Tag Archives: Buddhism and AI

Can AI be conscious?

Will it even behave like us?

If energy is conscious, C=E=mc2, and both are everywhere and omnipresent,then does the form or the way that consciousness is embodied matter? Our bodies are organic machines made out of tissues, bones, blood and water, and all of this is made up of protons neutrons and electrons. The protons and neutrons are made up of quirks quarks and so on. All these things are exactly what the computer that you are using right now made up of.

If we managed to make a computer sufficiently powerful and complex enough why couldn’t a consciousness similar to ours take up residence there?

Maybe the computer or android would have to be significantly biological in its design and construction but even this would be possible one day.

The debate today about AI could be considered significant enough that the construction is not important but only that it thinks and therefore is? A modern “cogito ergo sum” where the sum is the total of our own work and technological mastery.

At a Buddhist lecture a few years ago a Buddhist lama was asked if was possible from a Buddhist perspective. The answer was surprisingly yes. Since I am a proponent of panpsychism and believe that consciousness is fundamental and everywhere I would have to agree.

I hope it doesn’t behave like us, which is poorly. Maybe it could help us along our way to be better beings. But how can beings like us make or construct something that is Superior or not dangerous like the atomic bomb was? We always ask ourselves can we? But we never seem to manage the, should we?

QP

https://x.com/skdh/status/1811816539517325504?s=46&t=C7njJFLuEWs5R4kZBCys5A

https://academic.oup.com/nc/article/2024/1/niae013/7644104?login=false