WEBVTT - Machine Consciousness 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:13.840 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:16.880 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:18.760 How Stuff Works in My Heart Radio, and I love 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:22.400 all things tech. And there's a topic I have touched 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:26.239 on on several occasions in past episodes, but I really 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:29.840 wanted to dig down today into this topic because it's 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:33.400 one of those that's fascinating and is an underpinning for 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:37.480 tons of speculative fiction and horror stories. And since we're 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.320 now in October, I think here this would be kind 0:00:40.360 --> 0:00:44.720 of thematically linked to Halloween text style. It turns out 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:48.400 that's pretty hard to do. Halloween technology stories have already 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:52.519 covered stuff like haunted house technology. So today we're going 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:56.000 to talk about consciousness and whether or not it might 0:00:56.040 --> 0:01:00.680 be possible that machines could one day achieve consciousness. Now, 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:04.520 I could start this off by talking about the Turing test, 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.520 which many people have used as the launch point for 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:11.880 a machine intelligence and machine consciousness debates. The way we 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:15.120 understand that test today, which by the way, is slightly 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:19.200 different from the test that Alan Turing first proposed, is 0:01:19.200 --> 0:01:23.080 that you have a human interviewer who through a computer interface, 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:27.080 asks questions of a subject, and the subject might be 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:30.800 another human, or it might be a computer program posing 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:34.559 as a human, and the the interviewer just sees text 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:37.240 on a screen. So if the interviewer is unable to 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:40.880 pass a certain threshold of being able to tell the difference, 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:43.120 to be able to determine whether it was a machine 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:46.720 or a person, then the program or machine that's being 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:50.200 tested is said to have passed the Turing test. It 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:54.360 doesn't mean the program or machine is conscious or even intelligent, 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:59.200 but rather says that to outward appearances, it seems to 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:03.680 be intel, religent, and conscious. See, we humans can't be 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:08.360 absolutely sure that other humans are conscious and intelligent. We 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:12.560 assume that they are because each of us knows of 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:16.280 our own consciousness and our own intelligence. We have a 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:22.000 personal experience with that direct personal experience, and other people 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:26.760 seem to display behaviors that indicate they too possess those traits, 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:30.840 and they too have a personal experience. But we cannot 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:34.320 be those other people, and so we have to grant 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:38.000 them the consideration that they too are conscious and intelligent. 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:42.040 And I agree that is very big of us. This 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:46.240 is actually called the problem of other minds in the 0:02:46.280 --> 0:02:49.360 field of philosophy, and the problem is this, it is 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:53.000 impossible for any one of us to step outside of 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:58.080 ourselves and into any other person's consciousness. We cannot feel 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:02.480 what other people are feeling or experience their thoughts firsthand. 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:05.799 We are aware of our own abilities, but we are 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:10.839 only aware of the appearance that other people share those abilities. 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.919 So assuming that other people also experience consciousness rather than 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:18.760 imitating it, really, really, well, that's a step we all 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:23.440 have to take. Turings point is that if we do 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:27.400 grant that consideration to other people, why would we not 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:31.120 do it to machines as well? I mean, the machine 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.440 appears to possess the same qualities as a human. This 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:38.440 is a hypothetical machine, so we cannot experience what that 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:41.200 machine is going through, just as we can't experience what 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:45.440 another person is going through, at least not the intrinsic 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:49.680 personal level. So why would we not grant the machine 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.600 the same consideration that we would grant to people. And 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:56.960 Touring was being a little cheeky, But while I just 0:03:57.000 --> 0:03:59.800 gave kind of a super fast, high level description of 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:03.120 the Herring test, that's not actually where I want to start. 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:07.640 I want to begin with the concept of consciousness itself. Now, 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:10.160 the reason I want to do this isn't just to 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:13.920 make a longer podcast. It's because I think one of 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:18.640 the most fundamental problems with the discussion about AI intelligence, 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:22.480 self awareness, and consciousness is that there tends to be 0:04:22.560 --> 0:04:26.600 a pretty large disconnect between the biologists and the doctors 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:30.960 who specialize in neuroscience, particularly cognitive neuroscience, and does have 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:35.120 some understanding about the nature of consciousness and people. And 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.080 then you have computer scientists who have a deep understanding 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:41.800 of how computers process information. And while we frequently will 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:46.560 compare brains to computers, that comparison is not one to one. 0:04:46.720 --> 0:04:50.360 It is largely a comparison of convenience, and in some 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.400 cases you could argue it's not terribly useful, it might 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:57.000 actually be counterproductive. And so I think at least some 0:04:57.160 --> 0:05:00.880 of the speculation about machine consciousness is based on a 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:05.160 lack of understanding of how complicated and mysterious this topic 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:08.599 is in the first place, and this ends up being 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:14.520 really tricky. Consciousness isn't an easily defined quality or quantity. 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:17.320 Some people like to say, we don't so much define 0:05:17.360 --> 0:05:21.040 consciousness by what it is but rather what it isn't 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:23.240 and this will also will will kind of bring us 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:27.000 into the realm of philosophy. Now, I'm gonna be honest 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:30.400 with you, guys, the realm of philosophy is not one 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:34.920 I'm terribly comfortable in. I'm pretty pragmatic, and philosophy deals 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:38.680 with a lot of stuff that is, at least for now, unknowable. 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:43.080 Philosophy sometimes asks questions that we do not and cannot 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:46.640 have the answer to, and in many cases we may 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:50.040 never be able to answer those questions. And the pragmatist 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.839 emmy says, well, why bother asking the question if you 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.440 can never get the answer. Let's just focus on the 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:00.760 stuff we actually can answer. Now, I realize this is 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:04.839 a limitation on my part. I'm owning that I'm not 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:08.320 out to upset the philosophical apple cart. I'm just of 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:12.360 a different philosophical bent. And I realized that just because 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:16.640 we can't answer some questions right now, that doesn't necessarily 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:20.080 mean they will all go unanswered for all time. We 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:23.080 might glean a way of answering at least some of them, 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:27.080 though I suspect a few will be forever unanswered. If 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:31.200 we go with the basic Dictionary definition of consciousness. It's 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:35.240 quote the state of being awake and aware of one's 0:06:35.320 --> 0:06:39.720 surroundings end quote. But what this doesn't tell us is 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:43.520 what's going on that lets us do that. It also 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:47.719 doesn't talk about being aware of oneself, which we largely 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:51.560 consider consciousness to be part of. Is not just aware 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:55.640 of your surroundings, but aware that you exist within those surroundings, 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:59.720 your relationship to your surroundings, and things that are going 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:03.320 on within you, yourself, your feelings, and your thoughts. The 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:05.280 fact that you can process all of this, you can 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:09.840 reflect upon yourself. We tend to group that into consciousness 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:13.440 as well. So how is it that we can feel 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:16.600 things and be aware of those feelings? How is it 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:21.000 that we can have intentions and be aware of our intentions. 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.760 We are more complex than beings that simply react to 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:29.040 sensory input. We are more than beings that respond to 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:33.280 stuff like hunger, fear, or the desire to procreate. We 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:38.240 have motivations, sometimes really complex motivations, and we can reflect 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:40.880 on those, We can examine them, we can question them, 0:07:40.920 --> 0:07:45.720 we can even change them. So how do we do this? Now? 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:48.120 We know this is special because some of the things 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:52.000 we can do are shared among a very few species 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:56.040 on Earth. For example, we humans can recognize our own 0:07:56.080 --> 0:08:00.400 reflections in a mirror, starting it around age two or so. 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:03.760 We can see the mirror image and we recognize the 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:08.280 mirriage images of us. Now, there are only eight species 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:12.040 that can do this that we know about anyway. Those 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:17.800 species are the great apes. So you've got humans, gorillas orangutans, binobos, 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:22.760 and chimpanzees, the magpie, the dolphin, and that's it. Oh, 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:27.120 and the magpies are birds, right, That's that's all of them. 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:30.040 Recognizing one's own form and a mirror shows a sense 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:35.360 of self awareness, literally, of awareness of one's self. Now, 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:38.319 there are a lot of great resources online and offline 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:42.120 that go into the theme of consciousness. Heck, there are 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:47.040 numerous college level courses and graduate level courses dedicated to 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:49.520 this topic. So I'm not going to be able to 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:53.400 go into all the different hypotheses, arguments, counter arguments, et 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:58.160 cetera in this episode, but I can cover some basics. Also, 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:02.880 highly recommend you check out v Sauces video on YouTube 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:08.000 that's titled what is Consciousness? Because it's really good. And no, 0:09:08.160 --> 0:09:10.520 I don't know, Michael, I have no connection to him. 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:13.760 I've never met him. This is just an honest recommendation 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:16.840 from me, and I have no connection whatsoever to that 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:20.000 video series. The video includes a link to what v 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.440 Sauce dubs a lean back, which is a playlist of 0:09:23.800 --> 0:09:27.720 related videos on the subject at hand, in this case, consciousness. 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.160 Those are also really fascinating. But I do want to 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:33.040 point out that, at least at the time of this recording, 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:35.800 a couple of the videos in that playlist have since 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:38.920 been delisted from YouTube for whatever reason. So there are 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.480 a couple of blank spots in there. But what those 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:46.200 videos show, and what countless papers and courses and presentations 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:50.400 also show, is that the brain is so incredibly complex 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:54.240 and nuanced that we don't know what we don't know. 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:57.360 We do know that there are some pretty funky things 0:09:57.440 --> 0:09:59.640 going up in the gray matter up in our noggins, 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.920 and we also know that many of the explanations given 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:08.559 to describe consciousness rely upon some assumptions that we don't 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:13.240 have any substantial evidence for. You can't really assert something 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:16.440 to be true if it's based on a premise that 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:19.680 you also don't know to be true. That's not how 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.640 good science works. This is also why I reject the 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:27.000 arguments around stuff like ghost hunting equipment. The use of 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:31.079 that equipment is predicated on the argument the ghosts exist 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:34.560 and they have certain influences on their environment. But we 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:37.800 haven't proven that ghosts exist in the first place, let 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:40.840 alone that they can affect the environment. So selling a 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:45.640 meter that supposedly detects a ghostly presence from electromagnetic fluctuations 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:48.920 makes no logical sense. For us to know that to 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:52.160 be true, we would already have to have established that 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:55.920 one ghosts are real and two that they have these 0:10:55.960 --> 0:11:00.560 electromagnetic fluctuation effects, and we haven't done that. It's like 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:04.000 working science in reverse. That's not how it works. Anyway. 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:07.000 There are a lot of arguments about consciousness that suggests 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:11.520 perhaps there's some ineffable force that informs it. You can 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:14.680 call it the spirit or the soul or whatever. So 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:17.960 that argument suggests that this thing we've never proven to 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:22.960 have existed is what gives consciousness its own and that's 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:26.080 a problem. We can't really state that. I mean, you 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:28.880 can't say the reason this thing exists is that this 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:32.960 other thing that we've never proven to exist makes it exist. Well, 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.040 that you've just made it harder to even prove anything, 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:40.200 and we have evidence that also shows that that whole 0:11:40.240 --> 0:11:44.000 idea doesn't hold water. The evidence comes in the form 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:47.760 of brain disorders, brain diseases, and brain damage. We have 0:11:47.840 --> 0:11:51.920 seen that disease and damage to the brain affects consciousness, 0:11:52.120 --> 0:11:57.360 which suggests that consciousness manifests from the actual form and 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:02.040 function of our brains, not from any mysterious force. Our 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:06.080 ability to perceive, to process information, to have an understanding 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:09.360 of the self, to have an accurate reflection of what's 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:13.640 going on around us within our own conceptual reality, all 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:18.000 of that appears to be predicated primarily upon the brain. Now, 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:20.600 originally I was planning to give a rundown on some 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:24.320 of the prevailing theories about consciousness. In other words, I 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:27.360 want to summarize the various schools of thought about how 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:33.040 consciousness actually arises. But as I dove down into the research, 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:37.000 it became apparent really quickly that such a discussion would 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:41.679 require so much groundwork and more importantly, a much deeper 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:46.040 understanding on my part than would be practical for this podcast. 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.360 So instead of talking about the higher order theory of 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:54.920 consciousness versus the general workspace theory versus integrated information theory. 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:58.240 I'll take a step back, and I'll say there's a 0:12:58.240 --> 0:13:01.360 lot of ongoing debate about the subject, and no one 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:05.920 has conclusively proven that any particular theory or argument is 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:10.080 most likely true. Each theory has its strengths and its weaknesses. 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:13.880 And complicating matters further is that we haven't refined our 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:19.600 language around the concepts enough to differentiate various ideas. That 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:23.400 means you can't talk about an organism being conscious of 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:28.160 something and that degree of consciousness is somehow inherently specific, 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:31.640 it's not. That's the issue. So, for example, I could 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:35.200 say a rat is conscious of a rat terrier, type 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:38.320 of dog that hunts down rats, and so as a 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:41.600 result of this consciousness of the rat terrier, the rat 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.240 attempts to remain hidden so as not to be killed. 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.600 But does that mean the rat merely perceives the rat 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:49.959 terrier and thus is trying to stay out of its way, 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:53.840 And that's as far as the consciousness goes, or doesn't 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:56.760 mean that the rat actually has a deeper, more meaningful 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:01.040 awareness of the rat terrier. The language isn't much help here, 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:05.640 and moreover, there's debate about what degrees of consciousness there 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:10.360 even are. Also While I've been harping on consciousness, that's 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:14.000 not the only concept we have to consider. Another is intelligence, 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:18.640 which is distinct from consciousness, and there are some similarities. 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:24.000 Like consciousness, intelligence is predicated upon brain functions. Again, a 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:28.240 long history of investigating brain disorders and brain damage indicates this, 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.880 as it can affect not just consciousness but also intelligence. 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:36.280 So what is intelligence? Well, get ready for this, But 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:41.480 like consciousness, there's no single agreed upon definition or theory 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.960 of intelligence. In general, we use the word intelligence to 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:49.240 describe the ability to think, to learn, to absorb knowledge, 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:53.040 and to make use of it to develop skills. Intelligence 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:56.200 is what allowed humans to learn how to make basic tools, 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:58.640 to gain an understanding of how to cultivate plants and 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:03.320 develop agriculture, to develop architecture, to understand mathematic principles, and 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:07.200 all sorts of stuff. So in humans, we tend to 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:10.640 lump consciousness and intelligence together. We tend to think in 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:14.480 terms of being intelligent and being self aware, but the 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:17.800 two need not necessarily go hand in hand. There are 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:20.320 many people who believe that it could be possible to 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:25.760 construct an artificial intelligence or an artificial consciousness independently of 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:28.960 one another. When we come back. I'll explain more, but 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:40.400 first let's take a quick break. So, in a very 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:44.520 general sense, the group of hypotheses that fall into the 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:50.160 integrated information theory umbrella state that consciousness emerges through linking 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:55.080 elements in our brains. These would be neurons processing large 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:58.960 amounts of information, and that it's the scale of this 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:03.400 endeavor that then leads to consciousness. In other words, if 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:07.320 you have enough processors working on enough information and they're 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:10.680 all interconnected with each other and it's very complicated, bang, 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:16.160 you get consciousness. Now, it is clear our brains process 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:19.240 a lot of information. If you do a search in 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:24.120 textbooks or online, you'll frequently encounter the stat their brains 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:27.920 have around one hundred billion neurons in them and ten 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:32.880 times as many glial cells. Neurons are like the processors 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:35.320 in a computer system, and glial cells would be the 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:39.920 support systems and insulators or those processors. Anyway, those numbers 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:43.680 have since come under some dispute. As an associate professor 0:16:43.720 --> 0:16:49.760 at Vanderbilt University named Susanna Herculano Husel, she explained that 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:54.520 the old way of estimating how many neurons the brain 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:57.920 had appeared to be based on taking slices of the brain, 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:00.880 estimating the number of neurons in that slice, and then 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:04.200 kind of extrapolating that number to apply across the brain 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:07.800 in general. But that ignores stuff like the density of 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:10.440 cells and the distribution of the cells across the brain. 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:13.919 So what she did, and this also falls into the 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:18.480 category of Halloween horror stories, she took a brain and 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:22.160 she freaking dissolved it. She could then get account of 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:27.960 the neuron nuclei that was in the soupy mix. By 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:32.000 her accounting, the brain has closer to eighty six billion 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:36.040 neurons and just as many glial cells. Still a lot 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:38.280 of cells, mind you, But you gotta admit it's a 0:17:38.320 --> 0:17:42.520 bit of a blow to lose fourteen billion neurons overnight. Still, 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:46.920 we're talking about billions of neurons that interconnect through an 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:51.359 incredibly complex system in our brains, with different regions of 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.879 the brain handling different things. And so, yeah, we're processing 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:57.840 a lot of information all the time, and we do 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:01.439 happen to be conscious. So could it be possible that 0:18:02.040 --> 0:18:05.080 with a sufficiently powerful computer system, perhaps made up of 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:10.200 hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of individual computers, 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:13.800 each with hundreds of processors that you could end up 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:17.640 with an emergent consciousness, or, as some people have proposed, 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:21.639 could the Internet itself become conscious due to the fact 0:18:21.680 --> 0:18:25.480 that it is an enormous system of interconnected nodes that's 0:18:25.520 --> 0:18:31.879 pushing around incredible amounts of information. Well, maybe maybe it's possible. 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:36.200 But here's the kicker. This theory doesn't actually explain the 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:41.480 mechanism by which the consciousness emerges. See, it's one thing 0:18:41.560 --> 0:18:45.960 to process information, it's another thing to be aware of 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:49.359 that experience. So when I perceive a color, I'm not 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:54.560 just perceiving a color. I'm aware that I'm experiencing that color. 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:56.960 Or to put it in another way, I can relate 0:18:57.080 --> 0:18:59.760 something to how it makes me feel, or some other 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:04.560 subjective experience that's personal to me. So a machine might 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:08.760 objectively be able to return data about stuff like what 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:11.600 is a color of a piece of paper? It analyzes 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:13.879 the light that's being reflected off that piece of paper, 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:16.720 it compares that light to a spectrum of colors. But 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:19.160 that's still not the same thing as having the subjective 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:23.120 experience of perceiving the color. And there may well be 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:26.840 some connection between the complexity of the interconnected neurons in 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:29.840 our brains and the amount of information that we're processing 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:34.720 and our sense of consciousness. But the theory doesn't actually 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:39.040 explain what that connection is. It's more like saying, hey, 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:43.720 maybe this thing we have, this consciousness experience, is also 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:47.800 linked to this other thing, without actually making the link 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:51.240 between the two. It appears to be correlative but not 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:56.160 necessarily causal to relate that to our personal experience. Imagine 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:59.960 that you've just poofed into existence. You have no prior 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.560 knowledge of the world, or the physics in that world, 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:07.160 or basic stuff like that, so you're drawing conclusions about 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:11.240 the world around you based solely on your observations as 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:14.119 you wander around and do stuff. And at one point 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:18.040 you see an interesting looking rock on the path, so 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:20.119 you bend over and you pick up the rock, and 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:23.360 when you do, it starts to rain, and you think, well, 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:26.120 maybe I caused it to rain because I picked up 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:29.120 this rock. And maybe it happens a few times where 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:31.160 you pick up a rock and it starts to rain, 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.480 which seems to support your thesis. But does that mean 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:38.880 you're actually causing the effects that you are observing. If so, 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:43.080 what is it about picking up the rock that's making 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:46.879 it rain. Now, even in this absurd case that I'm making, 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:50.199 you could argue that if there's never an instance in 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:53.280 which picking up the rock wasn't immediately followed by rain, 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:56.360 there's a lot of evidence to suggest the two are linked, 0:20:56.680 --> 0:20:59.960 but you still can't explain why they are linked. Wine 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:03.479 is one caused the other? And that's a problem because 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:07.680 without that piece, you're never really totally sure that you're 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:10.800 on the right track. That's kind of where we are 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:14.000 with consciousness. We've got a lot of ideas about what 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:17.320 makes it happen, but those ideas are mostly missing key 0:21:17.400 --> 0:21:22.399 pieces that explain why it's happening. Now, it's possible that 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:26.159 we cannot reduce consciousness any further than we already have, 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:29.400 and maybe that means we never really get a handle 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:32.200 on what makes it happen. It's also possible that we 0:21:32.240 --> 0:21:36.480 could facilitate the emergence of consciousness and machines without knowing 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:40.680 how we did it. Essentially, that would be like stumbling 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:44.280 upon the phenomenon by luck. We just happened to create 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:47.960 the conditions necessary to allow some form of artificial consciousness 0:21:47.960 --> 0:21:51.280 to emerge. Now, I think this might be possible, but 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:54.399 it strikes me as a long shot. I think of 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:57.399 it like being locked in a dark warehouse filled with 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:01.200 every mechanical part you can imagine, and you start trying 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:04.040 to put things together in complete darkness, and then the 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:06.360 lights come on and you see that you have created 0:22:06.359 --> 0:22:10.240 a perfect replica of an F fifteen fighter jet. Is 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:14.760 that possible? Well, I mean, yeah, I guess, but it 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:19.679 seems overwhelmingly unlikely. But again, this is based off ignorance. 0:22:19.920 --> 0:22:22.160 It's based off the fact that it hasn't happened yet, 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:26.679 so I could be totally wrong here. Now, on the 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:31.200 flip side of that, programmers, engineers, and scientists have created 0:22:31.240 --> 0:22:35.040 computer systems that can process information and intricate ways to 0:22:35.080 --> 0:22:37.960 come up with solutions to problems that seem, at least 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:41.399 at first glance, to be similar to how we humans think. 0:22:41.840 --> 0:22:45.320 We even have names for systems that reflect biological systems, 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:49.119 like artificial neural networks. Now the name might make it 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:53.880 sound like it's a robot brain, but it's not quite that. Instead, 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:56.720 it's a model for computing in which components in the 0:22:56.760 --> 0:23:01.200 system act kind of like neurons. They're interconnected and each 0:23:01.240 --> 0:23:05.199 one does a specific process. The nodes in the computer 0:23:05.280 --> 0:23:09.040 system connect to other nodes. So you feed the system 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:12.240 input whatever it is you want to process, and then 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:16.199 the nodes that accept that input performs some form of 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:21.200 operation on it and then send that resulting data the 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:26.000 the answer after they've processed this information onto other nodes 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:29.719 in the network. It's a nonlinear approach to computing, and 0:23:29.760 --> 0:23:33.480 by adjusting the processes each node performs, this is also 0:23:33.560 --> 0:23:37.080 like known as adjusting the weight of the nodes, you 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:40.600 can tweak the outcomes. Now, this is incredibly useful. If 0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:44.280 you already know the outcome you want, you can tweak 0:23:44.320 --> 0:23:47.359 the system so that it learns or is trained to 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:52.200 recognize something specific. For example, you could train a computer 0:23:52.280 --> 0:23:55.720 system to recognize faces, so you would feed it images. 0:23:55.920 --> 0:23:58.240 Some of the images would have faces in them, some 0:23:58.320 --> 0:24:01.399 would not have faces in them. I might have something 0:24:01.440 --> 0:24:03.280 that could be a face, but it's hard to tell. 0:24:03.359 --> 0:24:06.679 Maybe it's a shape in a picture that looks kind 0:24:06.720 --> 0:24:09.840 of like a face, but it's not actually someone's face. Anyway, 0:24:09.880 --> 0:24:12.800 you train the computer model to try and separate the 0:24:12.840 --> 0:24:16.480 faces from the non faces, and it might take many 0:24:16.560 --> 0:24:20.040 iterations to get the model trained up using your starting data. 0:24:20.080 --> 0:24:23.399 Your training data. Now, once you do have your computer 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:25.720 model trained up. You've tweaked all the nodes so that 0:24:26.240 --> 0:24:30.080 it is reliably producing results that say, yes, this is 0:24:30.119 --> 0:24:33.159 a face or no, this isn't. You can now feed 0:24:33.480 --> 0:24:36.880 that same computer model brand new images that it has 0:24:37.000 --> 0:24:40.359 never seen before, and it can perform the same functions. 0:24:40.680 --> 0:24:44.400 You have taught the computer model how to do something. 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:48.760 But this isn't like spontaneous intelligence, and it's not connected 0:24:48.800 --> 0:24:52.760 to consciousness. You couldn't really call it thinking so much 0:24:52.760 --> 0:24:57.760 as just being trained to recognize specific patterns. Pretty well. Now, 0:24:57.800 --> 0:25:00.639 that's just one example of putting an art official neural 0:25:00.680 --> 0:25:03.919 network to use. There are lots of others, and there 0:25:03.920 --> 0:25:07.960 are also systems like IBM S Watson, which also appears 0:25:08.119 --> 0:25:11.879 at you know, casual glance to think. This was helped 0:25:11.880 --> 0:25:14.840 in no small part by the very public display of 0:25:14.880 --> 0:25:18.960 Watson competing on special episodes of Jeopardy, and which went 0:25:19.040 --> 0:25:22.800 up against human opponents who were former Jeopardy champions themselves. 0:25:23.080 --> 0:25:27.840 Watson famously couldn't call upon the Internet to search for answers. 0:25:28.200 --> 0:25:31.560 All the data the computer could access was self contained 0:25:31.640 --> 0:25:36.240 in its undeniably voluminous storage, and the computer had to 0:25:36.280 --> 0:25:39.720