In 1641, René Descartes set out to doubt everything he could: his senses, his body, the world around him. But one thing wouldn’t budge. The doubting itself was a thought, and he was aware of having it: A conscious experience that made his own existence undeniable. Reading this text is a conscious experience. So is discussing ideas at a meetup, or reflecting on what someone just said. But what exactly is consciousness? Where does it begin and end, what is it worth, and who else has it? A baby, a dog, a bat, a bee? Nearly 400 years after Descartes, philosophers are still arguing. Now it’s our turn.
Where is my mind?
Descartes gave the mind its own address: a thinking substance with no size, shape or location, somehow steering a body made of matter. Gilbert Ryle mocked this as the “ghost in the machine,” a category mistake. Merleau-Ponty fired the pilot altogether: we experience with our whole body, and consciousness can’t be separated from it. Medicine, meanwhile, can’t wait for philosophers to agree. Anaesthesiologists switch consciousness off and on every day and neurologists must decide whether a patient who can’t move or speak is still “someone.”
What is it like to be a bat?
Thomas “Bat-Man” Nagel argued that a creature is conscious if there is something it is like to be it. And science alone might never reach the point of describing it. You could know every fact about a bat’s brain and still have no idea what echolocation feels like from the inside.
Can a machine be conscious?
Descartes already proposed a test 400 years ago. A machine might imitate speech, but it could never respond to the meaning of whatever is said to it. Today’s language models arguably pass, and some give vivid first-person reports of experience. John Searle’s Chinese Room says this proves nothing: you can give perfect answers in Chinese by following a rulebook, without understanding a word. Functionalists say a mind is what a brain does, not what it’s made of, so why not silicon?
Let's have a vivid discussion and learn from the big shots.
Expect more questions than answers and some fun thought experiments. No philosophical background needed.
Watch this video as a little intro:
https://aeon.co/videos/could-there-ever-be-a-viable-test-for-artificial-consciousness
Location: Kirche Bühl, Goldbrunnenstrasse 54. We meet at the venue.
Important: When you register, please commit and don't be a NO SHOW. We look forward to seeing you.
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