The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics (Oxford Landmark Science)

by Roger Penrose

If we ever do discover in detail what quality it is that allows a physical object to become conscious, then, conceivably, we might be able to construct such objects for ourselves–though they might not qualify as ‘machines’ in the sense of the word that we mean it now. One could imagine that these objects could have a tremendous advantage over us, since they could be designed specifically for the task at hand, namely to achieve consciousness. They would not have to grow from a single cell. They would not have to carry around the ‘baggage’ of their ancestry (the old and ‘useless’ parts of the brain or body that survive in ourselves only because of the ‘accidents’ of our remote ancestry). One might imagine that, in view of these advantages, such objects could succeed in actually superseding human beings, where (in the opinions of such as myself) the algorithmic computers are doomed to subservience. But there may well be more to the issue of consciousness than this. Perhaps, in some way, our consciousness does depend on our heritage, and the thousands of millions of years of actual evolution that lie behind us. To my way of thinking, there is still something mysterious about evolution, with its apparent ’groping’ towards some future purpose. Things at least seem to organize themselves somewhat better than they ‘Ought’ to, just on the basis of blind-chance evolution and natural selection. It may well be that such appearances are quite deceptive. There seems to be something abou...