In this talk from the Revolution Festival 2018, Daniel Morley of the Socialist Appeal editorial board examines one of the most long-standing questions of philosophy: what is consciousness?
The question of human consciousness has become increasingly relevant with the rise of artificial intelligence. Modern technological advances have raised the idea of creating machines capable of thinking for themselves. This has generated hopes - and fears - that the next generation of robots will be able to display signs of consciousness. But is all this just the stuff of science fiction?
Daniel attempts to answer these questions using the method of dialectical materialism - the philosophy of Marxism. In the process, Daniel explores the mysterious world of the human brain, examining what it is that separates our minds from machines.