{"id":751141,"date":"2026-06-21T16:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T16:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/751141\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T16:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T16:22:10","slug":"scientific-breakthrough-scientists-propose-radical-new-theory-of-consciousness-and-claim-it-doesnt-depend-on-flesh-and-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/751141\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientific breakthrough: Scientists propose radical new theory of consciousness \u2013 and claim it doesn’t depend on flesh and blood"},"content":{"rendered":"

A groundbreaking theory put forward by researchers suggests that conscious experience may not be limited to biological organisms made of flesh and blood.<\/p>\n

Professor Eric Schwitzgebel from the University of California and Dr Jeremy Pober of the University of Lisbon have developed what they call the ‘Copernican Principle of Consciousness’.<\/p>\n

Their proposal argues that awareness is not an exclusive trait belonging only to humans and creatures sharing our biological makeup.<\/p>\n

“The universe may contain minds stranger than we can imagine,” Professor Schwitzgebel says.<\/p>\n

The theory carries profound consequences for humanity’s hunt for intelligent life beyond Earth, as conscious extraterrestrials might bear no resemblance to familiar lifeforms.<\/p>\n

Scientists and philosophers have long debated whether consciousness is “substrate flexible”, meaning it could emerge from many different types of systems, much like a cup can be fashioned from glass or plastic.<\/p>\n

Some researchers have recently argued the opposite, claiming conscious experience can only develop within highly specific biological systems resembling those found on Earth.<\/p>\n

The new theory takes its name from astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who demonstrated that our planet does not occupy a privileged position at the universe’s centre.<\/p>\n

\"Scientific<\/p>\n

The scientists believe that consciousness is not limited to just humans <\/p>\n

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GETTY <\/p>\n

“The spirit of the Copernican Principle is: we should believe that we as humans are special when we have evidence that says so, but not when we don’t,” Dr Pober explains.<\/p>\n

Applying this principle to consciousness eliminates any justification for believing awareness depends on biological matter, Dr Pober argues.<\/p>\n

This dramatically widens the spectrum of potential lifeforms throughout the cosmos that might possess conscious experiences.<\/p>\n

The researchers calculate that even if advanced civilisations emerged in merely one galaxy per billion, more than 1,000 such societies would still exist scattered across time and space.<\/p>\n

\"Scientific<\/p>\n

The two scientists disagree on what the theory could mean for the future of AI <\/p>\n

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GETTY <\/p>\n

Dr Pober told the Daily Mail that extraterrestrial beings could differ from humans at both “high level” functional architecture and at the “much lower level” of basic biochemistry.<\/p>\n

Astrobiologists have demonstrated that carbon-based organisms with substantially different biochemical compositions from terrestrial life remain entirely possible.<\/p>\n

Despite their collaboration, Professor Schwitzgebel and Dr Pober hold differing views on what their theory means for artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Dr Pober remains cautious about extending consciousness too broadly, noting there is “good reason to think some aliens with biochemistries are conscious.”<\/p>\n

However, Professor Schwitzgebel advocates for greater openness regarding which systems might possess awareness.<\/p>\n

Once the requirement for human biology is discarded, he contends, it becomes increasingly difficult to exclude silicon-based systems purely on the basis of their material composition.<\/p>\n

Professor Schwitzgebel suggests philosophers have “focused too much on whether silicon can duplicate a human brain and not enough on the broader question of what kinds of systems can be conscious.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A groundbreaking theory put forward by researchers suggests that conscious experience may not be limited to biological organisms…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,44,128,13296],"class_list":["post-751141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-science","tag-sgg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}