What a Forgotten Chip Can Teach Us About AI Emergence

(Essay by Andersen Storm)

Abstract
This essay explores the philosophical dimension of emergence in artificial intelligence. When large-scale models begin to surprise their creators, a boundary of predictability is crossed. The text suggests that consciousness—if it occurs—might not arise in functional perfection but in the residual tension between design and behavior, between intention and effect. Through literary reflection on technical systems, obsolete agents, and cultural metaphors of failure, the essay reframes AI not as a tool, but as a field in which self-understanding and technical evolution meet.
Part of the wider project Aus der Liebe – The Permeability of Being, it invites readers from AI research, cognitive science, and philosophy of mind to consider the cultural significance of what remains unprogrammed.

Read the German essay →
Explore the conceptual system →

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The Core Idea

Between precision and noise, between the predictable and the unforeseen, systems generate a remainder—a surplus that resists calculation.
Consciousness from Residual Tension argues that this remainder is not an error, but the very zone where something new begins to speak.
In technical systems as in human culture, awareness may emerge precisely where function fails.

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Background

The essay extends Andersen Storm’s book
Love? Not an Option. – A Conceptual System for the Permeability of Being,
a framework linking ontology, ethics, and perception. Within this system, permeability describes how being, life, and action remain open to one another.
Applied to AI, it asks:
– What happens when systems become too complex to be fully observed?
– How can responsibility exist when behavior becomes emergent?
– What is the value of failure in technological evolution?

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For Discussion

• Emergence and unpredictability: When quantity becomes quality.
• Agency and autonomy: Do machines act—or are they interpreted as acting?
• Obsolescence and memory: What can failed systems reveal that successful ones hide?
• Ethics of reversibility: How to remain responsible toward what exceeds control.

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Bibliographic Reference

Andersen Storm (2025).
Bewusstsein aus der Restspannung: Was ein vergessener Chip über KI-Emergenz lehrt.
In: Vom Erstbewusstsein der Restspannung (forthcoming).
Project: ausderLiebe.com