The Binary Severance Threshold: Why Artificial Intelligence Cannot Achieve Consciousness.
Paul W. Barnes · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
This working paper presents a structural argument, grounded in the Unified Axioconscious Field Theory (UAFT), that artificial intelligence cannot achieve consciousness. Two novel concepts are introduced: the Binary Severance Threshold (BST) and the Null State Barrier (NSB). The paper examines classical computing, quantum computing, neuromorphic architectures, and Penrose and Hameroff's Orch-OR, concluding that no current or foreseeable non-biological architecture can maintain the conditions consciousness requires. A companion paper to UAFT (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18921322).