Are you getting tired of these discussions about A.I. can become sentient, or taking over the world? Before you start worrying about Alexa or Google Assistant, below I show two angles of observation (scientific and holistic).
But first.. what is consciousness?
Some scientists claim that 99% of the day, we are on auto-pilot mode. All actions go automatically, like driving your car, brushing your teeth, running errands, but also normal dialogues with people. Highly predictable and in a reactive manner.
Only a small percentage of the day we might call ourselves conscious. These are usually the moments that you wonder what the #$% am I doing here, and how would it be if I am old and look back on my life.
But even these rare conscious moments, our level of consciousness is quite limited compared to what people can experience in deep meditation.
If you like, let’s do an experiment now. To explain what I mean with consciousness.
It might shift your view on life.
Close your eyes (unless you are driving or so), and take a deep breath.
Notice all small sensations in the body.
Also notice your thoughts that pass by.
Gently try to increase the time between 2 thoughts, so that a gap of thoughtlessness appears.
You might think that you are your body, your emotions and your thoughts.
But in this gap of no-thought, you are aware that it is you, sitting somewhere. You are observing the situation. But wait! Who is observing? It is not your thoughts.
Your consciousness is observing.
This consciousness is always there. It is never sick. It was always there and will always be.
It is the same consciousness/observer as when you were a child.
We cannot yet describe consciousness scientifically, because we have no direct way of measuring it.
But this does not mean that it does not exist (else we proclaim that everything that exists can be measured in a repeatable way, and that would be an unscientific statement).
There are many indications that this consciousness is not a product of the brain, but that it is something outside of the physical realm.
I fully understand how strange this sounds for many people, just as strange it was when we found out that the Earth is not the center of the universe (Copernicus), or that space-time is not flat (Einstein), or that quantum particles can do magic we never heard of (Planck, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, …).
Let’s take the scientific approach: let’s assume the consciousness is non-physical, and merely is affecting the physical and see if it helps us to explain real-life situations, and make predictions from there.
For the moment, keep this in the back of your mind.
All articles on this site are using this hypothesis and operate from there.
For many people it is not a hypothesis, but reality: in deep meditation they can experience a huge expansion, so that they are not only aware of the situation now, but aware of the whole universe, regardless of time. This cannot be understood by the brain, but their consciousness can handle it as if it were their own home. But after the meditation, back in the body, they know that that tiny piece of consciousness (between the thoughts) is just a tiny piece of your real potential.
Myself, I have also had these moments of clarity, and that is why I share my insights with anyone who can use it.
Back to the first question: can A.I. ever become conscious?
If we use the definition of consciousness given above, then the answer is clearly “No”. Because consciousness is not generated by anything physical. In fact, the brain is just limiting our consciousness.
We can only make things that appear conscious. For instance, A.I. can be trained such that it generates output that is in line with what you expect from a conscious being. However, that interpretation is done by real conscious beings, so in the end you need a real conscious person to become impressed, afraid or mesmerized by it.
From these expanded “trips” I learned a lot, and I am sharing these insights with you on this site, so you can use them to your own benefit.
There are many exciting things to tell, so I welcome you to check out my other posts.