In the early 1500s, Nicolaus Copernicus discovered that the Earth isn’t the center of the universe. The planets, he found, revolve around the sun. It was such a stunning revelation at the time, and so contrary to the teachings of the all-powerful Catholic Church, that Copernicus kept it a secret until the end of his life. It wasn’t until he was on his deathbed that he published his masterwork, “On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres.”
Humans have a natural tendency to think that we occupy a special position in the universe, but modern science has repeatedly shown us that the opposite is true. We Earthlings are more likely to be mediocre than exceptional. This idea has a name: The Copernican Principle of Mediocrity. It’s now a foundational principle for cosmology, astronomy, and the search for alien life.
Recently, Eric Schwitzgebel, professor of philosophy at University of California, Riverside, and Jeremy Pober, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lisbon, applied this principle to the question of what kinds of beings might possess consciousness. The Copernican Principle of Mediocrity suggests humans and other flesh-and-blood Earth-bound creatures cannot be the only ones. And if aliens made of different stuff potentially possess consciousness, then why not minds made of silicon, metal, and electricity, also known as artificial intelligence? The pair of researchers published their answer to this question and other thoughts in a new working paper.
I spoke with Schwitzgebel about what makes consciousness so bizarre, why behavioral complexity is a good measuring stick for it, sci-fi author Vernor Vinge’s Zones of Thought series, and why he is doubtful that the AIs of today possess consciousness.
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