I need to unearth it again. It may be that “consciousness” as we understand it, is overrated. The notion that some vast superhuman entity, if it exists—call it God, or some non-personified Cosmic Organizing Principle—would perforce be “self”-aware strikes me as the sort of assumption that comes as naturally to humans as might the belief, to a race of theologically-minded grizzlies, that the production of nice fat salmon is the necessary end and goal of the universe.

And when, as certainly seems possible, we devise entities that, with no “there” there, behave otherwise, appearing not merely to exhibit intentionality but to act* as though possessing this, might we begin to ponder our own processes—is there truly a there here?

idly,

*As in one of those fanciful doomsday scenarios wherein an AI directed to manufacture paperclips exterminates humanity “without a thought”—not even for shits and giggles—in order to maximize production.