Philosopher's "AI and Consciousness: A Skeptical Overview" Free Online This Week
eschwitz · x · 2026-10-19
Philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel's new Cambridge Elements book AI and Consciousness: A Skeptical Overview is free to read online through Oct 19.
The book argues a skeptical line: we won't know in the near future whether AI is conscious, and society collectively won't either. Structure:
- Ten "possibly essential" features of consciousness, and an argument against near-future knowledge of AI consciousness
- Critiques of introspective and conceptual arguments: unreliability, sampling bias, narrow evidence base
- Materialism and functionalism are broadly friendly to the possibility of AI consciousness
- Against the Turing Test as a consciousness indicator; re-examines the Chinese Room and the "mimicry argument"
- Discussion of global workspace and higher-order theories
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