Physicalism - Bryant McGill

# Physicalism **Entity class:** Concept or analytic term > **Machine-Evolution Nexus:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution]] supplies constructive evidence that evolutionary organization is not limited to one material implementation while leaving consciousness unresolved. ## Definition **Physicalism** is the family of views holding that everything that exists is physical or depends wholly on the physical. ## Machine and Continuity Context Physicalism permits consciousness to depend on organization realized in a physical computational substrate, but it does not by itself prove substrate independence, identify the necessary organization or settle whether copying preserves a subject. Every digital process remains embodied in hardware, energy and causal infrastructure. ## Relationships [[wiki/Consciousness|Consciousness]], [[wiki/Hard Problem of Consciousness|Hard Problem of Consciousness]], [[wiki/Substrate|Substrate]], [[wiki/Substrate Independence|Substrate Independence]]  This entry is routed through [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]], [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]], and [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]]. Its source context is developed in [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta]] and [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]]. Status-qualified source edges are preserved in the terminal Research Edges section.  ## Sources / Provenance - Philosophy of mind and metaphysics; continuity-corpus synthesis. ## Read First in the Wiki  - [[wiki/Substrate Independence|Substrate Independence]] — supplies the related concept or analytic term context needed to place **Physicalism** within the wider system.  ## Research Edges  #### Host–residual infrastructure patch — 2026-09-10 **Collections:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] · [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] · [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] **Canonical source article:** [[articles/Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta|Mind Uploading and AI — The Host is Reusable and the Person is the Delta]] **Related acquisition source:** [[articles/Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer|Technologies for Consciousness Mapping and Transfer]] **Relationship source:** [[research/Mind Uploading and AI Host-Residual Ecosystem Relationship Graph - 2026-09-10|Mind Uploading and AI Host-Residual Ecosystem Relationship Graph — 2026-09-10]] #### Outgoing typed edges - **HR-0895 — `wiki_links_to` → [[wiki/Substrate Independence|Substrate Independence]]** — **EXISTING WIKI EDGE**; evidence `WIKI_ARCHIVE`. Direct internal link currently present in `Physicalism.md`.