Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness

An individual in this society can’t also be the society’s culture. He or she is only one part of the whole. In the extreme, if this individual were alone, there would be no culture, and in fact no language, since there would be no one to share common experiences with.

A government isn’t a president or a legislator, or a tax collector, or a policeman. All of these are part of a larger whole, which we call government. Yet, none of these alone would or could possess all the requirements of a government. A government can control lives, tax and spend, make war, waste or conserve natural resources, and create a common bond of law and identity among millions of people. No individual can do this.

A corporation is made of us hundreds or even thousands of individuals. It can produce physical items, generate wealth, employ many people, alter world events, and create a corporate persona. Each individual worker, stock holder and executive has a role in this whole, but if you ask where the corporation is physically located, you’ll not find it in any individual. People are hired and fired, retire, change jobs. Physical plants are bought and sold. New stock holders buy in while others sell out. Within a few years, just like in the human body, all of the basic elements have been replaced, but yet the corporation, as an entity remains.

By the same reasoning, no one brain cell is the seat of consciousness. There isn’t a master cell that thinks and is aware. All the neurons in the nervous system work together to create the individual, the consciousness, the self and the self-aware self.  It is a global process, which allows some cells to not participate in a particular mental activity, and which allows for the death of a neuron or the change is some neurological connection without destroying or completely altering the sense of self.

Can something non physical change the physical world?  The notions that gave rise to this country changed the face of a major part of this continent. The followers of the teachings of a Hebrew preacher set in motions events that changed the western world.

The desire for a profitable energy source has brought about global warming and species extinction and the desire to repair this situation may well lead to a solution to global environmental and meteorological problems. Ideas manifest in physical reality.

Let’s take an extreme example. Say that the United States decided to eliminate the planet Mars. We could convince the rest of the world that this is somehow a worthwhile project.

Then the financial and scientific resources of the world could be applied to this problem. Every thermonuclear  device on the planet could be brought together and loaded on all the rockets humanity could produce. These could be sent to Mars and then detonated.  This would be a global action of minds working in a social network that could change the face of the solar system.

Clearly we don’t have to invoke body/spirit dualism or any mechanical physical explanations to account for consciousness.

For those who demand that the whole cannot be greater than the sum of the parts, lets look at the whole and the parts. The parts are individuals working in isolation on their own interests. A vector diagram of millions of individuals would likely result in a net value of zero or very close to it.  Isolated individuals pursue goals in an uncoordinated manner, and what is good for one is bad for another.  Globally, the individuals line up, much like magnetized iron atoms, to produce a cumulative effect that is more powerful than the combined actions of all the individuals acting in a random manner.

Consciousness appears to be much like social organizations, a global result of many individuals working in concert to create a greater whole.