We’ve been able to manipulate our consciousness since the beginning of human existence. It’s always been easy and natural. I’d argue that eating and drinking changes the state of our consciousness. So do having sex, fatiguing ourselves, and eliminating bodily waste. In doing these, our consciousness goes through a cycle of tension and relief.1 Anxiety, fear, and pain also change the state of our consciousness, but in ways that can permanently affect our perception of the world and hence our behavior. Unfortunately, that behavior often includes consuming alcohol, narcotics, and other drugs that again change our consciousness, at times with disastrous consequences.
In the modern world, bodily functions and negative stimuli still push our consciousness into different states, but they reveal next to nothing about the future of consciousness. It’s technology that most often drives changes in how we see ourselves and the world around us. It’s technology that tells us where consciousness is going. We see the truth of this observation when we consider the consequences of the Industrial Revolution and a succession of innovations — electrification, telephones, automobiles, flight, radio, television, online computing, life-extending medicine, and life-extinguishing weaponry. Each of these innovations forced an adaptation that created a novel consciousness. It’s certain that the intertwining of technology and consciousness will continue and be amplified until we reach human extinction.
Artificial intelligence is the technology destined to have the greatest impact on our consciousness. We already see its power. Last April, Chicago held a runoff election to determine its next mayor. The Democratic candidate was favored but narrowly lost. Some days before, an audio tape was circulated on which a voice, presumably the candidate’s, could be heard condoning police violence. The voice was a deepfake created by AI. Undoubtedly, a significant number of Democratic voters were disaffected. And earlier this year, sexually explicit deepfakes of Taylor Swift were posted on X (Twitter). For a short time, millions of her fans and detractors were manipulated by a lie. The science of disinformation is still in its infancy. When it matures, we’ll need a countervailing science to give truth a foothold in our lives.
Three years ago, I wrote about how AI, coupled with robotics, would cause so many displacements in the world’s labor force that all the political and economic models in use today would crash. What I want to emphasize in this post is the impact these displacements will have on our consciousness. Most of us will do little or no work. Labor has always been the chief yardstick for measuring self-worth, but no more. Our lives will be supported by the productivity of AI robots that plant, grow, reap, manufacture, package, deliver, cook, serve, clean, teach, advise, design, engineer, build, install, maintain, repair, diagnose, treat, and entertain. The search for meaning and self-respect will be more urgent than at any time in history. What will we do to escape a state of consciousness fraught with tedium and self-loathing?
It wouldn’t be surprising if religion and mysticism had a new awakening, but I think it’s equally likely that a fraction of humanity declares their desire to forge a new civilization alongside AI robots. This minority will demand to be genetically retooled to become the sensory and cognitive equals of the robots. For good measure, they’ll ask surgeons to implant neural chips to boost cognition further.2 It would make sense for the chips to empower people to communicate with their AI “colleagues” telepathically. In this brave new world, human consciousness would only distantly resemble what it is today. In fact, we probably could no longer call it “human” consciousness.3
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1I expect some disagreement on my claim that these are states of consciousness. But how else should we regard a stress or tension that rises to the level of awareness and occupies our minds until relief comes? Yes, I also think that sitting in a dentist’s chair and getting a tooth drilled is a state of consciousness.
2Neuralink, a company run by Elon Musk, implanted a BCI (brain-computer interface) into a person’s brain last January. It’s fully within the brain, not on the skull, and wireless. These features reduce the risk of infection and make the implant practical for real-world use.
3My friend Gary pointed out that the advent of telepathy would create a “hive mind,” giving the enhanced humans and AI robots a collective intelligence. He thought of the Borg, the oppressive collective portrayed in Star Trek: The Next Generation. If this state of consciousness is a consequence of telepathy, it would be essential to turn it off at times. Otherwise, the pronoun “I” would disappear and with it any possibility of privacy.
The Scratching Post 