Abstract
The possibility of AI consciousness depends much on the correct answer to the mind–body problem: how our materialistic brain generates subjective consciousness? If a materialistic answer is valid, machine consciousness must be possible, at least in principle, though the actual instantiation of consciousness may still take a very long time. If a non-materialistic one (either mentalist or dualist) is valid, machine consciousness is much less likely, perhaps impossible, as some mental element may also be required. Some recent advances in neurology (despite the separation of the two hemispheres, our brain as a whole is still able to produce only one conscious agent; the negation of the absence of a free will, previously thought to be established by the Libet experiments) and many results of parapsychology (on medium communications, memories of past lives, near-death experiences) suggestive of survival after our biological death, strongly support the non-materialistic position and hence the much lower likelihood of AI consciousness. Instead of being concern about AI turning conscious and machine ethics, and trying to instantiate AI consciousness soon, we should perhaps focus more on making AI less costly and more useful to society.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Consciousness is used in its commonsense sense, perhaps well described as ‘inner qualitative, subjective states, and processes of sentience or awareness’ (Searle 2000, p. 559).
Thus, ‘if that machine somehow becomes sentient, with preferences and the drive to achieve them—or conscious, with a sense of self and of the future, the ingredients for ambition—then it is deeply threatening to us’ (Donath 2020, p. 17). However, conscious AI may also be less dangerous to humans by having empathy (Davies 2016).
On the relevance of the mind–body problem and the importance of consciousness for AI issues, see Andreotta (2020). In particular, ‘AI rights is disanalogous from animal rights in an important respect: animal rights can proceed without a solution to the ‘Hard Problem’ of consciousness. Not so with AI rights’ (Abstract).
The present author, originally a hard-core materialist, still largely believes in evolution after conversion to non-materialism after acquaintance to the wealth of evidence against simple materialism. However, he doubts the possibility of the emergence of mind after just 14 billion years since the Big Bang if that occurred naturally. For further discussions, see Ng (2019, 2021).
Downey also argues that split-brain subjects unify their perceptual field by using external factors including cueing.
The non-materialist position is also consistent with the fact that all five main features of consciousness (qualitativeness, subjectivity, unity, intentionality, intentional causation) are unexplained (Searle 2013).
Admittedly, a Nobel prize does not ensure the absence of mistakes; see, e.g. Basterfield et al. (2020).
References
Alexander E (2012) Proof of heaven: a neurosurgeon’s journal into the afterlife. Simon & Schuster, New York
Alexander E (2017) Near-death experiences and the emerging scientific view of consciousness. In: Hagan III JC (ed) The science of near-death experiences. University of Missouri Press, pp 105–116
Almeder R (1992) Death and personal survival. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham
Andreotta AJ (2020) The hard problem of AI rights. AI Soc. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-020-00997-x
Auerbach L (2017) Interactive apparitions. In: Kean, Ch. 20
Augustine K (2016) Evidence or prejudice? A reply to Matlock. J Parapsychol 80(2):203–231
Bacon F (1620). Novum Organum Scientiarum, First Book, III. Accessed by Spolaore (2020) www.earlymoderntexts.com/authors/bacon. Accessed 15 Apr 2018
Basterfield C, Lilienfeld SO, Bowes SM, Costello TH (2020) The Nobel disease: when intelligence fails to protect against irrationality. Skept Inq 44(3):32–37
Bastos MAV et al (2020) “Seat of the soul”? The structure and function of the pineal gland in women with alleged spirit possession—results of two experimental studies. Brain Behav. https://doi.org/10.1002/brb3.1693
Beauregard M (2007) Mind does really matter: evidence from neuroimaging studies of emotional self-regulation, psychotherapy, and placebo effect. Prog Neurobiol 81:218–236
Bishop JM (2018) Is anyone home? A way to find out if AI has become self-aware. Front Robot AI 5:Article 7
Blanke O, Ortique S, Landis T, Seeck M (2002) Stimulating illusory own-body perceptions. Nature 295:234–236
Braude SE (2003) Immortal remains: the evidence for life after death. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Burpo T, Vincent L (2010) Heaven is for real: a little boy’s astrounding story of his trip to heaven and back. Thomas Nelson, Nashville
Caruso GD (2013) Free will and consciousness: a determinist account of the illusion of free will. Lexington Books, Lanham
Cattoi T, Moreman CM (eds) (2015) Death, dying, and mysticism: the ecstasy of the end. Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Chalmers DJ (1995) Facing up to the problem of consciousness. J Conscious Stud 2(3):200–219
Davies J (2016) Program good ethics into artificial intelligence. Nature 538:291
De Foe A (ed) (2016) Consciousness beyond the body: evidence and reflections. Melbourne Centre for Exceptional Human Potential
De Haan EHF, Corballis PM, Hillyard SA et al (2020) Split-brain: What we know now and why this is important for understanding consciousness. Neuropsychol Rev 30:224–233. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-020-09439-3
Deecke L, Grozinger B, Kornhuber HH (1976) Voluntary finger movement in man: cerebral potentials and theory. Biol Cybern 23:99–119
Dehaene S, Lau H, Kouider S (2017) What is consciousness, and could machines have it? Science 358:486–492. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan8871
Deiber MP, Passingham RE, Colebatch JG, Friston KJ, Nixon PD, Frackowiak RS (1991) Cortical areas and the selection of movement: a study with positron emission tomography. Exp Brain Res 84:393–402
Dirnberger G, Fickel U, Lindinger G, Lang W, Jahanshahi M (1998) The mode of movement selection. Movement-related cortical potentials prior to freely selected and repetitive movements. Exp Brain Res 120(2):263–272. https://doi.org/10.1007/s002210050400
Donath J (2020) Ethical issues in our relationship with artificial entities. In: Dubber MD, Pasquale F, Das S (eds) The oxford handbook of ethics of AI. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190067397.013.3
Downey A (2019) Split-brain syndrome and extended perceptual consciousness. Phenom Cogn Sci 17:787–811. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-017-9550-y
Dubaj V (2017) Book review of Cattoi & Moreman (2015). Aust J Parapsychol 17(2):207–214
Eccles J (1973) Brain, speech and consciousness. Naturwissenschaften 60:167–176
Eccles J (1989) Evolution of the brain creation of the self. Routledge, p 241
Gauld A (1982) Mediumship and survival: a century of investigations. William Heinemann Ltd, London
Gazzaniga MS (1970) The bisected brain. Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York
Gazzaniga MS, Ledoux JE (1978) The integrated mind. Plenum Press, New York
Gazzaniga MS, Sperry RW (1967) Language after section of the cerebral commissures. Brain 90:131–148
Geley G (1927) Clairvoyance and materialization: a record of experiments. Unwin
Gholipour B (2019) A famous argument against free will has been debunked. The Atlantic. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/a-famous-argument-against-free-will-has-been-debunked/ar-AAH5lGS
Greyson B (2021a) Near-death experiences. In: Presti, pp 22–44
Greyson B (2021) After. Transworld/Bantam/Penguin, London
Greyson B, Holden JM, Mounsey JP (2006) Failure to elicit near-death experiences in induced cardiac arrest. J near Death Stud 25:85–98
Greyson B, Kelly EW, Kelly EF (2009) Explanatory models for near-death experiences. In: Holden JM, Greyson B, James D (eds) The handbook of near-death experiences: thirty years of investigation. Praeger/ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, pp 213–234
Griffin DR (1997) Parapsychology, philosophy and spirituality: a postmodern exploration. State University of New York Press, Albany
Haraldsson E, Matlock JG (2017) I saw a light and came here: children's experiences of reincarnation. White Crow Books
Hoffmann CH, Hahn B (2019) Decentered ethics in the machine era and guidance for AI regulation. AI Soc. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-019-00920-z
Holden JM, Long J, Maclurg J (2006) Out-of-body experiences: all in the brain? J near Death Stud 25:99–107
Honderich T (1988) A theory of determinism: the mind, neuroscience, and life-hopes. Clarendon Press, Oxford
Jalal B (2018) The neuropharmacology of sleep paralysis hallucinations: serotonin 2A activation and a novel therapeutic drug. Psychopharmacology 235:3083–3091. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-018-5042-1
James W (1890) The principles of psychology. Henry Holt, New York
Kean L (2017) surviving death: a journalist investigates evidence for an afterlife. Crown Archetype, New York
Kelly EF, Kelly EW, Crabtree A, Gauld A, Grosso M (2007) Irreducible mind: toward a psychology for the 21st century. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Kelly EF, Crabtree A, Marshall P (eds) (2015) Beyond physicalism: toward reconciliation of science and spirituality. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Kelly EW (2007) Psychophysiological influence, pp 117–239
Kliemann D, Adolphs R, Tyszka JM, Fischl B, Yeo BTT, Nair R, Dubois J, Paul LK (2019) Intrinsic functional connectivity of the brain in adults with a single cerebral hemisphere. Cell Rep 29(8):2398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2019.10.067. Also Cell Press: Brain scans reveal how the human brain compensates when one hemisphere is removed, Science Daily, 20 November 2019. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191120070710.htm
Laskey KB (2019) A quantum model of non-illusory free will. Ch. 7 in Acacio de Barros & Montemayor
Libet B et al (1979) Subjective referral of the timing for a conscious sensory experience. Brain 102:193–224
Long J (2017) Near-death experiences: evidence for their reality. In: Hagan III JC (ed) The science of near-death experiences. University of Missouri Press, pp 57–68
Lund DH (2009) Persons, souls and death: a philosophical investigation of an afterlife. McFarland, Jefferson
Mantel H (2008) That wilting flower. Lond Rev Books 30(2):3–6
Martin M, Augustine K (2015) The myth of an afterlife: the case against life after death. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Matlock JG (2016a) The myth of mortality: comments on Martin and Augustine’s the myth of an afterlife. J Parapsychol 80(2):190–203
Matlock JG (2016b) A philosophical critique of empirical arguments for postmortem survival. J Parapsychol 80(1):107
Mcluhan R (2010) Randi’s prize: what sceptics say about the paranormal, why they are wrong and why it matters. Troubador, London
Mele A (2010) Effective intentions: the power of conscious will. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Misselhorn C (2020) Artificial systems with moral capacities? Artif Intell 278:Article 103179
Moody RA Jr (1975) Life after life: the investigation of a phenomenon—survival of bodily death. MMB, Inc., New York (later Bantam Books). http://www.lifeafterlife.com
Mousseau M-C (2003) Parapsychology: science or pseudo-science. J Sci Explor 17(2):271–282
Nath R, Sahu V (2020) The problem of machine ethics in artificial intelligence. AI Soc 35(1):103–111
Ng Y-K (1995) Towards welfare biology: evolutionary economics of animal consciousness and suffering. Biol Philos 10(3):255–285
Ng Y-K (2019) Evolved-god creationism. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge
Ng Y-K (2021) Postmortem survival in the light of our universe creation (manuscript)
Numata T, Sato H, Asa Y et al (2020) Achieving affective human–virtual agent communication by enabling virtual agents to imitate positive expressions. Sci Rep 10:5977. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62870-7
Pearson P (2014) Opening heaven’s door: investigating stories of life, death, and what comes after. Atria, London
Pinto Y, Neville DA, Otten M, Corballis PM, Lamme VAF, de Haan EHF, Foschi N, Fabri M (2017) Split brain: divided perception but undivided consciousness. Brain 140:1231–1237. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/aww358
Praamstra P, Stegeman DF, Horstink MWIM, Brunia CHM, Cools AR (1995) Movement-related potentials preceding voluntary movement are modulated by the mode of movement selection. Exp Brain Res 103(3):429–439. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00241502
Presti DE (2021) Mind beyond brain: Buddhism, science, and the paranormal. Columbia University Press, New York (paperback edition)
Ramachandran VS (2011/2012) The tell-tale brain. Windmill Books, London
Randi J (1982/2011) Flim-flam: psychics, ESP, unicorns, and other delusions. James Randi Educational Foundation, Falls Church
Razeev DN (2019) The problem of free will in the context of neuroscience research. Neurosci Behav Physiol 49(5):1–5. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-019-00777-1
Rivas T, Dirven A, Smit RH (2016) the self does not die: verified paranormal phenomena from near-death experiences. International Association for Near-Death Studies, Durham
Robitzski D (2018) Artificial consciousness: how to give a robot a soul. https://futurism.com/artificial-consciousness
Sacks O (2012) Hallucinations. Knopf, New York
Savage N (2019) How AI and neuroscience drive each other forwards. Nature 571:S15–S17
Schechter E (2018) Self-consciousness and ’split’ brains: the mind’s I. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Schurger A, Sitt JD, Dehaene S (2012) An accumulator model for spontaneous neural activity prior to self-initiated movement. Proc Natl Acad Sci 109(42):E2904–E2913. https://doi.org/10.1073/PNAS.1210467109
Schwartz GE (2011) The sacred promise. Atria Books, New York
Searle J (2000) Consciousness. Annu Rev Neurosci 23:557–558
Searle J (2013) Theory of mind and Darwin’s legacy. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110(suppl 2):10343–10348
Sharp KC (2017) The shoe on the ledge. In: Kean, Ch.6
Shermer M (2013) Proof of hallucination. Sci Am 308(4):86
Sidgwick H (1915) A contribution to the study of the psychology of Mrs. Piper’s trance phenomena. Proc Soc Psych Res 28:i–657
Spolaore E (2020) Commanding nature by obeying her: a review essay on Joel Mokyr’s a culture of growth. J Econ Lit 58(3):777–792. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.20191460
Stapp HP (2011) Mindful universe: quantum mechanics and the participating observer, 2nd edn. Springer, Berlin
Stapp HP (2017) Quantum theory and free will: how mental intentions translate into bodily actions, 1st edn. Springer, New York, p 142
Stapp HP (2009) Compatibility of contemporary physical theory with personality survival. http://www-physics.lbl.gov/~stapp/Compatibility.pdf
Stevenson I (1974) Twenty cases suggestive of reincarnation. University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville
Stevenson I (1997) Reincarnation and biology, vol 1 and 2. Praeger, London
Stevenson I (2003) European cases of the reincarnation type. McFarland, Jefferson
Takashima S, Ogawa CY, Najman FA et al (2020) The volition, the mode of movement selection and the readiness potential. Exp Brain Res 238:2113–2123. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-020-05878-9
Touge T, Werhahn KJ, Rothwell JC, Marsden CD (1995) Movement-related cortical potentials preceding repetitive and random-choice hand movements in parkinson’s disease. Ann Neurol 37(6):791–799
Tucker JB (2021) Reports of past-life memories. In: Presti, Ch 3, pp 45–68
Ulate M (2021) Going negative at the zero lower bound: the effects of negative nomincal interest rates. Am Econ Rev 111(1):1–40
van Lommeul P (2017) Dutch prospective research on near-death experiences during cardiac arrest. In: Hagan, pp 39–45
Velmans M (2019) A challenge to the materialist models of mind, [Review of the book Mind Beyond Brain: Buddhism, Science and the Paranormal, edited by David Presti]. J Parapsychol 83:268–271. https://doi.org/10.30891/jopar.2019.02.10
von Neumann J (1955) Mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Watson JD (1968) The double helix: a personal account of the discovery of the structure of DNA. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London
Watson JD, Crick FHC (1953) A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature 171:737–738
Weiss EM (2012) The long trajectory: the metaphysics of reincarnation and life after death. iUniverse, Bloomington
Wigan AL (1844) The duality of the mind, proved by the structure, functions, and diseases of the brain. Lancet 43(1074):39–41
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
The author wishes to thank Prof. Karamjit Gill and two anonymous reviewers for helping to improve this paper.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ng, YK. Could artificial intelligence have consciousness? Some perspectives from neurology and parapsychology. AI & Soc 38, 425–436 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-021-01305-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-021-01305-x