Tom Ellis
Dec 18, 2024

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This is balderdash. AI may mimic self-awareness if it is cleverly designed and programmed to do so, but all it can ever really process is words and numbers. It has no internalized vested interests in survival, comfort, or concern for others which, in living organisms like ourselves, are the foundations of self-awareness. The set point for any and all teleonomic systems, from the simple thermostat to the most complex AI network imaginable, is externally determined by its designers and programmers. Only living organisms—from bacteria to ourselves—are teleogenic, in that we all seek, above all, to keep on keeping on by eating, surviving, and reproducing. AI systems, no matter how cleverly designed, have no such generalized inner directive. It simply doesn’t give a damn!

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Tom Ellis
Tom Ellis

Written by Tom Ellis

I am a retired English professor now living in Oregon, and a life-long environmental activist, Buddhist, and holistic philosopher.

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