Ray Kurzweil

So my question is for both Peter and Ray.

I work at the Crossroads of Consciousness and Creation.

I'm curious if your views on personhood have changed in the past decade.

And especially you, Peter, as you've had a month of... Ray, do you want to go first?

First of all, it's not a scientific question.

Second of all, it may be the most important question that you could answer.

But there's no scientific proof.

You put an entity in, oh, this one's conscious.

No, this one isn't.

We believe that, like other people, like all the people in this room who are acting conscious, probably are conscious.

But when you go outside of human activity, like animals,

Is there more than one consciousness in your own mind?

I provide where the left and right brain actually seem to have different consciousness.

Is your stomach conscious?

Is there actually something in your gut that seems to be conscious?

So...

Who is conscious and what does that mean?

As Rilke says, learn to love the question, eh?

Yes.

Language is a thin pipe.