Can AI Truly Become Sentient?

Time of India

a day ago

Our sensory organs have evolved to a level that transcends mere
objective cognition
. They have very subtle and complex networks and upgrades that transform cognition into an emergent phenomenon called qualia.
Qualia are special attributes of the cognitive spectrum that account for a highly specific conscious aspect of experience. 'Quale' is the unique subjective experiential aspect of cognition. It is an esoteric blend of unique textures and flavours of emotions, memory, preferences, coupled with the incoming bytes of sensory data. These transform qualia into an emergent phenomenon, an experiential alchemy of sorts.
Qualia largely constitute the enigma of the 'Hard Problem' of
consciousness
as termed by
David Chalmers
. There is an ongoing, endless debate about artificial intelligence and its ominous potential to become a humanoid. The answer lies in whether AI can upgrade the processing of objective sensory data from merely 'sensor-based' cognition to the sublime level of qualia/experience. Can the objective cognition of robotics ever be integrated with a qualitative, emotional coefficient to effect the experiential qualia?
It's quite paradoxical that 'Bios', the original Greek term for 'life', is also the anagram that encapsulates the ethos of computing and AI in general - 'Basic Input Output System'. Successive generations of computers certainly enhanced the ability to process incoming data with high-end processors.
However, experience involves much more than just processing data - bios, the ethos of life implying a vibrant, dynamic life force. The essence of all living organisms right from the cellular level. A touch of some intangible force that breathes vitality, a self-sustaining intelligence, into the matrix of the disparate organic and inorganic elements. An intangible essence, which is an amalgamation of vitality and innate intelligence empowering the organism with self-preservation and propagation, referred to as '
Satchitanand
' in Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS).
Satchitanand is a compound Sanskrit word consisting of 'sat', 'cit', and 'anand' - existence, consciousness, and bliss. 'Sat' refers to the truth of existence, or 'Being'. A sense of self-awareness. An awareness that precedes and encompasses cognition. A vitality that permeates every cell of living organisms.
Chit is consciousness, the aspect of cognition that is secondary to 'Sat', pure sensory perception mediated by receptors and associated neural networks. 'Anand' signifies the emotional aspect of cognition, which transforms objective cognition into a subjective, experiential qualia. This experiential element brings along with it pleasure, pain, indulgence and avoidance. This pleasure-pain element is what triggers the 'vrittis' or disturbances in the 'chit' or pure consciousness. Yog, as defined by the great sage Patanjali, is the disconnect of the chit and vritti.
Human perception is also equipped with an intelligence that can restrain the need to indulge. An intelligence of discrimination (vivek buddhi) that mediates moderation and temperance. AI can certainly evolve into an intelligence that can reach humanoid proportions. But it will be almost inconceivable for AI to develop the intelligence of discrimination, which determines the degree of indulgence and restraint, as well as the 'Anand' element of cognition. AI can perhaps never replicate human sentience that can conceive and experience the intangible, Beingness, a unique, self-cognising, life force, that can invert on itself to cognise the cognising entity, to 'experience' and merge the Sat and Chit with Anand, the eternal Bliss.
Authored by: Deepak Ranade
Why Arjun Was Chosen: The Untold Secret of Bhagavad Gita Chapter 4, Verse 3