This debate exposes a deeper structural issue than signal strength versus consciousness.
Overcontrol becomes dangerous not merely because it removes a component of the target variable, but because it removes the last locus where experience can still exert constraint on downstream commitment. Once methodological rigor is defined as filtering out everything that is not independently isolable, what disappears is not just noise, but the possibility for lived facts to intervene before decisions close.
From that perspective, the risk is not mistaking a facet for a confound, but building systems of inquiry where experience remains describable yet no longer operative — present in explanation, absent in governance. At that point, even correct theories inherit a structural blindness, not because they deny consciousness, but because they render it causally late
Thanks for this insightful comment, hn! I agree that in the extreme, "controlling" for every possible effect of consciousness ends up committing one a priori to the causal irrelevance of consciousness. We certainly don't want to do that!
This debate exposes a deeper structural issue than signal strength versus consciousness.
Overcontrol becomes dangerous not merely because it removes a component of the target variable, but because it removes the last locus where experience can still exert constraint on downstream commitment. Once methodological rigor is defined as filtering out everything that is not independently isolable, what disappears is not just noise, but the possibility for lived facts to intervene before decisions close.
From that perspective, the risk is not mistaking a facet for a confound, but building systems of inquiry where experience remains describable yet no longer operative — present in explanation, absent in governance. At that point, even correct theories inherit a structural blindness, not because they deny consciousness, but because they render it causally late
Thanks for this insightful comment, hn! I agree that in the extreme, "controlling" for every possible effect of consciousness ends up committing one a priori to the causal irrelevance of consciousness. We certainly don't want to do that!