Will Computers Become Conscious?

"With AI advancing beyond PhD-level intelligence, won’t computers eventually become conscious of being conscious? Rupert says: ‘It will never become conscious. Nothing can become conscious. Only consciousness is conscious. There is nothing else present to be conscious. The whole question about whether a computer will become conscious is moot. It’s based on the belief that bodies are conscious. If it were true that consciousness were an attribute of the body made out of matter, then it would be possible to build an artificial body called a computer that also had consciousness as an attribute. But it’s based on a misunderstanding, namely that the body is conscious. It’s not. Consciousness is conscious. Nothing other than consciousness is conscious, and there is nothing other than consciousness that could be conscious. Just because something appears in consciousness and is made of consciousness doesn’t mean that that entity is self-conscious.’"

From event 05 - 12 October, 2025 Seven-Day Retreat at Garrison Institute, 5–12 October 2025

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