Federico Faggin is widely recognized as the engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur who led the development of the first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004, released in 1971. As a key figure at Intel, he designed the architecture and oversaw the project, earning him credit as the "father of the microprocessor." His contributions revolutionized computing, and he later co-founded Zilog, further advancing microprocessor technology.
Federico Faggin uses the term "seity" to describe the intrinsic, subjective essence of consciousness—its quality of being a unique, self-aware entity. In his framework, seity refers to the irreducible, first-person experience of "being" that distinguishes conscious entities from mere information-processing systems like computers. It encapsulates the sense of individuality, intentionality, and inner awareness that cannot be reduced to physical processes or quantified objectively.
Faggin emphasizes that seity is fundamental to consciousness, existing prior to and independent of matter. It is the core of what makes each conscious being a distinct manifestation of universal consciousness, capable of subjective experience (qualia) and creative agency. Unlike AI, which lacks this inner quality, seity enables direct, qualitative engagement with reality, shaping how consciousness interacts with the material world, such as in quantum events like wavefunction collapse. In his dual model of Internal and External Reality, seity resides in the Internal Reality, the domain of subjective experience that informs and precedes the physical world.