on any particular theory. Non-generator alternatives (filter models, panpsychism, Russellian monism, cosmopsychism) do not inherit this specific quadrilemma but face their own distinct challenges. The argument does not establish which alternative is correct but specifies what any adequate theory must account for at the evolutionary scale.