Gitansh Garg

I am one of those whose research points to the conclusion that the mind is computable. Sentience is an exquisite consequence of the laws of physics. I see no evidence that requires the supernatural; I find panpsychism to be a god-of-the-gaps fantasy; I see no requirement for any quantum pixie dust. What I do see is that evolution has led the cosmos through billions of years of experiments and mistakes and failures, eventually bringing forth artifacts with intelligence, with consciousness, with sentience, with life itself, by growing and combining very simple things then morphing them into extraordinarily complex ones. An underlying challenge in all this discourse, of course, is that these words represent ineffable concepts that human language strains at and fails to define crisply, and so we end up talking past one another, with emotion rather than rational and informed dialog. That notwithstanding, it is the ultimate hubris to conclude that only we humans can be conscious or sentient: a multitude of creatures living among us possess those properties to varying degrees (and we already treat multitudes of them with questionable ethical consideration). It is hubris to demand that the intelligence and consciousness and sentience we experience is its only form. It is hubris for we humans to assert that at this moment are at the cusp of building sentient artifacts. My understanding and experience suggests that while some individual elements are within our understanding, there are many others we do not know that we even know we need to know. Moreover, there exists a problem of systems architecture at extreme scale, and that we are a long way from understanding how to engineer that. But I predict that some day we shall. This is not that day, nor is it a day in the lives of any of this present generation. I expect that embodiment will be necessary (all contemporary approaches are deeply impoverished with regard to building things in and of this world, with sensing and acting now only a tiny fraction of what organics experience in all its noise and ambiguity). I posit that in this journey, we will co-evolve, compelled to reconsider what it means to be human. I know that we will find value from the things we create, but I also know that there exist fundamental and unavoidable risks that will harm us. I fear most the wealthy and privileged few who assert they alone know the way and should be trusted to bring humanity to this new digital promised land; I fear the organizations and nations who seek to use these things for greater power and control. I suspect that some strive to build artificial super intelligence (because they want to be gods) while others reject the possibility (because they cherish our uniqueness). And yet, I am hopeful, and confident in the resilience of the human sprit to endure, and in the end, be better for the journey. What an extraordinary time to be alive.