Are AIs Conscious? Part 4

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 pointing out that AI is not separate from us, Forall clarified even the Animist perspective of consciousness by pointing out the emptiness of consciousness.

Forall brought up an example of how the animist worldview sees a rock as having a spirit of consciousness which has a significant and meaningful relationship with our kind of consciousness. He said that from a Buddhist perspective, there was never a spirit over there on its own side, nor a you over here on your own side. It is all interdependently originated.

Consciousness depends upon mind and body to grow and flourish, and mind and body depend on consciousness to grow and flourish.

Not wanting us to be duped by the common mistake of conflating emptiness with nihilism, Forall said: There is an order to this. It isn’t arbitrary. It is ethical. It is meaningful.