machines

When will computers become living, sentient beings? In movies, it is commonly depicted as an abrupt, unforeseen epiphany. Ray Kurzweil has predicted (in our pages and elsewhere) that personal computers will be able to run real-time, full-up simulations of the human brain by the 2020s. But life and consciousness are matters of degree. Neuroscience case studies show how very basic ways of perceiving the self can be knocked out, slowly degrading consciousness. Research on the origins of life suggest there is a spectrum between life and not-life. By analogy, computers will start to come alive gradually, and it seems likely they have already started, almost unbeknownst to us.… Read More...