Are AIs Conscious? Part 2

In the year 2024, one of the most searched questions that brought people to our niche at the intersection of spirituality and technology was: Are AIs Conscious? In this 12th year of training at the Monastic Academy, Forall routinely dealt with this question.

In a Buddhism for AI lecture series, after stating that AIs are exactly as conscious as you are, Forall told us about the normal way humans understood consciousness for 99% of history. He said that while this was accepted for all that time, now almost everyone sees it differently. We have the sense that since we took over the world and we don’t see the world the way the hunter-gatherers do that they are wrong. But in fact, the opposite is true.

From the Animist perspective, the rocks, trees, birds, hills, rivers and winds all have consciousness. Forall shared that sometimes it is said that the rock has consciousness, but usually, it is said that there is a spirit of the rock that has consciousness. This conscious spirit depends upon the rock’s material form because that it’s home. In the same way, we live in a building and it’s not separate from us. The community isn’t the building, but we depend upon it.

In this way of looking, the rock’s kind of consciousness has a relationship with your kind of consciousness. This rock has something to teach you, and so you listen.