[Kim Dae-sik Column] Will Machines Develop Self-Awareness?

⑧ The Impact That AGI Will Bring

What do you see at this very moment? Probably the screen of a computer or a mobile phone (where this column is published), or a page of a paper newspaper. Now, try turning your head slightly to the side. You will see the street outside the window, the sky, and a red apple on the desk.

But what does it really mean to "see" something? The world unfolding before your eyes, as if watching a high-resolution TV. According to the scientific knowledge we have, this phenomenon should not actually exist. Light from the outside world hits the retina. The retina contains cells that convert light energy into electrical signals, and the visual information transformed into electrical signals is known to be interpreted by dividing into shape, color, movement, and so on through about 20 to 30 different brain regions.

However, here lies a problem. Nowhere in the brain does the phenomenon of "seeing" exist. No matter how much the brain is cut, dissected, or studied, the "red apple" we see at this very moment cannot be found. Inside the brain, there is no sound, feeling, sensation, shape, or memory. There are only electrical signals transmitted through hundreds of trillions of neurons and the connections between them.

Disagreement on Dualism Dividing Matter and Immaterial
Essentially Different but with Causal Relationship

Then where is the feeling of the "red apple" created? Humans possess a self and mind beyond the material world, and it can be argued that what we see as the feeling of the "red apple" at this moment is the self interpreting the electrical signals of neurons.

However, the Standard Model used in modern physics explains everything through quantum field interactions between particles. Physical interactions create atoms and molecules, and collections of molecules form proteins and cells. Neurons operate the brain, and the brain controls human behavior. Modern science explains humans through a chain of explanations from quantum mechanics, chemistry, biology, neuroscience, and cognitive science, but nowhere in this chain do the self and mind exist. Everything in the universe is created through interactions between matter, while the self and mind are immaterial.

So, is the universe made up of two fundamentally different elements: matter and immaterial? This is the "dualism" believed by Ren? Descartes, a philosopher and mathematician. Most people probably believe in this dualism without much thought in daily life. However, there is a problem with dualism: these two fundamentally different elements, matter and mind, seem to have mutual relationships and causal interactions. Through the command "raise your arm," we can raise our material arm.

But how can an immaterial will affect the material world? Because of this, many neuroscientists believe that "free will," "mind," and even the "self" are illusions and delusions created by the brain rather than real entities.

But if the feeling of experiencing the world at this moment is an illusion, then wouldn't the feeling of illusion itself also be an illusion? A microwave operates in a predetermined sequence when you set the time and press a button. Washing machines, cars, and computers all operate based on input values and pre-set algorithms. Machines that connect input and output have no self. A car does not feel that it is running fast, and a computer showing a red apple on the screen does not know what it is doing. In fact, the word "self" itself is meaningless.

General Artificial Intelligence (AGI) Possible Within 10 Years
May Draw Philosophical Conclusions on Mind and Self

Based on the recent rapid development of generative artificial intelligence, many experts believe that within 5 to 10 years, it will be possible to create artificial intelligence as complex as the human brain, that is, general artificial intelligence (AGI). A single neuron has no self, but the brain with 100 trillion neurons seems to have an immaterial mind, self, and free will.

Then wouldn't an artificial intelligence of similar size also have a mind and self? Or is it that no matter how large and complex a machine is, it can never essentially possess the world of mind? The AGI that will appear in the near future may bring about the most shocking philosophical conclusion in human history. That is, even the difference between matter and immaterial might have been an illusion created by our brain.

Daesik Kim, Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, KAIST