The Science of Mindlessness

The question of where technology might end and we might begin is not actually about the capabilities of artificially intelligent machines but how we think of ourselves. As human beings, we are both physical and conscious. We walk the earth as animals and can wander among the stars. We are bound by impulse and need and are most ourselves when we transcend them. Since Descartes argued that these two dimensions of human existence are fundamentally different in their nature, Western thinkers have struggled to find a consistent set of principles to put them back together.