de Lima Prestes, José Augusto (2025) Reconfiguration, Not Reinvention: Pseudo-Consciousness and Simulated Presence Literacy in AI Ethics. [Preprint]
![[img]](https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/fileicons/text.png) |
Text
Reconfiguration__Not_Reinvention__Pseudo_Consciousness_and_Simulated_Presence_Literacy_in_AI_Ethics__preprint_.pdf Download (498kB) |
Abstract
This article claims that the salient ethical risk of generative AI is not machine consciousness but the social efficacy of its simulation---what we call pseudo-consciousness. Read through Heidegger’s Gestell, Jonas’s anticipatory responsibility, and Floridi’s information ethics, we relocate appraisal from putative inner states to interactional effects in the infosphere. We formalize a two-part mechanism/uptake frame: functional introspection (FI)---first-person, reason-giving, self-repair, and local cross-turn stability---and ethical illusion (EI)---shifts in trust, respect, compliance, and moral ratings that attenuate on disclosure. Building on this, we propose simulated presence literacy (SPL) as a domain-specific facet of AI literacy that teaches users to perceive FI, appraise EI, and respond with counter-uptake practices. We then advance an ethics of appearance in design: four levers (semio-transparency, attenuation of reciprocity illusion, calibrated trust, and constraints on first-person density), two KPIs (FI Score, EI Index), a minimal 2x2 to test mechanism -> uptake and disclosure attenuation, and a five-step audit loop for governance. The result is a humanistic response---reconfiguration, not reinvention---that keeps fluency from passing for presence by making simulation legible, bounded, and accountable, with heightened precautions for vulnerable populations. In humanities research, teaching, and curation, treating LLMs as semantic artifacts, rather than as subjects, preserves interpretive agency while retaining the benefits of fluent assistance.
| Export/Citation: | EndNote | BibTeX | Dublin Core | ASCII/Text Citation (Chicago) | HTML Citation | OpenURL |
| Social Networking: |
Monthly Views for the past 3 years
Monthly Downloads for the past 3 years
Plum Analytics
Altmetric.com
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}