alt Hacker NewsI think the challenge with many of these conversations is that they assume consciousness emerges through purely mechanical means.
The “brain as a computer” metaphor has been useful in limited contexts—especially for modeling memory or signal processing; but, I don’t think it helps us move forward when talking about consciousness itself.
Penrose and Hameroff’s quantum consciousness hypothesis, while still very speculative, is interesting precisely because it suggests that consciousness may arise from phenomena beyond classical computation. If that turns out to be true, it would also mean today’s machines—no matter how advanced—aren’t on a path to genuine consciousness.
That said, AI doesn’t need to think to be transformative.
Steam engines weren’t conscious either, yet they reshaped civilization.
Likewise, AI and robotics can bring enormous value without ever approaching human-level awareness.
We can hold both ideas at once: that machines may never be conscious, and still profoundly useful.
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The tendency to attribute consciousness to the quantum is one I find very grating. What makes the human brain any less mechanical if quantum mechanics dictate the firing of neurons rather than electrodynamics? Why does the wave nature of subatomic systems mean that an artificial tongue would suddenly be able to subjectively experience taste? It always reads to me as very wooy, and any amount of drilling leads to even more questions that seem to take the ideas further from reality.
I think the largest case for consciousness being a mechanical system is the fact that we can interface with it mechanically. We can introduce electricity, magnetic fields, chemicals, and scalpels to change the nature of peoples experience and consciousness. Why is the incredible complexity of our brains an insufficient answer and that a secret qbit microtube in each neuron is a more sound one?
> consciousness may arise from phenomena beyond classical computation
Sapolsky addresses this in “Determined”, arguing that quantum effects don’t bubble up enough to alter behavior significantly enough.
"brain as computer" is just the latest iteration of a line of thinking that goes back forever. Whatever we kinda understand and interact with, that's what we are and what the brain is. Chemicals, electricity, clocks, steam engines, fire, earth; they're all analogies that help us learn but don't necessarily reflect an underlying reality.
> they assume consciousness emerges through purely mechanical means.
From my view, all the evidence points in exactly that direction though? Our consciousness can be suspended and affected by purely mechanical means, so clearly much of it has to reside in the physical realm.
Quantum consciousness to me sounds too much like overcomplicating human exceptionalism that we have always been prone to, just like geocentrism or our self-image as the apex of creation in the past.