Abstract

The Theater Model of Consciousness imagines a stage observed by a vast audience of unconscious processors. Our Conscious Turing Machine (CTM) formalizes a version of this model: it is conscious of the stage, but not the audience’s thoughts. CTM is shaped by two demands: 1.Be as simple as possible (Occam’s razor), and 2. Explain a lot—including answers to Kevin Mitchell’s 15x3 questions. Unlike other models, CTM has no Central Executive (CE)—a hypothesized director of stage activity-as that lacks both explanation and neural evidence. We argue the CE cannot exist, and explain why. In CTM, control emerges from competition among processors, which estimate the importance of their info via an optimal, self-correcting process. The winner is chosen with probability proportional to that importance. Its info is broadcast from the stage to the entire audience.