Some New Papers:
(Non-technical pieces are marked with a "*".)

Philosophy of AI:

“From LLMs to the Global Brain: The Emergence of Planetary-Scale Artificial Intelligence,” (in press), Disputatio 71. (Subject of a special issue of Disputatio.)
 I advance the Global Brain Argument, contending that escalating hyperintelligent AI systems, from savant-level LLMs to superintelligences, will connect human users, cloud platforms and the Internet-of-Things to form one or more emergent global brain networks—planetary scale complex adaptive systems that process information, evolve goals and exhibit agential behaviors.  I analyse the premises of the argument, contrast the notion of AGI from my notions of savant and hyperintelligent systems, and defend the claim that many humans are becoming d-nodes in a global brain network.  I then raise the AI Megasystem Control Problem: the problem of how disparate proprietary AI services may self-organize into opaque, weakly emergent megasystems that elude traditional AI alignment techniques. I also delve into the ethical implications of the argument, such as surveillance capitalism, epistemic manipulation and dual-use risks and discuss the relationship between the argument and the extended mind hypothesis.

“Chatbot Epistemology,” Social Epistemology, 1–20. (You can submit a reply to this paper by submitting to the following professional epistemology journal site: Social Epistemology Review and Reply Collective)
This piece considers the epistemological challenges that arise with the increasingly widespread use of AI chatbots. I articulate a problem that they present—the ‘boiling frog problem’. According to the metaphor, if you boil a frog by putting it in scalding water, it will try to save itself, but if you put the frog in a pot of tepid water, it will remain unaware of the rising water temperature and therefore, make no attempt to escape to save itself. In both cases, the outcome is the same—the frog dies. Likewise, I argue that the combination of factors I identify in this piece, over time, will give rise to detrimental engagements with chatbots and ultimately, to diminished human autonomy. The factors I consider include problems with digital privacy, misplaced epistemic trust in AI companions, LLM emergence, the use of personality profiling and adaptive language, misattributing sentience to LLMs, and more.

For a nontechnical discussion of some of these issues see: “AI Already Knows Us too Well,” Nautilus, June, 2025. https://nautil.us/ai-already-knows-us-too-well-1220707/?_sp=fe281a65-5b50-4986-bfc1-896e9d6683ff.1751921501893

External World Skepticism: Illusory World Skepticism
 
“Illusory world skepticism,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 109 (3):1049-1057 (2024)   
 l argue that a skeptical scenario involving deception about the external world is a genuine possibility, even if David Chalmers is correct that simulations are real. I call this new skeptical position “Illusory World Skepticism.” Illusory World Skepticism draws from the simulation argument,together with work in physics,astrobiology, and AI,to argue that we may indeed be in an illusory world—a universe scale simulation orchestrated by a deceptive AI—the technophilosopher’s ultimate evil demon. In Section One I urge that Illusory World Skepticism is a bone fide skeptical possibility. In Section Two, I explore features of quantum computation. Then, in Sections Three and Four, I draw from the discussion of quantum computation and assume that the simulation argument is correct,applying considerations from the fields of astrobiology and AI safety to illustrate that illusory world skepticism constitutes what I call “a serious epistemic threat”, a scenario that cannot be dismissed as requiring that knowledge is certainty or which seems to just depict a remote, fictional situation.


The Prototime Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, Panpsychism and Superpsychism:

Superpsychism, Susan Schneider & Mark Bailey
Journal of Consciousness Studies (forthcoming as a target paper of a journal special issue in early fall, 2025).
Abstract. Two of life’s greatest mysteries are the phenomena of consciousness and the nature of spacetime. Herein, we use quantum entanglement as an inroad to both, developing a new “superpsychist” panpsychist theory. First, we frame and defend a position in which spacetime emerges from an aspatial, quasi-temporal, reality called “prototime.” We call this view of quantum phenomena the “Prototime Interpretation.” Then, based on our position on entanglement, we develop a new version of panpsychism, which we call “Superpsychism.” According to Superpsychism, the fundamental level of physics has a more advanced form of consciousness than spacetime occupants do, in the sense that it exhibits maximal coherence, zero entropy and holistic integration of conscious states. Whereas cosmospychists like Goff (2017) and Nagasawa and Wager (2020) locate the fundamental unit of consciousness in the very big, we claim the greatest form of consciousness is found in the holistically entangled structure that is not even spatiotemporal and which underlies spacetime itself.

“The Prototime Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics,” with Mark Bailey.  In Dean Rickles (ed.), Philosophy of Physics, Routledge, 2026.
​We propose the Prototime Interpretation of quantum mechanics, which claims that quantum entanglement occurs in a "prototemporal" realm which underlies spacetime. We claim that the Prototime Interpretation (PI) is worthy of further consideration as a superior explanation for perplexing quantum phenomena such as delayed choice, superposition, the wave-particle duality and nonlocality. In Section One, we introduce the Prototime Interpretation. Section Two identifies its advantages. Section Three discusses several implications of the view, such as its deterministic nature and relation to the simulation hypothesis.

Tests for AI Consciousness:

“Emergent Spacetime, the Megastructure Problem, and the Metaphysics of the Self.” Philosophy East and West 74 (2): 314-332. 2024. (Reply to special issue on Artificial You in this journal). The aim of this article is to introduce new thoughts on some pressing topics relating to my book, Artificial You, ranging from the fundamental nature of reality to quantum theory and emergence in large language models (LLM) like GPT-4.

“Testing for Consciousness in Machines: An Update on the ACT Test for the Case of LLMs”,Susan Schneider. Current Biology 33 (R1-R10) (2024)   (Note, this is part of a longer piece in which various scholars contributed commentaries).
This piece urges that the ACT can be updated for the case of LLMs, providing a ‘marker’ to those systems that passed the updated ACT. (Note: this is not my current view because I believe there is an ‘error theory’ that precludes concluding from LLM behavior that the behavior is evidence of consciousness. For a brief explanation see the non-technical piece below.)

“If a Chatbot Tells You it is Conscious Should you Believe it?”* https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/if-a-chatbot-tells-you-it-is-conscious-should-you-believe-it/)

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Metaphysics, Physicalism and the Mind-Body Problem  

Artificial Intelligence, and Computational Approaches to Thought 


Ethics of Brain Enhancement, the Singularity, and the Nature of the Person

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Media Pieces and Book Introductions