Debate set: Can we make AIs sentient — and should we? Solms vs. Humphrey
cccalum · x · 2026-10-29
To mark the publication of Perspectives on Machine Consciousness, Conscium will host a 45-minute live webinar on Nov 3, 2026 (6:15 PM GMT) debating "Can We Make AIs Sentient – and Should We?"
- Mark Solms (Univ. of Cape Town): argues consciousness is rooted in feeling, generated in the brainstem; he's building artificial agents driven by homeostatic needs based on Friston's free energy principle, and takes the moral stakes seriously.
- Nick Humphrey (Cambridge/LSE): places feeling above thinking but locates phenomenal experience in the cortex, distinguishing early-evolved "cognitive consciousness" from late-arriving "phenomenal consciousness" limited to social animals.
- Event: live online debate, 45 minutes, registration open.
More from AGI Musings
- Theoretical CS is applied math, and applied math should inform practice — beenwrekt · 2026-10-29
- Claire Vo: Teams slowest on AI adoption face the biggest cyber risk — DavidWells · 2026-10-29
- Agentic commerce isn't just hype: hoteliers would love to cut the 15-25% OTA commission — mobileraj · 2026-10-29
- Peli Grietzer launches 'Paradigm 3' newsletter tracking self-improving AI — gleech · 2026-10-29
- Using AI in production: ask "what if I had unlimited dumb people", not job replacement — Paimaamu · 2026-10-29
- Economist: AI productivity gains demand organizational redesign, not cost-cutting — Afinetheorem · 2026-10-29