Consciousness has been debated since at least the dawn of history. In the 2020s, many philosophers and scientists continue to claim that there is a ‘hard problem of consciousness’ - that qualia, phenomenology, or subjective experience cannot be fully understood with reductive methods of neuroscience and psychology. Approaches called 'eliminativism' and 'illusionism' argue against this; they claim that consciousness does not exist in the ways implied by everyday or scholarly language.

With the advent of AIs that are displaying more features of apparent sentience, there's a renewed public interest in these debates. At what point will it become 'immoral' to switch off and dismantle an AI that seems to be sentient? When might an AI decide 'of its own volition' to take actions in defiance of its innate programming? And given the long history of philosophers apparently talking past each other on questions of consciousness, what prospects are there for clear progress to be made?

This live London Futurists webinar features Jacy Reese Anthis, a philosopher, sociologist, statistician, and all-round polymath. Jacy is the co-founder of the Sentience Institute.