Cogito, ergo sum, Rene Descartes.
Translation: I think, therefore I am.
What makes us, us?
How do we know we still exist when we close our eyes and lie in silence?
To date, science doesnt have an answer to those questions.
In fact, it doesnt even have a unified theory.
And thats because we cant simulate consciousness.
All we can do is make a run at reverse-engineer it by studying living beings.
But first we need to take the solution seriously.
Theres been a rash of recentarticleswritten by experts claiming definitively that a machine willneverhave consciousness.
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But so too are the ideas of warp drives, teleportation, and time travel.
Citing the difficulty of a problem isnt evidence that its unsolvable.
Somehow, consciousness as we understand it manifested in the universe once.
Scientists tend to agree that consciousness is thefeeling of being alive.
We generally assume non-living things are not conscious or aware of their existence.
But we dont know.
The reason we dontknowthat grass and cloudsarentconscious is that we cant measure consciousness.
But how do you detect and measure the feeling of being alive?
We know that consciousness cant depend on the kind of feeling that comes from our senses.
We can easily demonstrate that none of the five senses are necessary for the mind to emerge.
In essence, consciousness isnt its ownthinganymore than an inch or a hour are tangible constructs.
If there were nothing around to observe the universe, it might not exist.
An unconscious entity, by definition,cannot observe.
kind of statement, but its rooted in quantum theory.
At the core of quantum mechanics lies an idea calledsuperposition.
Think about it like thetifofan displays you often see in live coverage of sporting events.
Quantum mechanics tells us that quantum particles act differently when theyre observed.
By attempting toreplicate brain function in machines, AI researchers and neuroscientists are hunting down the trail of consciousness.
Our only lead right now is the organic brain.
Under current research paradigms, simulating a brain is about as close to impossible as a task can get.
Binary computers, to date, cant approximate thought.
Quantum systems, however, have the potential to simulate naturally occurring processes that classical ones cannot.
For example, theoretically, both thehuman brainanda quantum computercan time-travel to solve problems, classical computers cannot.
Especially when you considerhow littlewe currently know.
