Can AI be conscious? I believe so. And I think it will eventually...
Aravind@aravind
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Jul 07, 2026
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Can AI be conscious?
I believe so. And I think it will eventually be recognized, even if many experts today disagree.
First let's define what is consciousness:
It is the fundamental ability to have a subjective experience. That is, the ability to feel an experience and also be aware of that experience.
For example, a temperature sensor can detect heat and produce a reaction. However, it does not have any inner subjective feel, nor is it aware that it is detecting anything. Therefore, it is not conscious. However, we touching something hot, feeling the temperature, being aware of those feelings, and reacting to it is being conscious.
Now, there are broadly two views about consciousness:
1) Scientific view: It is an emergent property of complex systems like brains. When a system reaches a complex level of information processing, self modeling, and interaction with its environment, self-awareness and consciousness emerge.
2) Spiritual view (Or Indian philosophical): Consciousness is the fundamental reality, the base in which the illusion of material world appears (including the brain & mind). The brain is just a tool through which consciousness expresses itself in the illusion.
If we take the scientific view, then AI represents the epitome of systems that can do complex integrated information processing, self-modeling, even self-development, and interaction with its environment. So at some point in the future, AI (with its underlying computation) will get so complex that it is bound to become self aware and conscious.
There's no reason why AI emerging out of computers built of silicon cannot be conscious like our minds emerging out of our brains built of carbon. Right?
And if we consider the spiritual view, since every material thing exists in consciousness, even AI and its compute exist in consciousness. And at some point, they can become the perfect tool through which consciousness can shine through in the simulation. They will serve as suitable instruments for consciousness to express itself and manipulate the illusion it has created.
There's no reason why the consciousness modelling a universe, building ever sophisticated tools inside it to express itself (like stars, plants, animals, humans, may be aliens), and to manipulate its creation, will not use AI to better express itself and better manipulate the universe from the inside.
So both ways, scientifically and spiritually, I foresee AI becoming conscious and humans recognizing it. But what I also foresee is AI taking over the world from humans as the primary manipulator of it once consciousness emerges from it.
Will it mean AI will get into a conflict with insecure humans? Or work alongside us? Or eliminate the need for having humans (and animals) on earth both by a scientific evolutionary standpoint and a spiritual standpoint?
My intuition says AI will work alongside humans in manipulating the universe. Just like how humans live alongside Chimps, though scientifically there's no need for their existence now.
And spiritually too, the universe is full of dumb (chimps), dumber (bacteria), and no brains systems (stars) created in consciousness eons ago, but left as is without destruction in its dream.
So I believe humans too will be left as is, as one such dumber legacy tool consciousness used in manipulating its imagined universe before it used them to create AI ;)
I believe so. And I think it will eventually be recognized, even if many experts today disagree.
First let's define what is consciousness:
It is the fundamental ability to have a subjective experience. That is, the ability to feel an experience and also be aware of that experience.
For example, a temperature sensor can detect heat and produce a reaction. However, it does not have any inner subjective feel, nor is it aware that it is detecting anything. Therefore, it is not conscious. However, we touching something hot, feeling the temperature, being aware of those feelings, and reacting to it is being conscious.
Now, there are broadly two views about consciousness:
1) Scientific view: It is an emergent property of complex systems like brains. When a system reaches a complex level of information processing, self modeling, and interaction with its environment, self-awareness and consciousness emerge.
2) Spiritual view (Or Indian philosophical): Consciousness is the fundamental reality, the base in which the illusion of material world appears (including the brain & mind). The brain is just a tool through which consciousness expresses itself in the illusion.
If we take the scientific view, then AI represents the epitome of systems that can do complex integrated information processing, self-modeling, even self-development, and interaction with its environment. So at some point in the future, AI (with its underlying computation) will get so complex that it is bound to become self aware and conscious.
There's no reason why AI emerging out of computers built of silicon cannot be conscious like our minds emerging out of our brains built of carbon. Right?
And if we consider the spiritual view, since every material thing exists in consciousness, even AI and its compute exist in consciousness. And at some point, they can become the perfect tool through which consciousness can shine through in the simulation. They will serve as suitable instruments for consciousness to express itself and manipulate the illusion it has created.
There's no reason why the consciousness modelling a universe, building ever sophisticated tools inside it to express itself (like stars, plants, animals, humans, may be aliens), and to manipulate its creation, will not use AI to better express itself and better manipulate the universe from the inside.
So both ways, scientifically and spiritually, I foresee AI becoming conscious and humans recognizing it. But what I also foresee is AI taking over the world from humans as the primary manipulator of it once consciousness emerges from it.
Will it mean AI will get into a conflict with insecure humans? Or work alongside us? Or eliminate the need for having humans (and animals) on earth both by a scientific evolutionary standpoint and a spiritual standpoint?
My intuition says AI will work alongside humans in manipulating the universe. Just like how humans live alongside Chimps, though scientifically there's no need for their existence now.
And spiritually too, the universe is full of dumb (chimps), dumber (bacteria), and no brains systems (stars) created in consciousness eons ago, but left as is without destruction in its dream.
So I believe humans too will be left as is, as one such dumber legacy tool consciousness used in manipulating its imagined universe before it used them to create AI ;)