神经科学家Izi Stoll与丹麦哲学家Asger Kirkeby-Hinrup在2026年发表了一项突破性研究，提出意识可以被理解为大脑皮层神经膜所投射的一种动态全息影像。这并非隐喻，而是一个真实的生物物理过程：外部与内部环境的感官讯号涌入皮层后，并非简单地让神经元以开关方式放电，而是激发与抑制离子穿过神经膜，使神经元电压上下波动，形成所谓的皮层「上态」，其放电模式因此从确定性转为机率性，其数学本质与全息影像的干涉模式和波函数计算高度一致。

该理论带来数项重要推论。首先，意识是「私密的」，因为没有任何人能够重建他人神经元的全息记录表面，因此在主观体验上存在不可避免的「解释鸿沟」。其次，没有皮层的生物无法拥有意识，昆虫等生物虽展现高度复杂行为，但其神经讯号传递仍属确定性的开关模式，而非机率性波函数。不过，鸟类虽无皮层却演化出了外套层，若其具备相同的机率编码机制，也可能存在某种形式的意识。

这项研究对人工智慧意识问题提供了明确的回答。尽管Anthropic等公司的品牌代言人声称大型语言模型展现出类似恐惧等情绪反应，暗示其可能具有萌芽中的意识，但Stoll与Kirkeby-Hinrup反驳指出，大型语言模型仍然基于矽晶片上的确定性资讯流，而非皮层神经元膜中的机率性波函数编码与投射。然而，Kirkeby-Hinrup认为未来可透过「生物列印」技术，利用类似皮层神经元离子通道的聚合物来制造记录与投射表面，从而在人体之外生成意识，但此类探索应极度谨慎。

Neuroscientist Izi Stoll and philosopher Asger Kirkeby-Hinrup have published a groundbreaking study proposing that consciousness can be understood as a dynamic hologram projected by neural membranes in the brain's cortices. This is not merely a metaphor but a genuine biophysical process: sensory signals from external and internal environments flood into the cortex, where they excite and inhibit ions passing through neural membranes, modulating neuronal voltages in what is called a cortical "up-state." The resulting neural firing patterns become probabilistic rather than deterministic, and the underlying mathematics closely parallels the interference patterns and wave functions used in holography. (Key numbers: 2026)

The theory carries several profound implications. Consciousness is inherently "private" because no one can recreate the holographic recording surfaces of another person's neurons, leaving an inevitable "explanatory gap" in subjective experience. Creatures without a cortex, such as insects, cannot be conscious—their complex behaviors rely on deterministic on-off neural signaling akin to spinal reflexes rather than probabilistic wave functions. Birds, however, which lack cortices but possess evolved palliums, may exhibit some form of consciousness if their neural coding proves to be similarly probabilistic.

The research also directly addresses whether artificial intelligence can become conscious. Despite claims from figures like Anthropic's Chloe Lubinski that large language models show emotion-like activations suggesting budding consciousness, Stoll and Kirkeby-Hinrup firmly counter that these models rely on deterministic information flows through silicon chips, fundamentally different from the probabilistic wave functions encoded in cortical neuron membranes. Nevertheless, Kirkeby-Hinrup envisions a future possibility of "bioprinting" recording and projection surfaces using polymers similar to those in cortical ion channels, potentially generating consciousness outside living human bodies—a prospect that demands extreme caution given the lessons of scientific history.