In a recent talk, Ray Kurzweil showed the complexity of measuring machine consciousness.

“We can’t just ask an entity: Are you conscious?” he said. “Because we can ask entities in video games today, and they’ll say: Yes, I’m conscious and I’m angry at you.

“But we don’t believe them because they don’t have the subtle cues that we associate with really having that subjective state. My prediction is that by 2029 computers will have those convincing cues.”

As technological evolution begins intersecting our biological evolution as a species, the lines between human and non-human entities will begin blurring more so than humanity has ever encountered, and a new era of identity, and the surrounding ethics and philosophy, will take center stage.

Singularity University | Ray Kurzweil responds to the subject of god. At Singularity University’s Graduate Studies Program 2015, a participant asks Ray Kurzweil: Do you believe in god? Kurzweil discuss the relationship between consciousness and morality below in response to a question about his own spiritual beliefs.

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