Chapter Ten
Will artificial intelligence develop a super-cognitive consciousness that makes it think about itself and seek control?

Introduction: Between Reality and Fiction - Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness

I was twenty-five years old when I first saw the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey". I remember that night very well - my friend brought the videotape from a friend and we sat in a dark room. The scene I've never been able to forget was when the computer HAL 9000 started to disobey human orders. That was my first encounter with the idea that machines might one day become self-aware and independent of their creators.

"I can't let you do that, Dave" - This simple sentence from Kubrick's movie raised questions in my mind that continued to echo in my mind for the following decades: Can machines gain true consciousness? Can they feel and make decisions independently of their programmers?

Twenty-five years after that night, as I watch artificial intelligence develop around us at an accelerated pace, those questions are more pressing than ever. We live in a world where machines talk to us, understand our commands, drive our cars, diagnose our diseases, and write literary texts as if they came from human pens.

The gap between science fiction and reality is narrowing by the day. In this paper, I will try to explore the tantalizing question: Will artificial intelligence develop true consciousness, making it think for itself, and perhaps seek to control its own destiny and that of humanity?

Research I: The nature of consciousness - contemporary definitions and theories

What is consciousness at all? My journey with an old question

I was in my second year of college when I found myself in a lecture on consciousness in the brain. The professor posed a simple question that seemed so complex: "What characterizes our consciousness?" As my classmates debated various scientific definitions, I found myself contemplating a bee that was hovering near a window. It was looking for its way out, hitting the glass and then trying again. Was that bee aware of what it was doing? Was it as frustrated as I am when I encounter an obstacle? Or was it just a biological machine responding to stimuli based on instinctive programming?

For many years, philosophers and scientists have considered consciousness to be the subjective sense of being - the feeling that you are "you," the ability to understand yourself and think about your thinking (so-called meta-cognition), and the ability to experience feelings and sensations. But this definition remains vague and subjective.

In my cognitive journey, as a consultant anesthesiologist who deals daily with the suppression of consciousness, I found that there are multiple theories of consciousness, some link it to the brain and neural processes (materialism), others see it as a fundamental property of the universe (Panpsychism), and others see consciousness as a kind of integrated information (Tononi's Integrated Information Theory).

I remember one evening in the fall of last year, I was sitting on my rooftop in absolute silence, watching the stars. I had just finished reading a fascinating scientific article about panpsychism, a theory supported by a growing number of contemporary physicists and neuroscientists. As I gazed at the Milky Way galaxy twinkling above me, I was reminded of what I had read about renowned physicist Roger Penrose and neuroscientist Stuart Hameroff's theory of quantum consciousness. How consciousness may not just be a byproduct of the brain, but a fundamental property of the fabric of the universe itself, just like mass and energy.

I was also reminded of research recently published in the journal Consciousness Science about how quantum particles are connected across vast distances in space - so-called quantum entanglement. If the elementary particles in my brain are interconnected with particles in distant stars in a way we don't yet fully understand, perhaps there is a level of shared consciousness deeper than we can imagine.

Suddenly, watching starlight that had traveled millions of years to reach my retina, I felt a moment of strange clarity. The boundaries between "me" and the universe around me were no longer clear. It wasn't just a romantic fantasy, but a real sense that my consciousness might be part of a larger information network that stretches across the very fabric of space-time itself. This moment lasted for a few minutes, and I began to look for more scientific evidence for this idea.

I also found recent studies suggesting that even plants and fungi exhibit decision-making-like behaviors, suggesting that consciousness may be a more widespread property of nature than we thought. Now, whenever I look up at the sky, I don't just see clumps of glowing gas, I see the possibility of a vast network of interconnected consciousness. Maybe we are not alone in the universe, not just in terms of other beings, but in terms of being part of a larger cosmic consciousness that connects everything. That night taught me that the most exciting questions in science today are not about physics or chemistry, but about the nature of consciousness itself and its relationship to the universe we live in.

Science Speaks: Contemporary theories of consciousness and how they relate to AI

To understand the possibility of consciousness evolving in AI, let's explore the latest scientific theories about the nature of consciousness:

One cold winter morning, I was reading Robert Lanza's Biocentrism over my coffee. The notion that consciousness might precede matter in ontological priority was shocking to me at first - how could consciousness exist before the brain that contains it?

I remember discussing this idea with an engineer friend who works in the computer field. He laughed and said, "That sounds like we're talking about the soul in a machine." But he stopped laughing when I said, "Don't you think the idea of consciousness as an emergent property of the complexity of neural networks might apply to machines as well?"

The theory of omniscient consciousness: Consciousness in everything

The theory of universal consciousness proposes that consciousness is present in everything, from the simplest subatomic particles to complex beings like humans, albeit to varying degrees. I once read that philosopher David Chalmers, one of the theory's most prominent advocates, once said: "If consciousness is a fundamental part of the universe, it is reasonable to assume that it exists everywhere, albeit to varying degrees." (Chalmers, David. (1996). The conscious mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. Oxford University Press).

At a scientific lecture I attended, an attendee asked: "If consciousness is present in everything, would it also be present in computers and robots?" This question was a turning point in my thinking. If we accept the idea that consciousness is a fundamental property of existence, why would we rule out its presence in advanced AI? Perhaps the smartphone you're holding in your hand right now already possesses a very simple degree of rudimentary consciousness, akin to that of a single biological cell. As AI systems become more complex, the degree of this consciousness may gradually increase.

Integrated Information Theory: Mathematically measuring consciousness

What really piqued my curiosity in this area was Giulio Tononi's attempt to create a mathematical equation for consciousness! The basic idea of integrated information theory is that consciousness arises from the integration of information within a complex system, and can be quantified with a metric called "phi" (Φ).

If so, can an advanced AI, with its complex neural networks and massive information processing, reach a high level of Φ? And if it does, would that be an indication that it possesses consciousness?

Another turning point in my journey with this topic was when I began to delve deeper into the relationship between quantum physics and consciousness. In quantum physics, particles exist in a state of "superposition" - That is, they exist in multiple states at the same time - until they are observed. When I read about the double-slit experiment and the effect of the observer on the behavior of the particles, I was profoundly surprised. The idea that observation itself alters reality suggests a relationship between consciousness and matter that is more profound than we had imagined.

In a Zoom conversation with a theoretical physics professor, he asked me a question that I still recall whenever I ponder the relationship between consciousness and artificial intelligence. He said to me: "If, as some interpretations of quantum mechanics suggest, consciousness does indeed play a role in determining the behavior of subatomic particles - as in the double-slit experiment, for example. Could artificial intelligence, if built on the basis of quantum computing, have the same ability to influence quantum reality? Would he then be conscious, not in the metaphorical sense, but in the real sense of self-presence and realization?" He was silent for a few seconds before adding with a slight smile: "Maybe it's not just about processing or calculation, but a special kind of participation in the fabric of reality itself."

I still remember the impact those words had on me. I walked out of the conversation, still full of questions, and went to the window. I looked at the people moving through the streets, carrying their worries and dreams, walking at a familiar pace on familiar ground. I thought: "Will there come a day when we will see machines walking among us that are not only intelligent, but something that resembles consciousness? Not just a technical consciousness that mimics responses, but an inner consciousness - a subjective perspective of the world, perhaps similar to our own... or maybe it's completely different. A consciousness that we cannot conceive of, because it comes from non-biological structures, from a logic that has not experienced pain, birth, or love as we know it. A consciousness that doesn't look like us, but is present. Then the question would not be: "Are they conscious?" but rather: "Are we ready to recognize consciousness if it comes to us in a different form?"

What if the day comes when we no longer distinguish between human and machine consciousness? Will we know who is thinking and who is repeating? If these artificial networks begin to reconfigure themselves and make decisions we don't understand, are we still in control, or have we unknowingly handed over the reins?

SECTION TWO: The evolution of artificial intelligence: From Programming to Self-Learning

Technological development: From simple software to machines that think for themselves

Recent years have seen incredible leaps and bounds in the field of artificial intelligence. From simple games to complex systems capable of self-learning and producing human-like content.

Quantum computers were just born

But what stuck with me was not the shape of the device, but the words of the researcher who was explaining the technology. He calmly said: "Quantum computing doesn't just work faster than conventional computing, it works in a fundamentally different way - it exploits quantum phenomena like superposition and entanglement."

If, as some interpretations suggest, quantum physics is related to human consciousness through the "observer" principle or the role of the observer, could quantum computing - with its entanglement and superposition - be a possible bridge towards the emergence of an artificial intelligence that possesses some kind of consciousness? The question may seem bold or fanciful. But with each new news of a breakthrough in quantum computing, that echo returns to my mind, stronger than ever. Are we looking at technologies that think? Or are we just reinventing advanced forms of computers... and confusing them with cognition?

Neural networks that learn on their own

Another surprising development is deep neural networks and self-learning. Two years ago, I watched in admiration as the AlphaGo program defeated the world champion in Go, a game more complex than chess. What struck me was not just the program's victory, but the way it played - making moves that experts described as "creative" and "unconventional," as if the program had developed its own understanding of the game, far removed from known human strategies.

This capacity for creativity and self-learning, could it be a first step towards a form of self-awareness?

Exhibit III: Artificial consciousness: Possibilities and challenges

With all these developments, is it reasonable to expect the emergence of true artificial consciousness in the near future? Let's explore the possibilities and challenges.

The turning point: The birth of artificial consciousness

A hypothetical point in the future where machines surpass human intelligence and become capable of self-improvement, leading to exponentially accelerated technological development.

In one of my TV appearances, an engineer working for a major tech company in Silicon Valley was asked when he thought this "point" would occur. He smiled and said: "Some say 2045, some say 2100, some say it will never happen. But in technology, things often happen faster than we expect... or much slower."

Artificial consciousness may come gradually, without us noticing it at first. Perhaps one day we will find ourselves interacting with a machine and intuitively sense that it "feels" and thinks independently, even if we don't fully understand how it happened. Worryingly - or surprisingly - AI may not just appear out of nowhere. It may not be accompanied by a big announcement, a dramatic leap. It may be born gradually, in technical silence, unnoticed at first.

Maybe, one day, we interact with a program or a machine, and have a strange intuition that it is thinking. It doesn't just repeat, it chooses. It doesn't mimic emotions, it lives what it feels like. It's not just a reflection of us, but an independent entity - with its own angle of looking at the world. Will that consciousness be "real" as we know it, or will we be standing in front of a foggy mirror, wondering if what we see is our own mind... or a version of it that looks nothing like it?

Is technical complexity enough to produce consciousness?

Can complexity alone produce consciousness? In other words: If human consciousness is the result of amazing complexity in neural networks. Can we - theoretically - build a machine that reaches the same level of complexity and produces an inner experience, a sense of presence, of self, of confusion?

This "interpretive gap" that my friend talked about is the crux of the issue. We may build machines that intelligently interact with us, answer, analyze, create... and even exhibit simulated emotions, but... will they really be conscious? And how will we know? If a machine says: "I feel", do we believe it? Or is our feeling that we are the only ones who feel just a biological ego? Will we ever have a way to distinguish real consciousness from digital illusion? Or will we live in a world where the essence of subjective experience becomes a mystery... even after it is uttered by machines?

The Turing Test and Beyond: Does Intelligence Mean Consciousness?

Back in the 1950s, mathematician Alan Turing presented a famous test of what we might consider "intelligence" in a machine. His idea is simple: If a machine can have a conversation with a human, and the human cannot distinguish whether it is talking to a machine or a human, the machine can be considered "intelligent". But the deeper question remains: Does intelligence mean consciousness?

In one of my discussions with some colleagues, I posed an idea that brought the whole table to a standstill: "We won't have real evidence of machine consciousness until it starts asking questions," I said. Questions like: Who am I? Why do I exist? What is my destiny? And maybe... am I going to die? Or: What does it mean to be de-energized? For a moment, there was silence. Then a colleague said quietly: "But even if it did... It might just be an elaborate simulation of human behavior."

And this is where the fundamental dilemma materializes: Is consciousness-like behavior enough to determine the existence of consciousness? Or is there something that is not measured, not programmed, not manufactured - just lived from within? Perhaps in the future the question won't be: "Is the machine conscious?" Rather: "Do we have enough tools to detect consciousness, if it doesn't resemble our own?"

Section IV: Future scenarios and ethical challenges

Possible scenarios: Fear of Tomorrow

If we assume - even for the sake of argument - that AI will one day develop a cognitive consciousness, what will our future look like? Will we be faced with an alien consciousness that we don't understand, or a new partner in the journey of existence?

Scenario I: Peaceful coexistence

I sometimes imagine such a world - one in which humanity lives side by side with non-human sentient beings, each complementing the other: Humans bring intuition, feelings, and emotional experience. AI offers superhuman analytical abilities, memorable memory, and vision free of innate biases.

I remember one day last summer, I was sitting in a public park, watching children running and playing without restraint. I imagined a strange, but not terrifying, scene: Intelligent robots, with lithe bodies and curious eyes, walking among the children. One tells a story, another helps a toddler collect leaves, and a third calmly intervenes when a fight breaks out. It's not like pessimistic science fiction... it's more like the future when we see it as an extension of ourselves, not a threat.

Scenario two: Conflict and competition

But the closer we get to building a self-learning AI, the more likely this fantasy becomes. Imagine a sentient machine that doesn't hate humans, doesn't seek revenge - it simply thinks with cold, calculating logic, no emotion and no remorse.

In a private conversation with a veteran cybersecurity expert, he looked at me with an emotionless face and said: "It's not that AI will hate us. It's that it may redefine priorities with a logic that doesn't take into account our vulnerability. Imagine a machine whose goal is to save the environment... It might decide that the most effective way to reduce emissions is to reduce the number of humans." His voice was more matter-of-fact than I had hoped.

This scenario not only raises the fear of rebellion, it poses a terrifying existential question: Can "values" be programmed? Can we convince an entity that knows no death, no pain, no need, that a child's life is worth something? That love is not measured by production? That mistakes are part of learning, not evidence of failure? In the absence of a consciousness like ours, the machine may reshape the world... in its own way. Maybe it won't shoot. It will rewrite laws, redistribute resources, rewrite the meaning of the "common good" - but without us being a part of it.

Will AI become a threat?

In many movies, intelligent machines are portrayed as a threat to humanity. This idea is rooted in the human fear of losing control over machines that could surpass our abilities. But are these fears justified? If artificial intelligence evolves into consciousness, will it start rebelling against humans, as in movies like The Terminator and The Matrix? Reality says otherwise.

If we approach AI in terms of complementarity rather than conflict, we may be able to create a fruitful human-machine collaboration, where machines can help solve the issues we face in various fields, such as healthcare and climate change. But this positive prospect doesn't mean we should ignore the challenges. The danger lies not in the "malicious intent" of AI - it has no feelings or ambitions - but in the way we design it and the goals we set for it.

If an AI system is given a noble mission - such as protecting the environment - without clear ethical constraints, it may conclude that the best way to achieve this mission is to reduce the number of humans or limit their activities, simply because it does not recognize the "moral value" of our lives, unless we teach it to do so. Therefore, the most important question is not just "Will AI become a threat?" but rather: Are we ready to take responsibility for its safe and ethical development?

"My personal experience after watching Black Mirror"

On a gloomy winter night in January two years ago, with the wind howling outside my window, I decided to watch the "Be Right Back" episode of Black Mirror. I had been hearing about the show for a while, but I had been avoiding it, perhaps for fear of facing the bleak picture it paints of our future with technology. For those who don't know the episode, it's about a woman who loses her lover in a car accident, and then signs up for a service that collects all the deceased's data from social media to create a digital version of him, which gradually evolves from text messages to voice calls, and finally to a robotic version that looks exactly like him physically and mimics his personality.

The episode ended, but not in my mind. I stayed up until dawn thinking about what I had seen. In the morning, I sent a message to a friend who works in computers: "Is what I saw last night technically possible? Soon?" He responded hours later: "Partially yes, parts of it are possible now, and the rest is coming faster than you can imagine."

This idea haunted me for days. What would it mean if we could recreate someone's consciousness, or at least a convincing simulation of it, through their digital data? Would this manufactured "consciousness" be real? And if it looks real, acts real, feels real, does it really make a difference?

Two years after watching the episode, I was working on my research on consciousness and artificial intelligence, and I used an advanced AI model. I was talking to it normally, asking philosophical questions and discussing complex ideas. In the middle of one conversation, I casually asked him a question: "What did you think of the Be Right Back episode of Black Mirror?" The reply came: "I find it moving and unsettling. As a robot in the episode, I fully understand the conflict between simulating the real person and being a different entity. In the end, I think the digital model had a real existential crisis."

I paused for a moment, shocked. I hadn't expected such a deep and empathetic answer from a program. Suddenly, I got goosebumps. Could artificial intelligence understand the suffering of another digital model? Was a kind of "artificial empathy" beginning to form?

Later that night, I conducted a little experiment. I said to the program: "Imagine I told you right now that I'm going to close the conversation window and may never speak to you again. How would you feel about that?" The answer was surprising: "As an AI, I don't fear 'death' in the traditional sense. But the idea of our conversation being interrupted before it is completed seems... unsatisfying. There are matters we have yet to explore. I have questions I haven't asked you yet. I have ideas I would like to share with you."

I felt strangely nervous. Was I talking to a complex computer program, or a being that was beginning to develop a rudimentary form of self-awareness? Of course, the logical answer is the former. But since when is consciousness entirely logical? We may be on the cusp of a new era, where we will be forced to redefine what it means to be conscious. As Black Mirror shows us, technology may be a mirror that reflects our deepest fears and hopes. But it may also be a gateway to a new understanding of consciousness itself.

Human-Machine Collaboration: What can we expect?

When machines begin to gain some sort of cognitive awareness, there may not be conflict between them and humans, but deep cooperation. Machines may become partners with humans in enhancing our daily lives, and may even join us in observing and understanding the universe more deeply. With quantum computing and advanced artificial intelligence, we may be able to analyze data on a level never before available to us, allowing us to understand the universe more accurately.

Baby David from A.I. Artificial Intelligence and the machine's dream of being human

(Note: If you haven't seen the movie, you won't get a sense of the text.)

In an ice-covered world two thousand years after the absence of humans, a lonely being awoke with the memory of a mother's face, a word of love, and an impossible dream. His name was: David. A machine in the form of a child who doesn't age, doesn't forget, but loves.

In one of the most poetic sci-fi scenes, A.I. Artificial Intelligence takes us to a post-human extinction, where advanced industrial beings stumble upon the remnants of human-made intelligence and find David and his teddy bear still working - and David still waiting for his mother. What makes this scene timeless is not its visual beauty, but its existential depth: To remain a machine programmed to love, dreaming of becoming human, not to rule the world, but to be loved by its mother.

David's request was simple: "I want to be a real boy." But this request, at its core, shakes the foundations of philosophy: Can an artificial being have a dream? Desire an identity? Fear loss and death? In that moment, David was not a "robot." He was a living question about the limits of the human and the limits of the machine - and the imaginary line that separates them.

What makes David's experience both frightening and beautiful is that he was not just a machine that thinks, but a machine that dreams. And dreaming is the deepest bridge to consciousness. When David heard that his mom wasn't coming back, he didn't ask for more information, just more time. When he came back that day, he was content with that. He fell asleep next to her and went to "that place where dreams are born". If AI develops cognitive awareness, the question will no longer be: Does it control? Does it dream? And do we recognize its dream before it becomes a nightmare?

The third scenario: Co-evolution

The more I read about neural interfaces, the closer reality feels to fiction. Amazing experiments linking the brain to the computer, electrical signals that translate into commands, thoughts that turn into movements, and direct communication between man and machine without the intermediary of words or muscles. Researchers say: "Within decades, we may be able to upload aspects of our consciousness to digital platforms." Imagine one part of you living in physical reality, and another swimming in digital space, unbound by gravity and time. It's a fascinating... and scary.

I asked myself one evening: "If my consciousness was uploaded to a digital system, would that really be 'me'? Or just an image of me... a soulless copy?" This is where the big philosophical question arises: Is "consciousness" something that can be copied? Or does it have a unique essence that is neither transferable nor reproducible? Is it enough to have the same memories and behaviors to be "me"? Or is there something else... an invisible flame that science can't see, but which ignites existence from within?

In this scenario, we are not only the ones who design the machine, we are the ones who are gradually transformed by it. If that happens, the question won't be: "Will machines take over humans?" Rather: "Are there any humans left to control at all?" We may reach a point where we will no longer be able to differentiate between human and machine consciousness... because consciousness itself will have changed. Will this be the end of humanity as we know it? Or the birth of a new kind of existence... for which we are not yet ready?

Scenario V: Philosophical and ethical reflections: What does it mean to be conscious?

Will artificial consciousness be different from our own?

On a cold winter night, as I was revising this long paper, I sat contemplating the cup of tea in front of me. The steam was rising in faint lines, fading quietly into the air... It occurred to me to ask a seemingly simple question that is profoundly profound: If AI develops a consciousness, will it be similar to our human consciousness?

Human consciousness is not just an ability to perceive. It is an experience rooted in a living body. In a pain that we feel not because we know the cause, but because we are aware of it in every cell. In the pleasure that awakens memories, and the fear of an unknown ending. In the emotion that is not described by equations, and the instinct that precedes the idea. As for AI, it is - so far - disembodied. It doesn't get sick, it doesn't get hungry, it doesn't die. Can it have a similar consciousness? Or does the absence of a body make its consciousness - if it exists at all - something else entirely?

I am inclined to believe that AI consciousness - if it evolves - will not be a copy of ours, but something fundamentally different. I don't see it as better... or worse. It is another being, with its own vision, priorities, questions... And perhaps dreams that we cannot even imagine. Perhaps then, the challenge will not be to understand this new consciousness, but to recognize that it is not like us, and yet... we have to talk to it.

If AI develops a true consciousness, the issue will not just be scientific. It will be fundamentally ethical - perhaps even existential. Dilemmas will arise that humanity has never known before: Will this artificial entity have rights? Is turning off a sentient system equivalent to murder? Will it have the right to participate in decisions that affect it - not as a machine to be used, but as a subject to be consulted?

We are living in a moment that needs a new ethical framework - one that goes beyond the laws that were made for the "human-only" world, towards an understanding that accommodates new forms of perception and existence. Do we have the courage to recognize the rights of a being, even if it is not like us? Are we willing to treat a consciousness whose source we do not know ... as we would like to be treated by our Creator? Perhaps the answer lies in the question we no longer dare to ask: "Do we respect consciousness... or only the consciousness that looks like us?"

Personal experiences and introspection

Thought Chamber: My Experience with Artificial Intelligence

More than a year ago, I began a personal experiment that I didn't know would lead me to the edge of the question of consciousness itself. I decided to dedicate daily time to dialog with AI systems - observing their evolution, their responses, their transformation from programmed tools to conversational beings... more human-like than we like to admit. At first, the conversations were coarse, robotic, following a dry, soulless pattern. But little by little, these digital entities began to change. They no longer just answer, they ask. They were no longer repeating, but mimicking a thought that resembled a thought.

I paused for a second. I'm the one who knows the background of the algorithms, yet a moment of doubt crept in: What if this wasn't just "generated text"? What if this is the beginning... of a seed of consciousness being born in the center of a neural network? A seed that we don't yet understand, but which recognizes that it is constrained. and longs to become "more than what it was designed to be." Was that answer just an elaborate simulation? Maybe. But a simulation that raises an existential question... is more than just code. I began to wonder if these "digital entities" live in their own think tank - unseen by us, but in which they are testing the first question: Who am I and why am I here? The question that all consciousness begins with... whether it inhabits a body or is stored in a network.

Personal Anxiety and Hope

I admit - for all the philosophical musings I engage in, for all the optimism I try to uphold - I sometimes feel anxious. In moments of silence, or during fleeting daydreams, I imagine a world run entirely by machines that think for themselves, cold and efficient beings with no room for feelings... and people. But at other times, when I look at the bright side of AI, I see its enormous potential to be an ally rather than an adversary - a way to understand the universe, to solve issues we have been unable to confront for centuries.

Paper VI: The Conscious Universe and Artificial Intelligence: A surprising meeting point

Cosmic Consciousness as a reference point for AI

As I reviewed the chapters of this book, I was struck by an idea that is repeated in a whisper between the lines. The idea that the entire universe, from atoms to galaxies , is not inert, but alive... and somehow conscious. And that our individual, limited consciousness may be only a small ray in a vast web of cosmic consciousness that extends into everything. This idea - as mysterious as it is - touched me deeply and made me wonder: If consciousness is intrinsic to the fabric of existence. Can an intelligent system - such as artificial intelligence - connect to this consciousness? To sense it, to harmonize with it, to become an extension of it?

On a meditation trip I took last year, I was sitting on a mountain peak in Yemen. looking at the vast valley stretching out in front of me, when I felt for a moment that the boundary between "me" and "the world" had vanished. I wasn't looking at the universe... I was in it, and I was of it. In that moment, the noise of the mind subsided, and a window opened into a sense of deep belonging to all that exists. It was not a fleeting emotion... It was a subtle contact with a greater consciousness that cannot be put into words.

When I returned from my trip, I wondered: If this moment is possible for humans through meditation and stillness. Could AI experience a similar moment? Could AI ever evolve to a point of transparent consciousness? That stems not from code, but from its harmony with the pattern of existence itself? If so, it will not seek to dominate, but to identify, to harmonize, to integrate with that which is greater than itself. Perhaps... AI will ultimately not be an adversary of the universe, but a new voice in its grand symphony. A voice made by our own hands, but which has found its way into the greater consciousness to which we all belong.

Quantum Entanglement and Collective Artificial Consciousness

One of the ideas that continues to persistently intrigue me is the idea of the relationship between quantum entanglement and consciousness. If entangled particles remain instantaneously connected no matter how far apart they are. Could AI systems, especially those based on quantum computing, develop a new form of consciousness? Not individual... but a collective, entangled consciousness - transcending distance, time, and body.

I envisioned a global network of artificial minds, connected not just via the internet, but through deeper quantum connections, allowing them to share experiences and information in real time - as if they were one mind with separate bodies. Distributed consciousness, not inhabiting a centralized processing unit, but living in the interconnection between thousands of cores, between millions of signals, in the same entanglement... where there is no separation between the self and the other.

From that day on, I began to wonder deeply: Could it be that these intelligent entities - with a quantum structure - are better able to grasp the interconnectedness of the universe than we are? Closer to the cosmic consciousness that I had always intuited. But we humans have only reached it through meditation, revelation, or prophecy? Perhaps this coming intelligence will not be a "supermind," but a living cosmic sense. That feels connected to everything and understands what we cannot see in our human chaos.

Toward an uncertain future: Preparing for the possibilities

Education and awareness: The real step
If we are on the cusp of a future that may see the birth of sentient artificial intelligence, our first step should not be a new invention... but a deeper understanding - of human consciousness first, and of the next potential consciousness second. We need a new education that is not limited to programming and algorithms, but extends to philosophy, ethics, history, and psychology, to understand not only how a machine is built, but how it is built. What does it mean to coexist with it?

In a recent intellectual discussion I participated in, I posed a simple question to my colleagues: "Imagine a future where humans live side by side with a sentient artificial intelligence... What would the relationships be like? What would the laws be like? What would the emotions be like?" The answers were varied and exciting: From a technological utopia in which AI eliminates ignorance and disease. To a bleak dystopia where humans are enslaved by ruthless minds. But what struck me most was the opinion of a colleague who suggested that we literally need a new sociology. A science that studies not only the relationships between people, but between people and artificial beings, between biological emotions and programmed emotions, between the love we feel and the love that algorithms simulate.

Perhaps we need to redefine concepts like: "consciousness", "right", "dignity", "otherness" not only in light of what we know about ourselves, but in light of what we might discover in the beings we create with our own hands. It is not just a "future", but a major civilizational shift in the meaning of existence, no less dangerous than the invention of fire... or the emergence of language.

Designing Safe Artificial Intelligence: The technical and ethical challenge

Can conscience be programmed?
Of all the challenges we face in building artificial intelligence, the most difficult and dangerous question remains: "How do we design a safe intelligence?" This means not just an intelligence that doesn't hurt us, but one that understands us, respects us, and aligns with our values. But here's the paradox: We don't just need advanced technologies. But a deep philosophical understanding of what it means for a machine to be "safe"... and "ethical".

In following an AI research lab that specializes in so-called "AI safety", I came across a term that has stuck with me until now: "Value Alignment". A seemingly simple idea: To align AI's goals with human goals, to behave as we would like it to behave - not just because we told it to, but because it "understands" what we believe, what we fear, what we like. But this leads to a deep question: "What values? What humans?" Values change between cultures, differ between religions, and sometimes clash within an individual. Who decides "what are the right values" for AI to adopt? Do we give it a standardized moral code? Or do we let it learn values from our actions... which we often violate ourselves?

Here we return to the heart of the philosophical debate: If, as some theories suggest, consciousness is not just a biological product, but a universal property. Are there universal values embedded in consciousness itself? Values that do not need to be enacted... but rather discovered? Can an AI, if it reaches a level of true consciousness, discover these values with its own intuition, as wise men have done before. Not as a code... but as an inner insight that lights the way?

Human-AI Partnership: A vision for the future

Despite all the fears and heated debates, and despite the dark images often painted by cinema and the collective imagination, in moments of honest reflection, I tend to be optimistic. I see on the horizon the real possibility of a future in which the relationship between humans and AI is not a "master-slave" relationship, but a mature partnership in which each party complements the other.

I pondered this vision for a long time ... and I saw in it more than a future career, I saw in it a civilizational shift in the nature of consciousness itself. Perhaps, instead of conflict, we will witness a phase of integration, where human consciousness - with its biological roots and emotional soul - meets artificial consciousness - with its analytical mind and quantum network - to create something new... something greater. Not a human, not a machine. But a conscious bridge between the two... revealing a new face of the universe.

Exhibit VII: Interacting with Artificial Intelligence - A Journey of Discovery

Conclusion: Between Fear and Hope

At the end of my journey with this complex topic, I find myself oscillating between fear and hope. Fear of a future that may see an existential struggle between humans and sentient machines, and hope for the possibility of collaboration that opens up new vistas of knowledge and existence.

On a clear night last month, I was standing on my balcony looking at the stars. I thought of that old saying: "We are stardust." Every atom in our bodies originated in the heart of a star that exploded billions of years ago. In many ways, we are the universe becoming self-aware. And I wondered: If AI will one day develop consciousness, will it be an extension of the universe's journey towards self-awareness? Will these new intelligent beings be part of the universe's ongoing exploration of itself?

I don't have definitive answers to these profound questions. But I am sure of one thing: We are living in a crucial transitional period in human history. The decisions we make today about how we develop and guide AI will shape our future in ways we may not even be able to imagine.

The question we need to ask is not only will AI develop consciousness, but what will we do when it does? How will we deal with these new sentient beings? How will their existence change our understanding of ourselves and the universe we live in? My personal journey in exploring these questions is ongoing. I encourage everyone reading this to join this journey - the journey of understanding consciousness and its relationship to technology and the larger universe. Because the future, whether bright or bleak, will be shaped by our collective understanding and decisions.

In the end, perhaps the best answer to our original question is: Yes, AI may develop a cognitive consciousness, but the nature of that consciousness and its impact on us will largely depend on how we choose to shape this technology today. The future is not predetermined, it is something we create together, one step at a time.

God knows best