Yuval Noah Harari: evaluation

Transcript context

…Can you steer me on the case that consciousness and intelligence are intricately connected? Not just in humans, but anywhere else. They have to go hand in hand. Is it possible for you to imagine such a universe? It could be, but we don’t know yet. Again, we have examples. Certainly, we know of examples of high intelligence without consciousness. Computers are one example. As far as we know, plants are not conscious, yet, they are intelligent. They can solve problems, they can attain goals in very sophisticated ways. The other way around, to have consciousness without any intelligence, this is probably impossible, but to have intelligence without consciousness, yes, that’s possible. A bigger question is whether any of that is tied to organic biochemistry. We know, on this planet, only about carbon-based life forms, whether you are an amoeba, a dinosaur, a tree, a human being, you are based on organic biochemistry. Is there an essential connection between organic biochemistry and consciousness? Do all conscious entities, everywhere in the universe or in the future on planet earth, have to be based on carbon? Is there something so special about carbon as an element that an entity based on silicon will never be conscious? I don’t know, maybe. Again, this is a key question about computer and computer consciousness. Can computers eventually become conscious, even though they are not organic? The jury is still out on that. I don’t know. We have to take both options into account. Well, a big part of that is do you think we humans would be able to detect other intelligent beings, other conscious beings? Another way to ask that, is it possible that the aliens are already here and we don’t see them? Meaning are we very human-centric in our understanding of, one, the definition of life, two, the definition of intelligence, and three, the definition of consciousness?…

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