Can We Ever Understand Consciousness?

In the AI age, what makes humans conscious—and if consciousness even exists—has taken on a new urgency. Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. Why are the lights on? I mean the lights inside you: Why are you aware of anything at all? According to a strict neo-Darwinian view of things, you don’t need to be. You might be just as functional a physical being if you weren’t conscious at all, if you went about your day as a biological robot, eating, reproducing, and reacting to stimuli, but with no internal awareness of any of this. Sam Buntz is a writer based in Chicago. His work has appeared in First Things, The Critic, and Real Clear Books, and he also has written a novel, The God of Smoke and Mirrors, available on Amazon. More From Sam Buntz