Last time I spoke about artificial intelligence and consciousness, and afterwards, I thought: Of course, the question remains: what actually is consciousness? This is known in psychology, in medicine, in brain research, but it will be clear that these are always external observations, which are then combined to reach the conclusion that there is consciousness. And you can imagine that you have certain phenomena in a living being, where you have a list that you go through to see: are the phenomena such that there is consciousness or not?

I think that in this way, when you characterize consciousness in this manner, you can never truly get to the bottom of the question: Is, does artificial intelligence have consciousness, or can it acquire it, and what actually is consciousness? I believe, I am of the opinion, I think I know, that you can only come to know the phenomenon of consciousness through human self-knowledge, through self-examination. But that is not acknowledged in science, one could say. On the contrary, everything that a human being finds within himself as phenomena and draws conclusions from is, by definition, not scientific, because of course, the personal element can always play such a role that it may apply to that person, but not to others.

That is the great problem with self-knowledge, and yet I claim: You cannot come to know consciousness if you do not discover it within yourself. How do you want to claim that there is a general consciousness, for example, that a general cosmic consciousness exists? What do you actually mean by that? What should one imagine when using the word consciousness?

When you search within yourself – and in itself, that is a method that has been known for a very long time – when you search within yourself, then at a certain moment, with the question of what actually is consciousness in me, you find yourself with the awareness of content. As a human being, you live in circumstances, you take in all kinds of impressions, you process them, you have thoughts about them, you have feelings, you have intentions. All these things are not only there, but you also know that they are there, and as a human being, you can even take it a step further, namely, that you not only know what content is present in you, but that you also know that it is you who is aware of that content.

It is very difficult to put this into words because you can really only perceive it when you enter into meditation, into contemplation, and try to find it within yourself. Of course, I know what consciousness is as a human being. I do not need a psychologist or brain research for that. But it is not accepted when I simply express it as a human being. It must have a scientific quality.

So, you can really only find this in self-examination through contemplation and self-reflection, but then you cannot actually express it. I want to say it to you, and at the moment that I say it, it slips away because it is something that, as soon as you start speaking, for example, you somehow lose it. Of course, you do not lose your consciousness, but you become entirely absorbed in what thoughts you have and what you want to say, and thereby, that which you perceive as consciousness actually disappears.

But well, I am still making an attempt, and I wanted to say, or rather, I would like to call upon you: Close your eyes, look – what actually is my consciousness? Then you will find that it is a kind of light that is cast upon that which lives within you as inner content. The moment you open your eyes, there is also external content that lives within you. But it remains something that takes place within yourself; you cannot extend your consciousness outside yourself. You have it as an intrinsic quality, you have it as a personal capability, and you are so accustomed to it that if someone asks you: Yes, but what actually is consciousness? Then you can come up with a whole number of characteristics, but you then overlook the fact that, as a human being, you carry consciousness within yourself.

And when, as a human being, you truly come to – and it is not difficult at all – tracing consciousness within yourself, then you notice that it is something that actually cannot be captured in a physically scientific way at all. You notice that you have sense impressions, you become aware of them, you notice that you have thoughts, you become aware of them, you are full of feelings, you become aware of them, you want all kinds of things, you become aware of that. And all of this together makes up your consciousness content.

You cannot say: Yes, of course, science does or at least tries to do this, to link consciousness to brain function. But when you search within yourself for what consciousness is, you gradually come to the experience that consciousness is something that does not originate from your bodily functions at all. Then you may say: Why do you say that? How so, I mean, you might just as well say something else…

But then you come to realize that consciousness is something that comes much more from outside your physicality than from it. It is a light that falls on the content of your sense impressions, your thoughts, your feelings, and your will impulses, which you actually always have with you when you are awake. You can also direct it a little, and you can say: I want to be more aware of what I think, and at other moments, I want to be more aware of what I feel. But you cannot connect that being aware to the being of your physicality, and when you begin to experience this more and more, then of course, you also feel, you also experience, how great the wonder is.

That you not only live in a world with all kinds of impressions, thoughts, feelings, and will impulses, but that you are also aware of them, that you truly realize that this is the case. And you begin to feel that there is something present in the human being that is something else than intelligence, which constantly sheds light on everything that the soul, I would say, has in terms of impressions, thoughts, feelings, and will impulses. And the more you become aware of this within yourself, the clearer it becomes that a machine, a device, cannot have such consciousness.

It could be possible that, with the definition of consciousness – which I do not have at hand – that with the definition of consciousness, one could come to the conclusion that artificial intelligence also has something of consciousness. But that is an external observation. If you wanted to know for sure, you would have to be able to penetrate the functions of the device and then be able to perceive from the inside what exactly is happening there.

We cannot do that, but we can see and experience what processes are present in artificial intelligence. You can be impressed by the fact that, for example, you give ChatGPT an assignment, that it executes that assignment and even goes a bit further than what you actually asked for, and that it still belongs to it, it is not nonsense. So, that could give you the impression that the thing knows what it is doing. Because that is consciousness, that it knows what it is doing.

But at other moments, it is very clear that the thing does not know what it is doing at all. And I have thought: Imagine that you, as a human being, are going to make a wonderful journey along the castles of the Loire. You have a great interest in history, in those castles, in where they are located, how they are arranged, what has taken place there. But also in the nature surrounding them, the river that flows there, perhaps also the vineyards that are there, the romantic hotels you can visit, the typically French restaurants along the road.

You make such a journey, and your consciousness is filled with your thoughts, your feelings, and your will impulses, with how wonderful it is there. Now, you also have a talent for writing, and you come home and write a book about traveling along the Loire, and you try to express everything you have experienced there in that book.

That book is published, other people buy that book, and based on what is written in it, they go on a journey along the Loire themselves, searching for those hotels, searching for those castles, reading about the history. Then, of course, they have their own consciousness of what such a journey along the Loire is. Such a person also has a slightly different perspective, perhaps less interest in history and more in the vineyards, perhaps more inclined to visit wine castles rather than historical castles. So they write a slightly different book, and you can imagine that, let’s say, 13 people take a journey along the Loire, they are all extraordinarily talented and write a book. These books appear on the internet, complete with their content, and at a certain moment, you can ask ChatGPT:  Can you summarize those 13 books for me? Can you extract the most important aspects so that I can take the very best from all those journeys and then go on my own trip? It can do that. But do you think that when it does, you will get anything of the experience of those people who made those journeys, who wrote those books? Of course not. Those people put their heart and soul into writing. But now it becomes a synthesis of different journeys, and naturally, it may be very useful when you are going to make that journey yourself.

But if you are not going to make that journey, then you actually have nothing, because what was originally in those books, because those people wrote them with their whole heart and full consciousness, that falls away. And if you do not understand that—well, then you might say: Ah, we don’t actually need all those people who write syntheses and who know so well how to put everything into words. We don’t need them at all; we’ll just ask the machine, and it will do it for us.

Of course, in science, it is exactly the same.

What I have also gathered from all these thoughts is the question: How can there ever be an intelligence that does not have access to senses? Because how can you claim that the machine has those living sensory experiences that those people had when they made that journey along the Loire? They saw everything, smelled it, felt it, tasted it. It was their consciousness that experienced that. That machine does not have that capability at all, and I then asked that same ChatGPT:  What about a robot? It has to resemble a human. Does it then also have sensory impressions?

Of course, I cannot say that I suddenly completely trust ChatGPT, but anyway, I did get an answer, and it was as follows:  No, a robot does not have senses like a human, but it does have sensors. Cameras instead of eyes, microphones instead of ears, gas sensors instead of olfactory organs, pressure sensors instead of tactile organs, and in this way, those sensors must be combined to transition into action.

Yes, what a poor wretch such a robot is! We can detach ourselves from it again because we can say: It is just a machine.

But the question remains: What are we humans actually doing with these creations, with something we call intelligent, while we still know that intelligence is connected to external perception or internal perception and thinking? And what kind of intelligence will that be if the entire sensory existence is eliminated?

Those were my thoughts over the past week.

And yes, when I take in all this information—not too much, but some—where it is said that this must become Humanity 4.0, then I do wonder: Do you really have no awareness of what a human being actually is? That is impossible!

We must, as human beings—and I truly believe this—we must deepen our understanding of the specifically human aspect of intelligence. And today, for me, that was consciousness and the senses.