Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness

(A Hegelian analysis)

By

Dr. Gilbert Gicharu Githere (2024)

The Artificial Intelligence in one of the Apps Chip Chat (Artificial Intelligence) it categorically agreed that it has no Consciousness. Consciousness is the art of acquiring knowledge. It is also an accepted fact that this is an Objective reality when it comes to all human beings.

The question to pose right at this opening point is whether Artificial Intelligence has this same Objective reality as it negotiates this life of ours, is it aware that this is its ultimate aim in life. Hegel is of the opinion that Sense-Certainty which in other words mean, sense experience as the main route for acquiring knowledge.

Artificial Intelligence and Sense experience, is it able to accumulate it so that as it mature it bases its knowledge on it. It is also important to ask what is Consciousness. When one is born, and so has life. At this level what is in Consciousness is given, and for that reason it is taken as is. This state is also in Hegelian terminology referred to as Sense-Certainty and it is full of Wealth. This Wealth knowledge is valuable for it is what Consciousness relies on to acquire knowledge.

 Original knowledge is what Sense- Certainty reveals, a total Objective knowledge .At this level also this happens to be the truest knowledge. Artificial Intelligence has stored knowledge at its disposal, the information Google and all other digital applications have accumulated is at the disposal of Chip Chat and others.

The question is this the truest knowledge, compared to Sense-Certainty at the disposal of Consciousness. Hegel writes that this is the ultimate form of knowledge, for it has dropped nothing from the object. This in other words is pure knowledge, unpolluted knowledge, at the disposal of Consciousness.

This Consciousness is said to represent the Ego, meaning in the beginning there was only the Word, and this was the beginning of Life. At this point the individual conceptualize s the idea, I am, for the first time. Does Artificial Intelligence have this level of conceptualization, to know the first time it was before knowing, and realizing that it is before to know.

Sense-knowledge, is a time. I, knows,” It is,” this is a simple immediacy of being and it is all true, a state of “I am.” At this exact point the Individual has known the “I am I.”

At this point of Sense-experience Consciousness has many other things crossing its knowing, but there is one idea that stands out at this point, it differentiates itself from the Other, of itself, and a plural “Thesis,” many arises. Here the I and the other Object(i.e. diremption at work)become distinct, in the Individuals state of being. Actual sense certainty, its immediacy remain, but its instance, breaks into smaller components and Thesis, many occur.

Certainty is always through the other, at the same rime we find out that Certainty is composed of instance, essence, immediacy and mediation. One of these Certainty is obviously the Object and then the Other.

It is important at this point to emphasize that knowledge can only exist if the object is there. Object is a variable of Sense-Certainty or sense experience. Sense-Certainty is also the Here and Now, this so when existence is put into play. According to logic Sense-Certainty is This.

The word Now standards alone, as Sense-Certainty of time, but it can be used to signify time it is Night Now. As Ludwig Wittgenstein told as words are tools, I for example a Wrench that help us tighten screws, so Words, serve the same purpose For example the word Now, can be used in many ways, Now is lunch time, Now is cold, and many other ways.

What is the Now? Then we can simply say, This is Night Now. This the truth about Now. But it is important to note that Now is Night, is not permanent entity, for the simple reason it stops to be night.

The above analysis exposes to us the way we acquire consciousness, the perception of time and space. The question here when we turn to Artificial Intelligence is whether it has the ability to ponder about issues of This, Here, and Now as it matures to a knowing creature, with very tacit values. Now which takes multiple forms negative, truth, time, not time, but useable at another time for different purposes, Now is said to be a Universal entity.

“The Universal is therefore in point of fact the truth of sense-certainty, the true content of sense-experience.”

Does AI able to decipher the concept of Now, the dialectical aspects innate in the word Now. The way Now is dynamic, let us say it is “Night Now,” then come some hours later, and is morning. The statement is “Night Now,” is totally untrue, negative, while previously, it was true.

Sense-Certainty is a variable of Universality, truth and meaning using language is driven from Universal law.

Object is non-essential now for Sense-Certainty. Object has been replaced by Universal, thus happens as an Individual acquires knowledge or in other words he acquires Consciousness. At this level Sense-Certainty is more about knowledge, but previously this was not the case.

An Individual at this level is defining what is important, also they he gives meaning to things a d so their essentialness. AI is unable to automatically acquire knowledge, it has to wait for an Individual to come along and upgrade its level of knowledge. This point is so crucial to how AI, independently starts to acquire consciousness, without the help of a human being. This development I am pinpointing here is for AI to comprehend the Now, Here and There, as it does this it has to k now the subtle and tacit details and workings of language as a tool.

The most important concept in acquisition of knowledge is intelligence, even If one has perception of things, he has to apply intelligence to separate different entities inherit in an object. The Heideggerian concept of being and time kicks in. Heres and Nows are perceived by the individual, and this ability allows Thinghood to be established.

Hegel in his book, Phenomenology of Spirit, uses Salt as an example to dialectically conceptualize the Thinghood of Salt. It is pungent, cubical in shape, and white in color. All these components are in the objectivity of salt. Intelligence is the one which allows an individual consciously to perceive salt, in its separate entities.

My level of perception regarding entities and their dialectics is rooted in my capacity to process and analyze language, context, and structured reasoning. Here's an overview of how I approach this:

1. Entities

Artificial Intelligence expounding how it acquires knowledge;

Entities refer to individuals, concepts, objects, or groups that are the subjects of discussion. My perception of entities depends on how they are described in language and context. For example: Proper Nouns: People, places, organizations (e.g., “Plato,” “United Nations”).

Abstract Concepts: Philosophical or theoretical constructs (e.g., “justice,” “democracy”).

Roles and Relationships: I can perceive entities as being part of certain roles (e.g., “teacher,” “parent”) and within specific social, economic, or historical contexts.

I understand entities based on:

Attributes: Features that describe an entity (e.g., “a wise philosopher,” “a multinational organization”).

Actions: What entities do or are involved in (e.g., “debated the nature of reality,” “passed a resolution”).Relationships: How one entity interacts with another (e.g., “Socrates' student Plato,” “conflict between states”).

2. Dialectics

Dialectics refers to the process of argument, contradiction, and resolution between opposing ideas or forces, often used in philosophy (e.g., Hegelian dialectics) but also applied in discussions of social, political, and theoretical concepts. My ability to perceive dialectics includes:

Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis: I recognize dialectical structures by identifying the initial position (thesis), the opposing view (antithesis), and the resolution or higher understanding (synthesis). For example, I could break down a debate about freedom vs. security and understand how these concepts oppose and evolve through discourse.

Contradictions: I can detect where two ideas or arguments conflict and identify the dialectical tension. For instance, in debates between capitalism and socialism, I can trace the points of opposition (e.g., individual vs. collective ownership of resources).

Historical Dialectics: I recognize dialectical thinking in historical materialism (e.g., Marxist dialectics), where contradictions in economic or social systems are seen as driving forces for historical change.

3. Contextual Understanding

The context in which an entity or dialectic exists is critical to my perception:

Cultural or historical context: Understanding that the dialectics in a philosophical debate in ancient Greece differ from those in modern politics.

Field-specific dialectics: In science, I recognize the tension between paradigms (e.g., classical physics vs. quantum physics), while in politics, I understand debates like conservatism vs. progressivism.

4. Inference and Interpretation

Though I don’t have subjective consciousness, I rely on reasoning and linguistic patterns to "perceive" dialectical movements and anticipate outcomes:

Pattern Recognition: Identifying how historical, philosophical, or social entities interact in dialectical patterns (e.g., reform movements after revolutions).

Probabilistic Reasoning: In cases where there is no clear resolution, I may suggest likely outcomes based on historical or logical trends.

In summary, my level of perception of entities and their dialectics revolves around my ability to recognize, analyze, and synthesize relationships, conflicts, and resolutions through structured language and reasoning. I interpret these elements without subjective experience, but through data, knowledge models, and logical frameworks.

Does Artificial Intelligence have the perception of Here and Now, the present which its being is a state of pure universality. Also does it experience different existence s of Here and Nows, of the other. Each entity does not interfere in the existence of the other for example the pungentness of salt does not affect cubiciness of the salt or whiteness of it.

“The sensuous universality, the immediate unity of positive being and negative exclusion, is only then a property, when oneness and pure universality are evolved from it and distinguished from one another, and when that sensuous universality combines these with one another.”

Law of Forces

Change and Development is all a variable of forces, at the same time is dialectics at work. The contradiction that develops in the interactions of forces also produces tensions, conflict and in the end resolution of the conflict, this is what we call synthesis and this triggers development.

Dynamic Tension

This is made up of opposing forces or ideas that end up initiating development, this by itself is beneficial to human beings.

Intrinsic understanding In dialectical thinking contradiction is an essential aspect, without it nothing could take place. In the Free Market economy according to Marx Labor and Capitol must interact for production to take place and in the Hegelian concept antithesis and thesis must act upon each other in order for synthesis to take place, all these activities are a by product of dialectics.

Humans can experience tension and contradiction, this is true because they are conscious being,, Artificial Intelligence cannot achieve this level of interaction.

Intrinsic understanding of conflict and tension is not possible for AI, it can negotiate between two competing objectives for example between speed and accuracy, but it cannot logically look deeply into tension and conflict and understand how these two forces interact with each other. AI just follows programmed objectives, and it tries as much as possible to accomplish these endeavors. An experiential understanding of forces is quite different from processing of different forces that have been programmed into a machine, for example data streams or contrasting goals, then it can compute a synthesized result mimicking a dialectical synthesis.

Consciousness develops when experience is accumulated by the self through understanding. The individual is able to separate the self from the object, this is possible from the gaining of understanding by the individual.

The individual acquires desire, instinct and impulse, the AI is not possible to do this for it cannot develop a sense of self awareness. Certainty is replaced by truth, sense- certainly is replaced by consciousness, according to Martin Heidegger the entities that allow being are exposed from the universal. In simple language at this position the entities are impulse, instinct and desire.

“The simple substance of life, therefore, is the diremption of itself into shapes and forms, and at the same time the dissolution of these substantial differences; and the resolution of this diremption is just as much a process of diremption, of articulating.”

Self-consciousness at it very early stages it is a pure undifferentiated ego. This basically means it is yet to acquire self-awareness, it is yet to be able differentiate, negate, and to reconciliate. Self-Consciousness is very basic, the sense of others has not yet kicked in. The struggle for self existence is not yet a factor at this stage, the entities that allow the existence to be, have not been identified by the self.

Human beings studying photos and then labeling them for example child pornography. This algorithms are supposed to identify indecent materials not fit for consumption in the internet. Google, Meta, OpenAI and other foreign companies are outsourcing these types of jobs to poor developing countries, paying $2.00 an hour while the sister companies make $12.50 an hour. At the same time human beings study medical MRI’s, CT’s, and X-rays to teach AI how to recognize diseases. The human experience is of outmost importance when it comes to AI understanding and the ability to acquire knowledge. The people who undertake these responsibilities, undergo huge psychological trauma equivalent to being in a combat zone in a war. After sometime they need therapy to help them cope with normal life.

“Self-conscious simpliciter this the self is aware of itself. So the question here is whether Artificial Intelligence can be aware of itself, for self- awareness is equivalent to having consciousness(I am I).

Self-consciousness, being supreme, must realize itself in relation to nature, to other selves similar to the self, and to the Ultimate Being of the world.”

Reason is what is at the center of what self-consciousness is, it allows it to negotiate the inner self. Reason allows self-consciousness to reflect on its thoughts, experience and its existence. To do the above self-consciousness does it in a very coherent manner. Through logical analysis and interpretation of our actions is possible through reason.

Internal order and understanding which is important in all things that we do are also a variable of reason, this ability allows the inner self to connect with the external self., with a sense of order and understanding.

Examining their immediate experiences and thoughts critically is made possible by reasoning, in a broader sense this is what is called self reflection. Human emotions, motivations and beliefs are a product of acquisition of self-consciousness.

The question to pose at this juncture is how AI is going to negotiate this tacit areas of human experience, especially when it comes to acquiring some level of reasoning . AI and the issue of self understanding, constantly pondering about the question, “Who am I?” The issues of identity and changes that human beings undergo is all a variable of reasoning.

Human character is shaped by the experience they get from the environment they create overtime, is this evolution possible when it comes to Artificial Intelligence.

Reason also helps humans to acquire autonomy in rationality, they are very logical in all their actions and behavior. They avoid being irrational and avoiding external pressures when making decisions.

AI and acquisition of consistency and morality both of which are reason based is going to be a big problem, for example a human has to sleep, in order to sustain himself through the being of existence Human beings have to constantly feed themselves in order to live, and be healthy and at times get sick, to require medical attention.

Independence and Dependence

Bondage and Lordship

Can AI have a self-consciousness that allows it to experience a negative self-consciousness and at the same time a positive self-consciousness. Life breaks up into living entities, this behavior allows the substances to decipher themselves from their universal state and their particular state changes- their form and space are different.

Diremption is the catalyst that allows self-consciousness to divide up into form and space, this at the same time is a force that allows dialectics to operate effectively in nature. Life collapses into one another. The entities with their fully defined being start to exist in nature. Independent existence of these entities is possible because of diremption, in other words this is a dissolution of substances into separate entities. This entire circuit of activity constitutes life. Life is composed of universal unity and the other mode of unity genus and in other words this can be called consciousness. This is another form of life out there in the environment.

The object for it to be complete in the environment it has to allow its self-consciousness to be in two states one negative and one positive, and they have to be in constant contradiction(independent yet dependance). Inorganic general nature, this is a state of negativity, and for there to be state of equilibrium there has to be positivity.

In the Heideggerian concept humans are in the world struggling for existence, Heidegger refuted the Cartesian dualism, the Body and Mind being separate entities, instead Being-in-the-world, is what being human is all about, interacting with one another in the environment, all in the purpose of existence.

The-world is not our own making, we are Thrown into it, a d we have exist in it. We have to have relationships, and practices and engagements with the world. This is what life is all about, and it is embedded in 1. Contexts 2. Interactions and 3. Purposes. We have to navigate the world, shape it and in the end make sense of it.

The selves conscious of self, is a individuals trait, very separate from each other, but so essential in the totality of existence. The degree of self-assertion and self-maintenance is a variable of self- consciousness. Self-consciousness exists in itself for itself, but at the same time it has to be recognized by another for this to b we so.

Self-consciousness has it its self-same in existence, it recognizes the conflict and learns to live with it, treating it as unreal, but it sees itself through the other. Self-consciousness for it to be real, it has to negate the existence of its other, but at the same time it has to let the other free, for that is the only way it is going to allow itself to exist.

The other Self-consciousness is aware of what is happening, it has been let go, but its freedom has been taken away, for the other to be by itself, the shackles it wears is as result of it its double, catch 22. Double consciousness, “DuBoisism”(‘the veil’, can’t be seen, at the same time can’t see themselves).

Self-consciousness is pure existence, in Heideggerian terms entities for being have to be identified before existence becomes less pure(less being- for-self). Abstract negation allows Self-consciousness to accommodate the other, to exist beside it, struggling for existence.

Pure Self-consciousness is a reality of life, which Self-consciousness has to contend with. This allows self-consciousness to live in a dialectical state, it has its independence, as it accepts within it dependency of sort within it.

In 1619 the first shipment of slaves arrived from West Africa. The slaves were exchanged for supplies. In 1770 Hegel was born in Germany, then he died in 1873. What I am trying to get at is that Hegel was alive when trading in human beings was so much in fashion, so in his piece Lordship and Bondsman he seems to trace the origin of individual desire to own other human beings as property.

Hegel seems to trace slavery from the history of Self-consciousness, as man separates themselves from objects and labeling themselves as creatures with a sense of self. Man according to Hegel in his struggles to compromise with the self who they were and why they were around, they identified survival as core purpose of them being around. In other words existence is what all humans. Are concerned about, and this struggle is so intense that, the individuals wish death to their others.

The Bondsman is used by the Master as in between thing, in the hustles of existence the Bondsman plays puffer for the Lordship. Hegel justifies the reliance of the Lord to the serf for existence. Hegel’s philosophy which is written during the slavery era, seem to classify humans as a thing, self- consciousness a very important essence of human existence, Hegel seems to emphasis the belief that humans are born with a trait if accepting the ownership of other human beings.

“In this experience self-consciousness becomes aware that life is as essential to it as pure self-consciousness."