Turing’s Vision

Turing’s dangerous idea is that intelligence, and by extension mind and consciousness, is not an inherent property of humans, but a way in which matter is functionally organized. If matter is organized in a functionally appropriate way, then our brains spontaneously adopt an intentional stance consisting of social cognition in relation to other individuals and anthropomorphism toward other animals and artifacts. This idea is not new in the history of thought and underlies the modern science of mind, i.e., cognitive science. This idea is groundbreaking and now assumes the status of a normal science, not just another cultural perspective. For decades we have pretended that this idea does not have the corrosive power that it actually does, perhaps more so than the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions. But now, given the achievements of new forms of computing centered on Deep Learning, predictive coding, and quantum computing, the most common intuitions can no longer avoid the dangerous Turing idea. Humanoid robotics, security policy, and self- driving cars are just a few of the things that are changing our everyday lives. The rapid advancement of AI is eroding one by one all the cornerstones considered unique and constitutive of human nature: language, consciousness, creativity, moral responsibility. New ethical questions emerge. What is the most appropriate way to interact with machines, without being overwhelmed by the fear that machines will turn against us, and resisting enslaving them? Analysis of the most likely future scenarios suggests a new form of intelligence, widespread in the environment, in artifacts, and on the Internet, that promises to improve a range of human performance, but risks thereby losing its bearer as a result, violating one of the basic rules of how the mind works, namely that intentional states must have a bearer. But without a bearer, intelligence also loses the property of responsibility–