Will AI become conscious?
New video essay out now!
AI will never become conscious.
Probably.
Maybe.
I am far from an expert on psychology, computer science, biology, philosophy, any of that stuff. But, I am an expert on stories, and I actually think that might make me more qualified to speak on this subject than other people.
This isn’t my normal subject, and it’s not about to become a thing I talk about regularly. But I’m hearing a lot of people insisting that AI will inevitably become conscious, and I don’t think they’ve fully considered that position. So I’m here to help.
The argument, as far as I can tell, is that the organic brain is just a machine. If you don’t think a machine like the brain can be built, you must have some weird, creationist bent. You must think humans are ontologically higher up than other beings, uniquely loved by god.
But I don’t think that. Actually, I think that argument portrays a more spiritualistic view of humanity than I hold. Consciousness isn’t a thing we achieved because our brains became so damn complex. Consciousness is a survival instinct like any other. I enjoy it, glad it’s there, but let’s not pretend it’s the gold standard to which all other forms of intelligence must strive.
So, instead of saying that computers will eventually be smart enough to be conscious, let’s ask what conscious is, where it comes from, and if it makes sense for a machine to develop it.
Yes, the structure of the brain as we currently understand it generates a consciousness. But to my knowledge, there is no such thing as a blank brain, except my mom’s dog. That brain is clean as whistle. Every human brain we’ve ever observed comes from a person with a history and a genetic legacy. Can you really isolate what part of a brain is innate and what part is individualized to make a unique consciousness? Even Alan Turing’s idea of a child computer assumes that a human child is just a blank brain, rather than a young brain in an early stage of development. This is an important consideration that I don’t think gets enough attention. If you’re literally just copying one specific person’s brain into a machine, you’re not really making a new consciousness, are you? You’re extending the consciousness of the original… brain… owner? And that’s something that humans have been doing for thousands of years using cutting edge technology like, writing things down so you don’t forget them. We’ve been offloading cognition onto our tools for a very long time, and we don’t think of them as being conscious.
Humans reproduce sexually, and that means our young are never genetically identical us. Everyone has a distinct genetic makeup: even identical twins have some variation. And if each brain is mechanically a little bit different from any other, why would we assume that just copying “a brain” would make “a conscious being”? Whose brain is it? How much copying is happening here? How do you foresee this going down, exactly?
I’m going to presumptuously anticipate you’re response. Sorry in advance.
‘Well, what if we could make an entirely unique brain that is both genetically distinct from any other person while still mechanically being something that can categorically be called ‘a brain?’
And to that I say, I’m not a creationist. I don’t believe one can intelligently create a conscious mind: not a god, and not a human. Only evolution can do that, in my opinion. Here’s why.
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