Will AI Help Us Solve The Hard Problem of Consciousness?

The most important question humanity can ask itself

The question about the emergence of consciousness is perhaps the most important question humanity should attempt to answer.

Consciousness and its contents are at the root of everything. Consciousness is what is responsible for all of the greatest artifacts of culture that humanity has created: art, music, science, philosophy, technology.

Every child, adolescent, and adult ought to ask themselves: what is consciousness? Why does it exist? What is it like to be human? Why is it that a complex organization of unconscious matter and particles in certain corners of the universe gives rise to consciousness? As Annaka Harris puts it in her book “Conscious”, what causes the lights to “switch on” for a certain combination of particles, but not for others?

The Infamous Nagel Thought Experiment

Why is a human being considered to be conscious, whereas a rock is unequivocally unconscious?

Arguably the best thought experiment conducted on the nature of consciousness was proposed by the philosopher Thomas Nagel, who encourages readers to contemplate over whether or not it is something to be like a bat. Nagel’s proposition may…