Can Computers Become Conscious?

If computers are complex enough, will they attain consciousness someday? And what would that mean for humanity?

According to some experts, like Ray Kurzweil, the answer is not a question of if its a question of when. According to Kurzweil we are fast approaching a milestone he calls the "singularity", a point at which the complexity and intelligence of computers will suddenly shift to an era of "superintelligence". Presumably, this will even lead to fully conscious computers, with an intelligence that far outstrips our own.

So how can we determine whether Kurzweil and others who hold this view are really in touch with reality?

On some level I think they've been watching too many science fiction movies. Now lets state up front that as a matter of basic principle, there is nothing we know of that would prevent the development of an intelligent computer. If a computer were made complex enough with the right hardware, it would seem that at the very least, a computer could be constructed that would appear conscious. Whether it really would be conscious is something open to debate, and the truth is nobody has a clue as to what the answer is. But you could imagine that given enough power, resources, and complexity-a computer could be constructed that would behave as if conscious.

It seems obvious that such a machine would outperform humans at every turn. Computers can obviously process information a lot faster than the human brain. But is that all it takes?

Todays computers still do not much besides rote calculations. They are damn good at it, but does adding numbers quickly have anything to do with intelligence? I would say it does not. Sure a computer can do a calculation much faster than your brain can, but that's not the point.

What makes human intelligence special is not rote calculation but understanding meaning. For instance, a computer can easily solve Schrodinger's equation from quantum mechanics. A smart human can solve it too, but will have a much harder time than the computer. But only the human can attach any meaning to Schrodinger's equation. A computer can spit out numbers,and print out graphs and charts of solutions to Schrodinger's equation, but it can't learn anything about the role knowledge or conscious observers may play in the universe-something that is contained in quantum theory on a subtle level.

So it seems that something quite different is going on in a human brain that isn't going on in computers as they've been constructed so far. Some people have attacked the problem head on-this is the program of "Artificial Intelligence" or AI for example. But while a lot has been learned and progress has been made, AI has failed to deliver the way it was expected to. Here in 2009 AI is no closer to delivering any kind of "singularity" than it was 20 years ago.

An interesting question that is probably unanswerable is the following: does conscious experience depend on the medium used to express it? One fact we know in this debate is that brains (human or otherwise) give rise to conscious experience. Nobody really knows how, but we do know brains are involved and have mapped out what parts are doing what (such as the visual cortex for example). The question of the hour: Is there something unique to brains that does this? If we construct a really "complex" computer out of silicon or superconductors or whatever, will it attain conscious experience too?

Scientific materialists would no doubt say yes, proclaiming that the vague concept of "complexity" leads to consciousness. So make a silicon wafer with enough transistors arranged in the right way, that is "complex" enough, and you could construct a conscious computer.

The spiritual among us might be inclined to answer differently. "Complexity" is really science-speak for we have no fucking idea. Its a meaningless concept that doesn't explain anything, it is simply a restatement of an observed fact that complex brains appear to be conscious. But is complexity really necessary? How do you know a spider isn't conscious? You may be shaking your head in disbelief at this "silly" proposition, but what empirical evidence is there on the question?

If we simply observe the behavior of a spider, it seems to behave in ways that have given computer scientists fits. If the scientists could construct a computer that behaved exactly as a spider-a spider android that an expert (say a biologist specializing in spiders) could not differentiate from a real spider-an arachnid Turing test if you will-they would have made fantastic progress. Honestly, even this seems unlikely. Making the leap to a human or something far surpassing the human is quite a jump above this. So it would seem that the "singularity" is as far away as ever-a fantasy in the minds of geeks.

It may be that there is something about consciousness we simply don't understand. Perhaps it is not possible to make a computer conscious at all. After all there is something different about a spider, a mouse, a dog, a chimpanzee and a human as compared to any computer. We know this intuitively even if it can't be quantified scientifically.

If the singularity is a real phenomenon, this isn't necessarily a good thing. Kurzweil often says that people will trade real experience for "virtual" experience. People will be "enhanced". So instead of learning Spanish, a chip is connected to your brain that lets you speak it without having gone through the trouble to learn it. Instead of going rock climbing, you can do a computer simulation of rock climbing. Instead of meeting your friends for "real", you will meet in a virtual bar for virtual drinks. All of this being directed by superintelligent machines, who may of course have their own motives that might not include entertaining humans.

The kind of world envisioned by the technophiles of the Kurzweil variety isn't necessarily a good world. Part of being human isn't just being able to speak two languages, in fact the learning process is a large part of it. Allowing people to just pick up Spanish by putting a chip in their head takes away this aspect of humanity.

Part of being human is also having real experience. A rock climbing simulation in a computer might be safer, but the value of such a thing is dubious compared to really rock climbing. And I would rather meet friends in person than in a virtual night club.

Only time will tell whether or not computers become conscious. Let's hope that if they do, they don't decide to dispense with humanity. Biological life might just get in their way.

Image from Stockxpert

Life after death: Is there a single unified consciousness?o the mind, when someone dies?

What happens to the mind when we die?

And where did the mind come from? 

To an atheist or scientific materialist this question sounds nonsensical. To them, the mind dies when the brain dies. The mind is the brain and the brain is the mind. The brain, being a temporary and purely material object, takes the mind with it when we die.

But what if the universe itself were conscious, and a brain merely taps into that conscious web during its existence? Today I am going to discuss some ideas inspired by David Darlings excellent book, Equations of Eternity.

This is an idea that has merit not only scientifically, but spiritually. A biologist who was a scientific materialist would tell us that the brain is just a product of evolution, providing its owner with a tool that enhances survival. Organisms that have better brains are better suited to their environments, leave more offspring and so on. Over time, brains have become more complex because its advantageous to do so. Consciousness is no more than a mere accident, something that happened to come along arising out of complexity that happened to be very good at enhancing survival and reproduction.

But to see that consciousness might have a role beyond simply enhancing the survival and reproductive value of its owner, lets turn to the eastern religions. In particular some concepts from Hinduism can shed light on the nature and role of consciousness.

The first concept from Hinduism that is interesting to contemplate is that of Maya. In a nutshell, Maya describes to what Hindus is an illusion: that is the world of objects and people around us are real. In other words, the material world you touch, see, and hear is an illusion. What is real if the objects and people of the world are illusions? According to this concept, our minds have made up and classified the objects we see in the material world. The universe does not really consist of individual, separate and unchanging objects. Instead the universe is one unbroken whole, and its is dynamic: the world is in constant flux.

In fact this idea is completely consistent with what modern science has taught us. As Lee Smolin wrote, the universe doesn't consist of objects, it consistes of processes. Everything around us is completely dynamic and in a constant state of change. Atoms and molecules assemble, dissolve, and reassemble in different ways. People are born, live, and die. Species evolve and change into something completely different as time passes. Even the sun evolved and will eventually die.

Not only that, but in reality there are no separate objects in the universe. Physics tells us that the universe can be seen as having a kind of dualism. This is not strictly the “Wave-particle” dualism of the quantum theory. Instead we call on quantum field theory, which tells us that the universe doesn't really consist of discrete, hard particles. What is really real, at a fundamental level are fields which fill all of spacetime. This is consistent with Maya.

That isn't to say particles, objects, or people aren't real. But we acknowledge that their particular form is transitory-and nothing ever really didn't exist or was born or ceases to exists or dies-instead “things” in the universe are part of an ever-changing process. The atoms and molecules in your body always existed-they have done so since the beginning of time. Could it be that the mind or and individual is part of a universal consciousness field, and that an arrangement of atoms can reveal it , rather than cause it to come forth through some vague concept like “emergence” from a materialist world?

So from the perspective of Hinduism, we face the fact that individuals are temporary and transient in nature, but at the same time we are part of an unbroken whole which has always been here-the universe. The Hindu calls this unbroken whole “Brahman”.

Something else to think about is how can it be that consciousness just arose in a dead universe? For consciousness to arise from the universe, consciousness must be part of the universe itself. Nothing can happen in the universe that does not violate the laws of physics. Here are a couple of quotes from Darling's book to help you think about the ideas here:

“Each of us is a microcosm of nature, and in more than one sense. First, the same processes—the same types of particles and the forces that act between them—occur in our bodies as in the universe at large. Second, through our minds we reconstruct and mirror in abstract form that which lies outside ourselves. And third, most intriguingly, our own personal evolution parallels the evolution of life on earth.”

I would like to add to that that our own brains mirror what the universe at large is doing. A universe that produces conscious minds has at its core consciousness and mind as one of its fundamental properies. This goes back to the Hindu ideas-God died and became the universe-which becomes God again.

Remember too the notion—no the fact--that the universe is an unbroken whole. Another intriguing quote from Darling:

“Whatever a newborn child does, the universe at large does also, because a human baby—like everything else—is an intrinsic part of the cosmos. That may seem like a strange claim to make, but it is logically and physically sound. A factory in which cars are made is a car-making factory. A planet on which there is life is a living planet because the life-forms are a part and a product of the world's substance. And, on the grandest of all scales, if there is sentience within the cosmos then the cosmos itself is sentient. So we may reasonably view an infant's dawning awareness on two levels: as a consciousness arising in the individual, and, simultaneously in the universe as a whole.”

This is deep stuff here. Also think about this. As the population has increased and as computers become more intelligent, the universe at large becomes more conscious. Or was that concsiousness already there, and merely being mapped into the form of individuals?

Its hard to say what these ideas mean for life after death-that is discrete survival of the individual-but its clear that there may be a universal web of consciousness that exists throughout space and for all time.

Check out David Darlings Book Here

Do Animals Have Souls?

You have no doubt that you're conscious. But what about your dog? Does your dog or cat experience life the way you do? Sure your dog can't read, but does he experience pain, love, hot, cold, joy and sorrow? Or is he a biological machine?

Most of us would probably say our dog or cat is conscious, at least on some level. But throughout history many so-called great thinkers (Descartes and more recently Daniel Dennett) would say no, animals are not conscious, they just appear to be so. To them, an animal is nothing more than an automaton. A complex molecular machine that gives the appearance of having a spirit. Descartes believed that humans had a non-material mind/soul. Dennett, on the other hand being an atheist believes humans are automatons too, but have consciousness that arises from "complexity". So to him we are akin to nothing more than complex biologically based computer programs. Animals may or may not be complex enough to have consciousness "arise" from "complexity", in one interview he boldly asserted dogs and cats were not conscious in any way.

Philosophers aside, its obvious that animals have consciousness. Anyone who owns a dog or cat or horse knows this. Perhaps people try to convince themselves animals don't have conscious minds because it makes it OK for us to abuse them. If dogs are biological machines, no different than the computer on your desk, then Michael Vick can fight and kill them, and Chinese fur traders can skin them alive without feeling an ounce of guilt. To recognize that animals have consciousness and by extension souls means humans have perpetuated great crimes on this planet by abusing the life that shares it with us.

Well let's look at the basic facts. What is consciousness? It can be described in a loose way as you're experiencing life, kind of sitting in a movie theater in which the external world is played for you on a screen. As this happens, you have feelings-love, hate, fear, joy. You have memories of the past, and hopes for the future. You feel as though there is an "I" that exists and flows through time, and you can form transcendant connections with others. Notice none of this has anything to do with "intelligence", at least once a certain threshold is reached. Does that threshold only happen when we reach humans?

It is hard to verify if another being shares these characteristics, indeed some philosophers have gone so far as suggesting we can't even know if other human "beings" are conscious. That's a bit silly, and I think although you can't verify it with 100% certainty, to most people its self-evident ("obvious") that animals share many aspects of consciousness with us.

For example, its obvious that dogs experience fear. Its obvious dogs experience happiness. Its obvious dogs form connections, with people and other dogs. Its obvious dogs remember the past, including people who were in it. Dogs see the world through their own two eyes. Who can doubt there isn't an "I" behind those eyes? Otherwise why would they have them?

I single out dogs only because many people have owned them and this is their direct experience with animal life. The same paragraph applies to cats, to horses, and also to rabbits, pigs, and cows. Maybe even snakes.

The existence of the "senses" is a clue that a conscious mind exists. The senses are a connection between the external world and the internal mind. This calls into question many of our abusive behaviors. If you hit a rabbit on the road, you've ended a life. If pigs are crowded into a factory farm, these are living minds enduring torture.

This isn't to say we should never eat meat or hold a funeral if you run over a snake on the highway. But why not treat animals better? Let animals on farms live free range lives, so that they can enjoy a life in the field before they are "slaughtered" so that we might eat and live. Drive more carefully on the highway so that if possible, you can avoid hitting that rabbit trying to cross the road.

Do animals have souls? As much as we can connect the mind to a soul, the answer is yes.

The painting shown in this article is available here.

Does the Mind Survive Death?

Does the conscious mind survive death? If so does it ALL survive death, or just our "core" self?

 

Consider that the brain is closely tied to conscious experience. And we know that upon death, the brain disintegrates and dies. With it goes all of our memories and things we've learned, like how to ride a bike or do algebra.

 

But what about things of a more personal nature? When you think about what's really important, you're probably going to lean towards matters of the heart. Psychic phenomena and interpersonal connections cut to the core of who we are a lot more than algebra or calculus does. Is it possible that interpersonal, emotional part of our being survives death? Do the connections between a mother and child exist outside of time and space?

 

Thinking about the mind, it seems like my core "inner" self, what we call "I" exists unchanging throughout life. Yes, tastes may change and you may learn something new like how to speak French or ride a skateboard and form new memories. Learning French might make you more interesting at a party or useful on a trip to Europe, but does it fundamentally change who you are? The answer seems to be no. You are still you after learning French. These extra things, like learning French seem to be tied to higher parts of the brain. But maybe consciousness resides somewhere else.

If the higher parts of the brain are involved in learning complicated activities, maybe its the lower centers, the limbic system say-that's involved in the generation of conscious experience.

 

One interesting theory is that the brain doesn't actually cause consciousness. Instead its a receiver of some sort--just like a radio receiver. In this view, consciousness exists as part of the universe as a whole.  Or maybe saying its a "part" of the universe isn't accurate, maybe its woven into the universe at a fundamental level. The brain, or at least some part of it, taps into consciousness by somehow receiving a signal from the universe at large. In this theory, your soul or conscious mind transcends time and space and is not separate or distinct from the universe at large. Its manifested in the physical here and now by the receiver, which is the brain structured to "tune in" to your consiousness the way a radio can be tuned in to a particular frequency, and then picking up a specific radio station.

 

The part of the brain that does this must be in the so-called lower centers. "Knowing" (learning French or calculus) isn't the same as being more conscious. A man who doesn't know calculus is equally as conscious as a man who does, although the latter has more knowledge. This applies whether comparing two individuals or the same individual through time. In other words, I am equally conscious before and after learning French, its the same "me" even if I'm able to chat with people who don't speak English that I couldn't converse with directly before. I feel as if I have the same "me" inside that I did at age 5, age 12, and age 20.

 

If the conscious reciever of the brain is in the so-called lower part of the brain, this would indicate most if not all animals are conscious. Yes a rabbit can't speak French, but that doesn't mean the rabbit doesn't experience its life, along with happiness, excitement, or fear, the way you and I do.

 

Something else that's interesting about viewing the brain as a receiver is that death becomes irrelevant. If you smash up the radio on your desk, that radio can't pick up 98.3 FM anymore, but the signal generated by 98.3 FM is still there-all around you and ready to be picked up by another radio that tunes into the station's signal. Is your consciousness always there, able to be picked up if only the right receiver is constructed? This makes the possibility of reincarnation make sense from a physical perspective. Or another idea: a synthetic reciever could be constructed somehow out of some currently uknown technology that could do the same thing. Then a persons mind could remanifest in the physical. Certain people such as Ray Kurzweil have proposed that a person's mind could be "downloaded" to an advanced computer system allowing for a type of immortality. 

 

Right now our scientific knowledge on these topics is limited at best. 

Why Good Vibrations Create A Better World

In his book 'Power vs Force', David Hawkins calibrates people's emotions from levels 20 up to 1000. 20 being Shame which is perilously proximate to death. It's destructive to emotional and psychological health, and makes us prone to physical illness.

At the other end of the scale at 700- 1000 is enlightenment. This is the level of the Great Ones such as Krishna, Buddha and Jesus. It is the peak of the evolutionary consciousness in the human realm.

All levels (which could be classed as vibration levels) below 200 are said to be energy draining, and below integrity. These vary from Guilt (30), Grief (75), Fear (100) up to Pride (175).

People feel positive as they reach Pride level. However Pride feels good only in contrast to the lower levels. Pride is defensive and vulnerable because it's dependent upon external conditions, without which is can suddenly revert to a lower level.

At the 200 level, power first appears. Courage (200) is the zone of exploration, accomplishment, fortitude, and determination. People at this level put back into the world as much energy as they take; at the lower levels, populations as well as individuals drain energy from society without reciprocating.

Further levels include willingness (310), Acceptance (350) and Love (500).

This level is characterized by the development of a Love that is unconditional, unchanging, and permanent. It doesn't fluctuate - its source isn't dependent on external factors. Loving is a state of being. This is the level of true happiness.

Interesting facts from the book -

* The concept and theories behind these experiments were conducted over a 20 year period using a variety of Kinesiology tests and examinations.

* Kinesiology has an almost certain 100% accuracy reading every time. It will always reveal Yes, No, True, and False answers.

* Collective Consciousness: These experiments reveal that there is a higher power that connects everything and everyone.

* Everything calibrates at certain levels from weak to high including books, food, water, clothes, people, animals, buildings, cars, movies, sports, music etc.

* 85% of the human race calibrates below the critical level of 200.

* The overall average level of human consciousness stands at 207.

* Human consciousness was dangling at below the 200 level (190) for many centuries before it suddenly rose up to its present level some time in the mid 1980s. Hence Nostradamus's end of the world predictions may have been avoided (he made his predictions at a time when human consciousness was at below the 200 level). For the world to stay at levels below 200 over a prolonged period of time would cause a great imbalance that would undoubtedly lead to the destruction of all humanity.

* The power of the few individuals at the top counterbalances the weakness of the masses.

* 1 individual at level 300 counterbalances 90,000 individuals below level 200

* 1 individual at level 500 counterbalances 750,000 individuals below level 200

* 1 individual at level 700 counterbalances 70 million individuals below level 200

In other words, as a co creator of the world, if you vibrate at 200 and above you will be helping to raise the consciousness of mankind, and be a big part in creating a better world for everyone.

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Physics of Consciousness

The Physics of Consciousness by the recently deceased Evan Harris Walker is one of the best books on the topic you'll ever read. Its pages are filled with an interwoven tapestry of multiple story lines that delve into the deepest questions of human existence. Plagued by the death of a girlfriend the author had in adolescence, he spends the rest of his life searching for meaning. What is the soul? How does the soul relate to the brain, and where does it go when we die? 

Emotional and vivid descriptions of the authors life with his girlfriend, spent so long-ago, are seamlessly integrated with a history of the science of physics and how discoveries made during the past 100 years are beginning to shed light on the world of conscious experience. These are in turn woven together with discussions of the mind which are at times haunting and always riveting. 

In the last part of the book, the author jumps into his own theories about how quantum mechanics explains or at least is involved with the brain to produce conscious thought. These theories are tentative and a bit of guesswork, but Harris has to be applauded for trying. Most scientists simply ignore the questions.

I was saddened to learn that last year Dr. Walker himself had passed away. Having spent his life tormented by the question of where the soul of his beautiful Marilyn had really gone after she died so long ago of leukemia, he may now have the answers. For those of us left behind, the Physics of Consciousness is an excellent, thought-provoking read that may someday help us find the answers.