ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND CONSCIOUSNESS

Those of you who know me well know that I’m something of a science fiction buff.  While I do enjoy space operas like the Star Wars series I am especially fond of science fiction that explores deep, universal, human themes.

I recently stumbled across a series on Netflix called “Humans”. Humans is a joint production of AMC and the BBC, with the latter being the reason for the high quality of the series, I imagine.

Humans is set in a parallel contemporary reality where AI has advanced to the point that humanoid “robots” called “synths” have replaced humans in the performance of everyday tasks and menial/dangerous jobs.  But the creator of the AI technology takes his invention one step further and instills consciousness in a small group. And this is where the series diverges from similar themes such as “I, Robot” and uses this premise to explore the nature of intelligence, consciousness, and sentience.

One of the synths is arguably the most moral of all of the characters depicted, human and synth.  Another believes that any action is justified if done for the good of her kind. A third decides to confront human society head on, using the courts to demand recognition of non human consciousness. A human AI researcher dissects sentient synths to try to understand how they became self aware. In a scene reminiscent of a Josef Mengele war crime in progress, a synth asks the researcher “is this fear” just before being cut open on an operating table.

The series raises a plethora of difficult questions.

What is intelligence? Is it the ability to manipulate abstract mathematical terms quickly and accurately or is it the ability to combine new and/or old information in new and creative ways to create new knowledge?

Is it fair or appropriate to measure all forms of intelligence based on human norms and standards?

When does an entity change from a mechanical “sex toy” to a victim of sexual assault and trafficking?

What does it mean to be sentient?

What is consciousness anyway?

And the ultimate question, can a non human sentience become a spiritual being?

With machine intelligence advancing at an exponential rate, questions like these become increasingly relevant.  This is where science fiction shines. It forces us to consider the unimaginable while we still have time to think through the implications of emerging technologies.

AI is just one of many moral and ethical dilemmas we will need to confront in the near future. With the announcement of successful primate cloning this week, the cloning of human beings is another.

Are we up to the task?