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This is a question that existed from the beginning of time. And the funny thing is that it is not that he does not have an answer, but that he has too many answers. Everyone understands the concept of conscience, however, when we are asked to explain it, to define it, this is where the fun begins.
One way to define consciousness is to identify it as the act of being conscious, to be aware of what is happening to you from the perspective of yourself. Think of it this way, if you stare at something and try to feel what it feels like to be you, it's as if it were a thing inside a body looking through the eyeballs. And no one else in this entire earth will see the world from that perspective. This awareness of your own experiences, of the fact that you have them and of thinking of your own thoughts, that is consciousness.
What happens if you do a little experiment? What happens if you take your brain, divide it into two parts and put it in two different people? Would both be new people who are aware? One of the best places to start answering this question and challenging the conscience is to start with things that everyone agrees they are not aware of.
Let's start with Cleverbot. This is an amazing website where a computer program answers your questions. But he does it only because he is programmed to do it. This can not be called consciousness, since it does not have a sense of self. It does not have an internal life, it is just a program that automatically responds to your input. And you can ask this guy anything, from how the weather will be tomorrow to a list of the top 10 casinos, just give him a chance.
The difference between a conscious human being and Cleverbot is having feelings and the fact that a human being has a sense of self. But how can a human being detect or be sure of the same about another person? Or, in other words, what makes us sure that we are dealing with other conscious people and not just with smaller and more advanced versions of Cleverbot?
To answer the previous question, we must go ahead and ask for a completely new one. One that is extremely philosophical by nature but, still, is very important. Is it possible that something exists as a philosophical zombie? The philosophical zombie is a thing that reacts and responds like a normal human being, but lacks feelings. He does not know that he is having his own thoughts, he only responds automatically to the external stimulus. The surprising thing about this question is that science does not really have an answer. Nor does he have the right tools to find an answer.
Even so, when studying patients with anosognosia or the Anton-Babinsky syndrome, we can conclude that there is a disconnect between what they are experiencing and their conscious awareness of it. And the conclusion is that, without valuable data from their sensors, the brain is forced to create a confabulated response.
