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The Reconfiguration of Humanity: The Turing Test and Descartes ‘Cogito Ergo Sum’?
‘‘No one outside ourselves can rule us inwardly. When we know this, we become free.’’
— Buddha
“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”
― George Orwell, 1984
I have recently written about the ‘Hard Problem of Consciousness’ partly in response to an academic article I read and partly because of my interest in Cartesian Dualism and the Mind-Body problem, succinctly expressed in that infamous metaphor of Gilbert Ryles as ‘The Ghost in the Machine’.
But lets just take all that very weighty philosophical body of evidence away for a moment and focus on what is happening right now, as you read what I am writing — hopefully — and I examine what I am now doing. I am typing words that are quietly forming in my mind as I think about this article. They are not there automatically or immediately as I am having to wait briefly for them to materialise ,whilst thinking upon this topic. It is subvocalised as I am not speaking to another, or out loud. I recognise the voice. It is my voice. And when you read this, that voice will now be your voice and not my voice. Obviously. So that stops any notion I might have of solipsism being at play here.
