Who Cares if AI Is Conscious—It’s Basically Alive

I spent the waning days of summer grinding away at columns and working on a feature. But I missed a chance at a striking change of scenery—cruising the Galápagos with about a dozen prominent philosophers studying consciousness. The invite described morning classroom discussions tackling knotty questions on the nature of consciousness with marquee names in the field. Afternoons would be spent on island exploration and wading and snorkeling with rare biological species. One look at the agenda and my editor nixed my attendance. “Being on a boat with philosophers talking 'the nature of consciousness' sounds like hell,” she opined, shutting the door on my prospects of attending a potential boondoggle funded by a Russian…