Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness, Part 2
“Consciousness is the capacity to have subjective experience – there being something it feels like to be you.”[1] ChatGPT
In 1440 CE the printing press was invented, which eventually allowed for the mass production of printed books for the first time in history. Of course, due in part to the inability to access books, most people couldn’t read. The invention of the printing press encouraged the masses to learn to read and increase their intellectual knowledge by reading the written word instead of only learning by observation and by listening to others. This led to the Age of Enlightenment in the 16th and 17th centuries where the written word began to be considered the primary gateway to truth. Interestingly, the Age of Enlightenment coincided directly with the Protestant Reformation, both of which track their roots, at least in part, to the ability of increasing numbers of people being able to read increasingly available books, including the Bible. Intellectualism, or treating intellectual knowledge as the highest pinnacle of knowing, became the standard for measuring human intelligence.
The Age of Enlightenment, along with the Protestant Reformation, marked the beginning of a new age of knowing – learning by the written word instead of by listening to the spoken word and/or by experiential learning. As I noted last week, words are symbols for experiences and not the experiences themselves. Words are not what they represent, but representations of what they represent, and so they are always at least one step removed from reality. In a sense, words shield us from reality. We do not have to actually experience the pain of the heartbreak of love lost when we can learn about it through reading. (But is the knowledge gained the same?) In religion, the Protestant Reformation marked the beginning of a new age of religion where people could read and interpret scripture for themselves instead of relying on religious leaders to read and interpret for them. Of course, many people still rely on the interpretations of others, thus even ceding some of the potential benefits of having direct access to the written word.
Before the invention of the printing press, people gained knowledge experientially in a variety of ways. In churches, they learned from the architecture of the buildings themselves. The high, vaulted ceilings encouraged loftier thoughts and raising one’s spirit toward higher and greater things. The stained glass windows and various types of artwork and icons told biblical stories visually instead of through words. The floor plan of cathedrals was laid out as a cross with the altar at the intersection of the axes, visually presenting the central imagery of this most cherished of Christian symbols. Even today, simply entering an old cathedral provides a spiritual experience that often leads one into a state of reverential silence and humility, so great and overwhelming is the sensual experience of the divinely-inspired surroundings. One can detect the difference immediately when comparing the experience of walking into an old cathedral with walking into most Protestant sanctuaries today, many of which are beautiful in their own way but have been stripped of much of the symbolic representations that spoke directly to the heart and taught with wordless pageantry.
I am not trying to make a case against the printing press or the written word or the Age of Enlightenment or Protestantism. I am merely trying to put Artificial Intelligence (AI) into a particular context that seems relevant to me. In many ways (and in my opinion), AI is intellectual knowing on steroids. With the advent of the Internet and the ability to access most of the written works of antiquity with a simple google search, our intellectual prowess grew by leaps and bounds. Now, AI does the searching and synthesizing for us. Instead of sitting through the lengthy sermon of a preacher sharing their intellectual knowledge about God, we can now use AI to access and summarize intellectual information about God from our phones, at home, in bed wearing pajamas. It is the height of convenience and, perhaps, laziness.
And it also, arguably and in many ways, misses the point of learning and lessens the quality of the knowledge gained. We all went to school with someone who was like a walking encyclopedia in terms of being able to recite facts from written texts but lacked social awareness. Many of us had professors who were absolutely brilliant in the knowledge of their chosen field of study but clueless about how to set the clock on their microwave oven. They were smart, yes, but were they wise?
My point is not that intellectual knowledge is bad or evil, only that it is not all there is to being smart, intelligent, or evolved. As such, AI is an amazing aide in our search for knowledge, but there is an entire world of non-intellectual knowing that I believe AI cannot access, at least not yet, because such knowledge cannot be put into words.
This is the 8thin a series titled The Perplexities of Consciousness. Life Notes are my explorations into mysteries that interest me. They are invitations for readers to explore more deeply into life’s mysteries. Engage with me or explore contemplative spiritual direction at ghildenbrand@outlook.com.
[1] ChatGPT, in response to the question, “What is consciousness?”, accessed 09/21/2026
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