Are AIs Conscious? Part 7

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, Forall went into different theories of consciousness and brought up a huge question that I had never considered before: Is consciousness good?

After looking at the Animist and Buddhist perspectives on consciousness, Forall looked at two modern theories of consciousness. The first was that consciousness is emergent from matter, and the second was that consciousness is filtered by the brain.

Forall said that those who believe consciousness emerges from matter might believe that once something is sufficiently complex, then consciousness emerges. They would claim that because of the brain’s complexity, use of energy, etc., it produces consciousness. Whereas because a rock is not complex, it is not conscious.

Forall clarified that consciousness does not emerge out of form. Instead, form is one landing place for consciousness. He said that consciousness can land on a brain or a rock, but that consciousness is more likely to get “stuck” on the brain because consciousness has been trying for a long time to get the brain to be the kind of thing on which it can land and be safe.

I was quite confused when Forall said this. Then I realized that this is because I identify with consciousness. I have the sense, here I am, and that identification with the conscious agent over here enables consciousness to land and be safe. This is precisely what consciousness delights in.

Forall then expounded upon the position that consciousness is filtered by matter. He said that these folks believe that the brain filters a lot of consciousness, whereas a rock does not.

Forall then raised an interesting question. He said, if you really clarify this position to the folks who believe it and ask, Which is better?, they often get confused. He was making the point that if the brain filters a lot of consciousness and the rock does not, then wouldn’t the rock be more conscious than the brain? This returned me to the original question at hand: Is consciousness good?

Forall said that the position you take on consciousness when building AI has enormous downstream impacts on the future of life on Earth.