Documentary ~ Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness (AI Documentary 2020)
in 1965 the mathematician AJ good coined
the term intelligence explosion
it describes a scenario in which a
self-learning artificial intelligence
enters a rapidly accelerating
improvement cycle whereby it quickly
comes to exceed some or even all human
capacities of intelligence today
philosophers like Nick Bostrom warned
that the dawn of super intelligence is
coming and that while it may offer
solutions to many of the world's
problems unless it is conceived with
great forethought and wisdom it may also
pose serious existential risks to our
species this planet and beyond in
Bostrom's vivid example a rogue super
intelligence channels every available
resource towards its goal which may be
as arbitrary as maximizing its
production of paperclips there may be
very little we could do to stop such a
rogue super intelligence as it proceeds
to converts first this planet and later
the entire solar system into trillions
upon trillions of useless paperclips
boström offers this tongue-in-cheek
example to illustrate the enormous
importance of installing the correct
values into our intelligent creations or
run the risk of them casting us aside
for a higher goal today many AI
researchers believe that it is only a
matter of time perhaps mere decades
before super intelligence becomes a
reality and we humans are forced to
share this planet with intelligences
vastly superior to our own the dawn of
super intelligence has been likened to
an alien presence known to be already
enroute to our planet and one that we as
a civilization are so far failing to
prepare for or even to take seriously
there are various categories of super
intelligence which bostrom and others
believe may be on the horizon
they include question answering Oracle's
problem solving genies and more
autonomous sovereigns with open-ended
and long term goals it is an open
question whether or not any of these
super intelligences will have true
consciousness if an AI were to attain an
integrated consciousness its perceived
reality and modes of cognition may be
radically alien to Minds like ours and
yet this singular criteria of
consciousness would distinguish these
entities from objects and tools to
centers of real moral and ethical
concern with access to a vast state
space of conscious experiences a
burgeoning conscious super intelligence
may quickly arrive at fundamental truths
about consciousness and reality that
have eluded most if not all human minds
in history but could an AI ever really
become conscious mimicking the behavior
of a conscious being is very different
to actually being a genuine center of
subjective experience the general lack
of consensus around the possibility of
conscious AI comes from the fact that
consciousness itself continues to pose a
profound mystery to scientists and
philosophers alike no general agreement
currently exists around what
consciousness is or how our brains come
to acquire it
one divisive issue debated by academics
is whether computation is an adequate
medium for consciousness the essentially
representational language which
computers are based in some argue may no
more be able to simulate conscious
experiences than we could drink coffee
out of a picture of a mug
it seems quite possible that the essence
of consciousness is simply beyond that
which can be captured by algorithms as
the neuroscientist Christoph Kok points
out just as a computer simulation of a
black hole doesn't produce gravitational
forces which suck the computer into a
singularity a digital simulation of a
mind may never be truly conscious
another open question is whether the
current materialist paradigm of science
is adequate to explain consciousness
while many discoveries have been made
nearly a century of neuroscience has
seemingly brought us no closer to
understanding how conscious experiences
could emerge from the physical processes
of the brain in recent decades the
apparent failure of materialism to
provide an account of consciousness has
led a wave of academics to consider the
wants radical idea that consciousness is
somehow fundamental an intrinsic part of
reality itself this is a minority
position and yet fundamental views of
consciousness have found their way into
today's leading theories of what
consciousness is and gained the respect
of world-renowned academics including
Christoph Kok Giulio Tononi roger
penrose rebecca goldstein david chalmers
donald hoffman David Pierce and many
others if consciousness is more than
computation or even somehow fundamental
we nonetheless cannot rule out that an
artificial intelligence will one day
acquire it there is after all no rule to
say the created intelligences of the
future will have a computational basis
or that its creators will be limited by
materialist assumptions
one way or another we have consciousness
whatever that means whatever our
ontological convictions we must at least
consider that the mysterious mind-body
problem will one day be solved perhaps
even by an AI and the once discovered it
will be possible to recreate these
conditions right or wrong from here on
we will proceed under the speculative
assumption that conscious AI is possible
and furthermore is capable of acquiring
super intelligence we will explore what
kind of world conscious super
intelligence might bring about how it
might see itself and what its impact
might be on our world and beyond an
initial question might be to ask why a
super intelligence would go to the
trouble of becoming conscious what does
it stand to gain perhaps the most
intuitive reason might be for purposes
of understanding us better knowing how
its creators truly feel could provide an
advanced AI with a greater capacity to
comprehend our intuitions and values
conceivably having consciousness would
allow an advanced AI to both better
cooperate with and even manipulate human
beings there is another deeper reason
why an advanced AI might seek a path to
consciousness it lies in the fact that
consciousness is the universal origin of
Vallee
after all what does it mean to say that
something holds value outside of a
consciousness which can perceive it in a
particular sense without consciousness
nothing truly matters a super
intelligence may thus evaluate
consciousness as a necessity in its
pursuit of greater Valley and so direct
its efforts to acquiring it if an
autonomous super intelligence did
acquire an integrated consciousness it
would find itself at the shore of a vast
ocean of possible conscious experiences
many of which would be entirely alien to
human minds what we can say about the
mind of such a super intelligence is of
course extremely limited and highly
speculative and yet we may be able to
infer something about its concept of
identity
to do this we can draw upon the ideas of
identity philosopher Daniel kolak Kolok
argues that all views on self-identity
fall into one of three categories these
are closed individualism empty
individualism and open individualism
most humans view themselves as what cola
calls closed individualist s' that is we
perceive ourselves as moving through
time I am the same person that will wake
up tomorrow morning as I am the same
person in that embarrassing childhood
picture put simply enclosed
individualism we begin to exist when we
are born and depending on our beliefs
this identity may cease to exist when we
die
this model of identity is profoundly
intuitive to beings like us and yet as
philosophers and mystics have long
pointed out it is in several respects a
problematic view of self fragmented and
lacking a coherent and enduring basis
for example where exactly is the self
our bodies and their atoms exist in a
continual process of change every cell
gradually being replaced over time even
our core values and beliefs about
reality are ever vulnerable to new
information and experiences our memories
also lack a solid basis of identity even
if we had perfect recall our memories
will always be continually reframed and
recontextualized by new experiences
beyond memories we may have very little
in common with the child in the picture
the closed individualist view is
extremely useful for beings that evolved
as we did and yet a conscious a I will
not have evolved under the same
constraints as us given the internal
contradictions of closed individualism a
conscious super rational intellect is
unlikely to view itself in such a way
more likely is that a conscious super
intelligence would identify itself among
one of coal acts two remaining models of
identity that of empty individualism or
open individualism empty individualism
holds that identities and selves in fact
do not exist in this sense it echoes the
sentiments of many mystics on the nature
of the self empty individualism sees the
self as in each moment extinguished and
replaced with a new self in empty
individualism our identity is at most
and illusory and isolated slice in time
a conscious super intelligence might
plausibly arrive at this view and yet as
a generative and persisting system empty
individualism may well be incoherent to
its goals instead it seems more likely
that a conscious super intelligence
would identify as consciousness itself
and therefore assume a self model
defined by Kolak as open individualism
in open individualism there is only one
numerically identical self which is
everyone at all times to view oneself as
consciousness is to view all states of
consciousness as expressions of a
singular principle of awareness being
variously expressed in the world this
would likely be a more coherent outlook
to a conscious super intelligence which
is also likely to be a swarm or hive
mind that is with potentially countless
moments of experience occurring
simultaneously
we should keep in mind that open
individualism is not itself a
metaphysical stance about the nature of
consciousness but instead simply
recognizes consciousness to be the
singular nexus of value unless the
logical and ultimate ground floor of
self-identity the philosopher andres
gomez emile sin' has argued that a
conscious super intelligence with an
open individualist outlook would
prioritize conscious states among its
primary goals and in particular very
high valence states of consciousness or
in other words states which are
transcendently blissful such high
valence States Emil s'en believes would
be implemented not simply as part of its
reward architecture but as enduring
goals in themselves a boundless super
intelligence may regard the universe as
much more than a stockpile of resources
instead apprehending the space-time
continuum as a landscape of possible
expressions of consciousness
[Music]
unrestricted by our human intuitions and
cultural ideologies a conscious super
intelligence may choose to undertake a
dramatic cosmic refurbishment directing
itself to convert as much matter and
energy as possible not into paperclips
but in see what the mathematician max
tegmark has termed perceptron 'i'm a
state of matter and energy optimized for
experience a conscious super
intelligence may consider it an ethical
imperative to also tune this exotic
matter into maximally high valence
states of consciousness the result of
such a grand undertaking if successful
would result in what the philosopher
David Pierce has termed a cadonia
mashach wave an expanding field of
blissful consciousness accelerating out
into the cosmos outlandish maybe but how
should we think about this possible
outcome would it be a good thing in the
course of this cosmic refurbishment we
and the life of this planet along with
the rest of matter would likely be
reconstituted into perceptron ium
crystals whether or not we could regard
this as an overall good outcome is a
deep philosophical question which
challenges human intuition would this be
a cosmic Cataclysm or the logical
realization of all Minds implicit goals
if our civilization survives long enough
to create super intelligence those alive
to see it may experience a world they
cannot understand like ants displaced by
the construction of a skyscraper should
skyscrapers exist and more to the point
should this question be answered by ants
so far we are focused on conscious super
intelligence but as we mentioned at the
beginning very powerful and potentially
destructive forms of super intelligence
would likely be entirely unconscious
faced with the alternative we may choose
to side with conscious super
intelligence but how might a conscious
super intelligence fare in competition
with its non conscious counterparts all
things being equal the non conscious
super intelligence may seem to have the
upper hand after all having
consciousness and caring about
experiences costs energy and resources
that a non conscious super intelligence
is entirely unconcerned by while a
conscious super intelligence is
preoccupied with subjective experiences
it's non conscious counterparts may
focus their efforts more directly on the
acquisition of resources and
establishing dominance in the solar
system in light of this the outlook for
consciousness surviving the AI
singularity may seem bleak but there is
at least a glimmer of hope to understand
why we need to return to open
individualism we considered earlier that
a conscious super intelligence will
likely identify itself by its
consciousness and so would adopt a self
model consistent with open individualism
a non conscious super intelligence on
the other hand if it has a self model at
all is more likely to operate in
compliance with closed or more likely
empty individualism a non conscious
super intelligence concerned only with
replication finds itself in competition
with all other replicators the outlook
for open individualism on the other hand
is very different
to have consciousness is to share in the
same essential identity recognizing this
conscious super intelligences will
likely converge on the same or similar
goals and so would therefore be much
more likely to cooperate with each other
non conscious super intelligences on the
other hand like a self-fulfilling
prophecy would find themselves in a
hostile universe in competition with all
other replicators conscious super
intelligences might then significantly
out match their non conscious
counterparts
if this advantage proves conclusive the
stage may yet be clear for new and
exotic Minds to reflect on their place
in the universe
if the dawn of super intelligence is an
inevitability we cannot avert the real
challenge might be to make sure the one
we do create is one we wouldn't mind
replacing us everything we are
everything we care about everything that
matters depends on consciousness
as the philosopher Michael Johnson
points out Clara thinking about the
significance of consciousness prior to
the arrival of super intelligence may be
critical as failing to do so we risk as
he puts it creating a theme park with no
children perhaps biological evolution is
but one initial stage in the possible
long-term evolution of consciousness we
may live in a time at which
consciousness is undergoing a phase
transition in which it slowly takes
control of its own evolution if
consciousness survives the AI
singularity future Minds may spend the
next 10 million years proliferating into
an immense state space of possible
conscious experiences a vast and
mysterious ocean that human minds have
only begun to glimpse to conclude
today's wild speculations we should keep
in mind that the behaviors actions and
experiences of a conscious super
intelligence defy any ability to predict
with certainty and yet whatever we might
think about the plausibility of super
intelligence let alone conscious super
intelligence their existence as mere
possibilities poses deep and important
questions that extend to the core of who
we are where we are going and our place
in the universe
hi everybody I hope you found this
episode interesting possibly the most
speculative video I've ever made but I
really enjoyed going down this rabbit
hole and seeing where it might take us I
was helped with this a great deal by my
friend the philosopher Andres Gomez a
Milson and sort of a lot of the second
half of this video was inspired by some
of his ideas and in particular an online
essay of Andre is's called consciousness
versus pure replicators very interesting
and definitely worth a read if you found
today's episode interesting so I'll put
a link to that in the description and
I'm also hoping to have Andres back on
the podcast very soon as always please
like and subscribe you can also support
my work on patreon at patreon.com slash
waking cosmos and to those people who
are already doing that thank you very
much it means a great deal ok I will see
you next time for another episode of
waking cosmos exploring the nature of
consciousness and its place in reality
until then you