{"id":196811,"date":"2024-09-30T12:25:59","date_gmt":"2024-09-30T17:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/09\/can-computers-become-conscious-my-reply-to-roger-penrose"},"modified":"2024-09-30T12:25:59","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T17:25:59","slug":"can-computers-become-conscious-my-reply-to-roger-penrose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2024\/09\/can-computers-become-conscious-my-reply-to-roger-penrose","title":{"rendered":"\u201cCan computers become conscious?\u201d: My reply to Roger Penrose"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/27zMdaBgt6g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A few weeks ago, I attended the <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/a\/umn.edu\/seven-pines\/\">Seven Pines Symposium on Fundamental Problems in Physics<\/a> outside Minneapolis, where I had the honor of participating in a panel discussion with <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Roger_Penrose\">Sir Roger Penrose<\/a>. The way it worked was, Penrose spoke for a half hour about his ideas about <i>conscious <\/i>ness (G\u00f6del, quantum gravity, microtubules, uncomputability, you know the drill), then I delivered a half-hour \u201cresponse,\u201d and then there was an hour of questions and discussion from the floor. Below, I\u2019m sharing the prepared notes for my talk, as well as some very brief recollections about the discussion afterward. (Sorry, there\u2019s no audio or video.) I unfortunately don\u2019t have the text or transparencies for Penrose\u2019s talk available to me, but\u2014with one exception, which I touch on in my own talk\u2014his talk very much followed the outlines of his famous books, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Emperors-New-Mind-Concerning-Computers\/dp\/0192861980\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464807682&sr=8-1&keywords=the+emperor%27s+new+mind&tag=lifeboatfound-20\"><em>The Emperor\u2019s New Mind<\/em><\/a> and <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Shadows-Mind-Missing-Science-Consciousness\/dp\/0195106466\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464807714&sr=8-1&keywords=shadows+of+the+mind&tag=lifeboatfound-20\">Shadows of the Mind<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Admittedly, for regular readers of this blog, not much in my own talk will be new <i>either<\/i>. Apart from a few new wisecracks, almost all of the material (including the replies to Penrose) is contained in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scottaaronson.com\/papers\/giqtm3.pdf\">The Ghost in the Quantum Turing Machine<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/scottaaronson.blog\/?p=1951\">Could A Quantum Computer Have Subjective Experience?<\/a> (my talk at IBM T. J. Watson), and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Quantum-Computing-since-Democritus-Aaronson\/dp\/0521199565?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0&tag=lifeboatfound-20\"><em>Quantum Computing Since Democritus<\/em><\/a> chapters 4 and 11. See also my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quora.com\/Whats-your-take-on-John-Searles-Chinese-room-argument\">recent answer on Quora<\/a> to \u201cWhat\u2019s your take on John Searle\u2019s Chinese room argument\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>Still, I thought it might be of interest to some readers how I <i>organized<\/i> this material for the <i>specific<\/i>, unenviable task of debating the guy who <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Penrose%E2%80%93Hawking_singularity_theorems\">proved<\/a> that our universe contains spacetime singularities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few weeks ago, I attended the Seven Pines Symposium on Fundamental Problems in Physics outside Minneapolis, where I had the honor of participating in a panel discussion with Sir Roger Penrose. The way it worked was, Penrose spoke for a half hour about his ideas about conscious ness (G\u00f6del, quantum gravity, microtubules, uncomputability, you [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1523,1617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computing","category-quantum-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196811\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}