Why it’s impossible for a supercomputer to be conscious according to a neuroscientist

Artificial intelligence (AI) has achieved such a level of sophistication that on occasion it can shake the very foundations of what we understand as conscious thought.

The collective fear is that a conscious AI could lead to the creation of a non-human race of robots with its own language and values and, in the most catastrophic hypothesis, an enemy of humanity.

This fear is depicted in 1968 Stanely Kubrik’s '2001: A Space Odyssey'. In this masterpiece, the HAL 9000 supercomputer deliberately decides to follow a completely different plan from the one programmed, killing part of the crew.

More recently, 'Her' (2013), depicts a man who falls in love with his digital assistant, Samantha, a conscious and sentient AI.

This type of thinking however, comes from the idea that our conscience is a separate entity to our body, that can exist inside a computer.

Photo: Pixabay

In the past, a lot of philosophers, such as French mathematician René Descartes, believed that the mind and body are made of different substances: the body of a physical substance, and the mind of some mysterious, nonphysical material.

Modern brain research, however, suggests that the mind is made of matter and emerges from brain activity. Even so, many neuroscientists still study the brain in isolation, without taking the whole body into consideration.

Photo: Pixabay

The brain contains multiple maps and models of the body, and these maps and models are crucial for how we perceive and use our bodies. It was Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield who first came up with this idea in the 1920s.

An example of this can be seen through amputees, who almost always experience phantom limb sensations: the vivid feeling that the missing limb is still attached to their body. One explanation for this is that the brain’s body map still contains an imprint of the missing limb.

Before the creation of artificial intelligence, intelligence had always been considered closely related to consciousness. But AI has fully demonstrated that intelligence can exist without consciousness.

Photo: Pixabay

An example of artificial intelligence is calculating operations, predictions or even the ability to play a game of chess. We also think of digital assistants such as Siri or Alexa, which are based on deep learning, i.e. the ability to learn autonomously using algorithms, data and previous experiences.

But if the body is crucial for self-consciousness, a mind uploaded to a supercomputer could never gain consciousness because it will be nothing more than a disembodied virtual brain.

However, this theory opens up the question of consciousness in a robot who possesses a body.

Researchers in the U.S. recently  developed a robot that builds its own updatable body model and can adapt its movements when one of its limbs is removed. Is this robot conscious?

Photo: Aideal HWA/Unsplash