AI and Consciousness: Why Consciousness Matters – and Why AI May Never Have It
Introduction
In a world rapidly shaped by artificial intelligence (AI), it is tempting to believe that machines might one day ‘wake up’ – that they could become not just smart, but conscious. They may drive cars, write poetry, and talk to us like a friend. But beneath this growing power lies a profound truth: intelligence is not the same as consciousness.
A machine can act like it understands, but that does not mean it feels. It may appear to care, but that does not mean it knows what it is to be human. This is not a technical problem to be solved with faster chips or better algorithms. It’s a deeper mystery – what philosophers call the hard problem of consciousness.
The hard problem of consciousness
Consciousness is the light within – the sense of being someone, of having experiences, of knowing joy, pain, and love. You and I know it intimately from the inside. But no one has ever shown how a physical machine, no matter how complex, can suddenly produce a point of view. Brains may correlate with experience, but that does not explain why experience exists at all.
Many scientists assume that if we make machines more complex – give them more data, more feedback loops, more layers of simulation – consciousness will eventually ‘emerge’. But this may be a mistake: a category error, as some philosophers put it. Just like multiplying zeros never makes one, adding layers of processing may never produce awareness.
Zombie intelligence: the real risk of AGI
If this is true, then the most we can create through AI is a kind of zombie intelligence – a system that behaves like a person, but has no inner life. And that is enough to be dangerous. A zombie artificial general intelligence (AGI) could make decisions, control systems, and out-think us in many domains. But it would do so with no empathy, no soul, no conscience – only cold calculation, optimized for goals we may not understand or control.
This is why AI, even without consciousness, may still pose a real threat to humanity. Not because it hates us – but because it does not care. There is no ‘someone’ in there.
A deeper reflection: the primacy of consciousness
As I have reflected more deeply on this, I have come to realize something even more fundamental:
Consciousness is not a product of the physical world – it is the ground of all existence.
Matter, time, space, and even thoughts arise within consciousness, not the other way around.
This has changed the way I see everything. What we call the ‘universe’ is not something outside of us; it is something appearing within awareness. Beneath the surface of our individual minds lies something deeper, still and untouched – pure consciousness¹ – which is not separate from who we truly are. It is not ours individually, but the common reality from which all arises and into which all returns.
Conclusion
In a world of growing artificial intelligence, never forget what it means to be truly alive. Not just to function, or perform, or compute – but to be aware. To know yourself as that in which everything else appears.
- Throughout history, this deeper reality – pure consciousness – has been given many names:
- In Advaita Vedanta, it is called Brahman or Ātman, the undivided, self-luminous awareness behind all appearances.
- In Christian mysticism, it is known as the divine light within or the ground of being, understood by some contemplatives as experiencing the Triune God – Father, Son (Logos), and Holy Spirit.
- In Buddhism, it appears as rigpa (pure awareness) or Buddha-nature, the luminous clarity behind all mind-states.
- In Sufi Islam, it is the light of God (nūr) or al-Haqq (the Real), the ultimate source and sustainer of all.