Rupert Young #FBPE

Now published in New Ideas in Psychology! 🧠 This new understanding of consciousness and human behaviour has profound implications for Artificial Intelligence including Autonomous Vehicles. If an artificial system cannot perceive and control quality it will never be able to behave with anything other than severe limitations. An autonomous vehicle, for example, has no concept of the meaning or value of what it is doing, not caring whether or not it ploughs into a crowd of people. Without conscious awareness (the perception of quality), AVs, and other artificial systems will be unable to progress beyond the rudimentary capabilities of the mindless, and uncaring, automatons that they are currently. My paper “Consciousness: The Control of Quality” introduces a new framework — CoPoQ (the Control of the Perception of Quality) — grounded in Perceptual Control Theory (PCT). We usually think of consciousness as the pinnacle of existence — the defining mark of intelligence. But CoPoQ proposes the opposite: consciousness is a disruption to optimum functioning. It arises when control falters — when our systems can no longer maintain smooth regulation of perception. The purpose of consciousness is to enhance the quality of our interaction with the world, guiding the reorganization of our internal control systems. When control is restored, awareness fades — explaining the effortless disappearance of consciousness during Flow states and after learning. In this view, consciousness serves an adaptive, functional role: it directs learning, integrates feeling and value into behaviour, and reveals the meaning embedded in our perceptions. “Is everyone conscious? CoPoQ uncovers the purpose of consciousness.” By defining consciousness as the control of perceived quality, CoPoQ unites qualia, valence, and performance into a single, testable model of awareness — one that redefines the relationship between mind, behaviour, and experience. 📘 New Ideas in Psychology (Elsevier) 🔗 Free access (until Dec 26, 2025): authors.elsevier.com/a/1m3MP… 🌐 perceptualrobots.com/press/c… #Consciousness #CoPoQ #Psychology #PhilosophyOfMind #PerceptualControlTheory #Flow #Neuroscience #IAPCT #AcademicPublishing @newscientist @iapct