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Could Machines Be Conscious? A Conversation with Dr Tom McClelland on Minds, Machines and the Hard Problem of Consciousness

Cambridge philosopher Dr Tom McClelland argues we should be agnostic about AI consciousness. He explains why language models have broken humanity’s tools for detecting minds, why our judgments about machine minds are motivated, whether AI can…

Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL 26 min read

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“The law is not an end in itself, but a means to achieve justice. When the law fails to deliver justice, we must be willing to reform the law, not abandon the pursuit of justice.”
— Lord Woolf Former Master of the Rolls & English judicial law reform pioneer
“There is a line between the observable and greater universe. For discussion it's very useful to recognise that when we speak about anything outside the observable universe, we're switching from the empirical to the speculative and theoretical”
— Adam Riess Astrophysicist who discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe
“Over Thousands of Years, globalisation has progressed through travel, trade, migration, spread of cultural influences and dissemination of knowledge and understanding”
— Amartya Sen Nobel Prize-Winning Economist & Philosopher of Development & Welfare

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Ten essays. Distilled from 600+ conversations.

Insights, themes and patterns from years of long-form interviews — organised around the questions that matter most.

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  1. 01 Business & Economics A Conversation with Victor Vescovo: On Exploration, Risk and the Limits of Human Experience 360 interviews
  2. 02 Culture, Society, Sports & Arts A Conversation with Victor Vescovo: On Exploration, Risk and the Limits of Human Experience 234 interviews
  3. 03 Politics & Policy Incorruptible: Eric Ries on Why Good Companies Go Bad — and How to Build Ones That Don’t 167 interviews
  4. 04 Science & Technology Could Machines Be Conscious? A Conversation with Dr Tom McClelland on Minds, Machines and the Hard Problem of Consciousness 135 interviews
  5. 05 Health & Medicine The Continuum of Mind: A Conversation with Professor Michael Levin on Cognition, Bioelectricity and the Future of Being 74 interviews
  6. 06 Nobel Laureates Markets, Morals and the Road Ahead: A Conversation with Nobel Laureate Professor Alvin Roth 21 interviews

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