Consciousness, AI and the Future of Humanity - Daniel Dennett [2017] | Intelligence Squared

In this clip from our 2017 event titled 'Evolution of the Mind, Consciousness and AI,' the esteemed philosopher and cognitive scientist, Daniel Dennett is joined by a group of panellists to explore how much we understand about the human mind, and what the creation of artificial consciousness means for our future. Watch and let us know in the comments if you think Dennett’s theories still hold true in light of the rapid developments in AI since he joined us. 

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[Anarchy-Is-Liberty]

I just love listening to these types of talks, even though I don't have near the IQ needed, I get only about 1/4 the understanding of what's being said!

[joaodecarvalho]

You can ask the zombie: "Do you have consciousness?" Why would it lie?

[saliksayyar]

Intelligence is not necessarily consciousness or sentience, otherwise every computer would be conscious.

[gordonmorris]

As an Atheist Materialist, I recognize the existence of the unseen (if detectable), and even abstract concepts, such as natural laws posited by physics & mathematics, and experiential abstractions such as that of the mind, emotions and identity, chemically regulated, and I can acknowledge the validity of the abstract concept of a collective conscious(ness) and collective memory, as simply the shared neuron-based representative map of experiences and memories within the groups of people that share those similar neuron maps, the more closely involved groups, such families, friends, colleagues, share an even denser collective conscious, as compared to community, city, state, nation, tribe, world sized groupings of humanity, but shared humanity itself is enough to produce its own neuron map that every human shares. The neurons are physical material manifestations of the abstract, the neurons exist and thus give existence to or represent immaterial abstractions. In this sense the 'herd mentality' or 'herd instinct' has a value seldom attributed to it, and I think that it may appear to be an anomaly (having any value at all), but it exists, transient and temporary though it is, it isn't entirely intangible, because the neurons themselves are tangible.