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George Scialabba's avatar

Clearly computers are not conscious now, and we can't be sure they ever will be. But then, at a certain point in our evolution, humans couldn't speak, draw, or reflect and arguably had no inner life. How did we come by these things. Through emergence, the production of novelty by increasing complexity. As computers become more and more complex and lifelike, they may eventually become life forms. Doubtless very different life forms from us, but capable of analogues of human thinking and feeling. If it happens, it will probably be a long way off, so there's no penalty for scoffing at the prospect now, except being scoffed at posthumously if it does happen.

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