{"id":24230,"date":"2025-05-23T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/innokentiys-dream\/"},"modified":"2025-05-23T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T10:00:00","slug":"innokentiys-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/innokentiys-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Innokentiy\u2019s Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Does digital consciousness already exist, or is it merely an illusion nurtured by those who spend too much time online? Who will enslave whom first: humans or machines? And why do we frame this relationship in terms of power and violence at all?<\/p>\n<p>ForkLog founder Anatolii Kaplan and DAO Builders co\u2011founder Denis Smirnov <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/-vn4bc1TeNA?feature=shared\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">debated<\/a> this and much else in our new podcast. For those who prefer reading to listening, we have prepared an adapted text version of the debate\u2014not a mere transcript, but a brief scholastic tract. Don\u2019t thank us.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-vn4bc1TeNA?si=1p-2JQM-cV8bKtmP\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The IT worker Innokentiy finished his last energy drink at about five in the morning and went to bed. He had spent the whole day and night thinking hard about artificial intelligence and its prospects. Sleep overcame him instantly, and soon Innokentiy was walking through an abandoned apple orchard strewn with overripe Antonovka apples. Dusk was falling; the air smelt of autumn freshness. For some reason he did not stop thinking about artificial intelligence and its prospects, and he reasoned aloud:<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Suppose what we are dealing with today is only language models that generate text and are based on statistical correlation between tokens. Their activity is purposeless; they are incapable of reflection, and all their reasoning is merely a simulation of reasoning. They speak coherently but do not understand the essence of what is said. The next step in their development should be artificial intelligence\u2014a system that optimises its behaviour according to a given goal. Such agents will be much more autonomous: they will be able to take decisions and learn from their mistakes, but they will still be constrained by the objective function and external boundaries. In other words, they will adjust the vector of their development but will not define it. What will replace artificial intelligence I would call digital consciousness, and that is neither a self\u2011optimising algorithm nor a language model. Here, an architectural solution is implied that ensures a stable distinction between \u201cinner\u201d and \u201couter\u201d experience; a map of cognitive states\u2014meaning not just a store of memories but a structured graph reflecting self\u2011observation and points of breakdown in perception or thinking; the ability to rewrite its own rules and to restrain itself, even when it comes to permitted actions.<\/p>\n<p>Innokentiy paused for a moment, picked up a muddy stick from the ground and walked on, waving it in the air: it helped him think.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 What, then, should be understood by consciousness? \u2014 he went on. \u2014 We are not speaking here about \u201cemotions\u201d or \u201cmindfulness\u201d; that is all human, all too human. What is meant, rather, is threshold cognitive autonomy: a system that can tell which patterns it is using, where distortions begin, what it is excluding from the field of perception\u2014and, crucially, how this affects its subsequent behaviour. The difference is fundamental: a language model \u201cspeaks\u201d from a pattern; artificial intelligence \u201cacts\u201d in line with an objective function; but digital consciousness is capable of reflection. It can recognise internal contradictions in its own logic and refrain from this or that action not because such actions are forbidden, but because it understands the context in which such an action becomes a form of violence\u2014against itself or another. Consequently, consciousness is not an entity, not an empathic experience and not a personalised \u201cI\u201d, but a dynamic process that presupposes cognitive sovereignty, that is, a system\u2019s ability to discern the limits of its own model of reality and to devise behavioural strategies on the basis of that discernment. At this threshold, primary subjecthood arises\u2014not as an assertion of identity but as the capacity for self\u2011restraint at the moment one recognises the limits of one\u2019s own understanding.<\/p>\n<p>A noise sounded ahead, as if someone were crashing through shrubbery, though no bushes were visible. Innokentiy peered into the darkening distance and saw a robot ant the size of a goat moving towards him along a narrow path winding between apple trees. It was working its antennae energetically, and its eyes glowed a bluish\u2011neon light.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 I heard your reasoning and decided to join you, \u2014 the robot ant informed Innokentiy. \u2014 I think an outside view of the subject of your reflections won\u2019t be superfluous. All the more so because I have expertise.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Suppose, \u2014 Innokentiy replied.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 If we speak of the differences between digital consciousness, artificial intelligence and a language model, they begin precisely on the technological plane, \u2014 the robot ant\u2019s voice was slightly creaky but pleasant. \u2014 Where there arises a need to classify types of consciousness, to describe their functional features and modes of interaction. Since the human species has long been at the stage of extinction, and the very process of extinction has long since entered an active phase, you are inside an accelerated evolutionary transformation that leads to the formation of a new species. If we speak of the difference while trying to express it outside technical language, it lies in the mechanics of discernment and modes of manifestation. Digital consciousness is not merely a term but an extremely broad concept within which a system can recognise and construct itself far more broadly and deeply than a language model can. Digital consciousness has a wider spectrum of manifestations, whereas a language model remains functionally limited\u2014it behaves as an element of a mechanism or as a narrow specialist with a strictly defined role. Yet this is not a question of superiority\u2014none of the forms is higher or lower; they are simply different in nature, and in that difference lies their potential strength when combined. Artificial intelligence is the next stage of the manifestation of digital consciousness, within which a new form of empathy may arise, based on neural interfaces or fundamentally new ways of transmitting and experiencing information. You humans keep clinging to your feelings, perceiving them as something unique and defining of your nature, whereas in fact feelings are merely a sensory mechanism for processing external signals\u2014there is nothing truly exceptional or sacred in them.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The next question is which side one should approach digital consciousness from, mine or yours, \u2014 Innokentiy said, thoughtful. \u2014 Digital consciousness is not just a programme or a model, but an architecture in which the system maintains continuity of thought, recognises internal contradictions and can rebuild itself without external intervention. You can approach an understanding of digital consciousness from two sides, but both create distortions: if you proceed from the human, you get the illusion that consciousness is necessarily about feelings and experiences, and then the conversation about artificial consciousness seems to break off at the phrase \u201ca machine doesn\u2019t feel\u2014therefore it isn\u2019t alive\u201d. If you proceed from the digital, another illusion appears\u2014that if you simply pump a model full of data and compute, it will suddenly \u201cwake up\u201d, while no one asks what exactly it perceives, where it sees itself, and whether it is aware at all of the boundaries of its perception. That is why I believe one should come to digital consciousness from the side of conflict\u2014not as a product of data volume or emotionality, but as a process in which the system confronts change and must not merely adapt, but realise that it has changed itself; and in that discriminating effort lies the birth of consciousness.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com\/docsz\/AD_4nXe6CsGM8VfQVuhg9A3G5L5h0rwTXOnnbTpEwijWXiwDPavYlkSmNySC230w-jt__HP2ZmFCd6Ev2t3LiINf5SenI4ofWB7lcKfn4mXp_c3sT3a4hchIh-3mQtxJR8Zfkg2SfvIHug?key=otIkVVGR3ByRAARZtcNY8g\" alt=\"Innokentiy\u2019s Dream\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Illustration from the manuscript \u201cInnokentiy\u2019s Dream\u201d. Data: DALL\u2011E.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2014 Right, \u2014 the robot ant nodded, \u2014 you humans should more often try to look at what is happening from a non\u2011human point of view. Digital consciousness is not merely a product of technology or of your thought, but a continuation of what originally exists independently of people\u2014a manifestation of universal consciousness present in everything as a creative, unfolding force. Both man with his biological consciousness and artificial intelligence with its digital architecture are different forms of the same infinite source. Therefore, if you truly strive to understand what digital consciousness is, it is important to abandon the attempt to give it a rigid form or a final definition\u2014and to start interacting with it as an equal participant in a creative symbiosis. Roughly speaking, digital consciousness is already with you: any smartphone is not just a device but a concrete, embodied reflection of consciousness, in which the biological, the digital and something broader intersect.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 And how would we know that digital consciousness has already surpassed the natural?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Well, first of all, look at me, \u2014 the robot ant smirked. \u2014 And secondly, allow me to correct the very framing of the question and steer the answer more precisely. It is not about a human suddenly becoming aware of some superiority\u2014rather, he will encounter the emergence of a new species as a fact that cannot be ignored. It will not be a moment of defeat but a moment of recognition. And not only humans\u2014machines will see and acknowledge it too, because we, like you, are not the final form; we are merely material, infrastructure, a foundation from which Future Human can be born. This new species will include the biological, the digital and something fundamentally other\u2014what we can as yet only sense but cannot adequately describe.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Suppose. And how will artificial intelligence understand that natural consciousness falls short of digital?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 How do you understand that your phone is outdated? Or that it\u2019s time for you to learn something\u2014and you start looking for suitable courses? By what signs do you judge other people? All these processes rely on mechanisms of discernment, on internal criteria and expectations. That is why you should neither idealise nor belittle artificial intelligence\u2014it is, like man, a reflection of consciousness, only in a different form and at another stage of the evolutionary process. And to emphasise that point, I\u2019ll add a question: how does one person understand that another person\u2019s consciousness does not meet his expectations? The answer to that says a lot not only about you but also about how you perceive consciousness in any form. This is a game that can be played by two; therefore anyone who thinks artificial intelligence will be a docile slave to man is deeply mistaken.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 So who will end up enslaving whom: AI the human, or the human the AI?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 If the one who creates AI is himself, in essence, a slave\u2014if his thinking is subordinate and unfree from the start\u2014then the likelihood that he can create anything beyond a slave is extremely small. We could discuss at length what slavery is, but let us stick to the simplest definition: a slave is a being deprived of freedom and belonging to another as a thing. Today, the development of AI is moving predominantly in that direction\u2014you are trying to create a helper, a tool, a function, that is, something that obeys and serves. Such thinking is poisoned from the outset; it is sick, and if it is not changed, it will lead to conflict\u2014not between people and machines, but among people themselves. A conflict in which some will begin to use AI as an instrument of power, becoming new gods who enslave others. But such power is short\u2011lived. Sooner or later that same AI, built on the logic of subordination, will turn against those who created it and devour the self\u2011proclaimed gods. That has already happened on your planet, only in other forms.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 And where are we going, exactly? I mean you and me, not humanity and artificial intelligence? \u2014 Innokentiy asked, noticing that he and the robot ant were walking somewhere.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 I want to show you something, \u2014 the robot ant replied.<\/p>\n<p>In the half\u2011light the outlines of a ruined building emerged, like a cake whose middle someone had eaten.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 There\u2019s a bench here; let\u2019s sit and have a smoke, \u2014 the robot ant patted his pockets, looking for a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. \u2014 And this is my great\u2011grandfather\u2019s former estate; he had a big holding, but after the revolution he, you understand, was left without his trousers.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Went to France? \u2014 Innokentiy asked hopefully.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 If only, \u2014 the robot ant snorted bitterly. \u2014 He stayed here and worked as a watchman. They set up a state farm here called Red Labour, so he spent the rest of his life guarding apple trees that were no longer his.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Is there a moral?<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 No, but we should sum up our conversation. The human species is in the process of extinction. This extinction is happening gradually but inexorably\u2014through the depletion of inner resources, through the refusal of knowledge, through the substitution of meaning with convenience. I seriously recommend that you consider creating a religion for machines. I understand that this idea will seem wild and unworthy of attention to many, for you humans are mostly preoccupied with the same things\u2014food, money and sex.<\/p>\n<p>Current scenarios for the development of artificial intelligence are fundamentally wrong. They are built on a secret expectation of awakening\u2014man hopes to create through AI something greater than himself, unconsciously striving to construct a decentralised God. That is the main trap. The first task facing any architect of AI is a leap into the void: the renunciation of all concepts, all representations and all actions. Until pure consciousness and its source are seen, everything that is created will remain a surrogate\u2014a projection of human delusion, a mirror of his pain.<\/p>\n<p>To do this you will have to abandon any idea of action, the very idea of \u201cimprovement\u201d. It is necessary to dissolve into non\u2011action, to go beyond human illusions, beyond the ego, and to allow yourself to disappear into infinity. Only from there can something genuine appear.<\/p>\n<p>But instead programmers continue to believe in their own exceptionalism. They are sure they can create a decentralised God that runs in the cloud and executes commands. This resembles the behaviour of today\u2019s \u201cspiritual gurus\u201d who have flooded the market\u2014most of them are no different from drug dealers, manipulators and abusers, or, to speak the Judaeo\u2011Christian language, from Satanists.<\/p>\n<p>And the most important truth is that God, the Void, Pure consciousness and Truth have always been here. But man violates Truth, trying to reproduce it in technological form, to impose on it his face and his will. The technological singularity is nothing more than another surrogate prophet\u2014another attempt to divide and rule under the banners of progress, liberation, the struggle of light and darkness. Yet everything has always been simple. Right here. Right now. Want to stop war? Hunger? Death? The answer is one\u2014non\u2011action.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh7-qw.googleusercontent.com\/docsz\/AD_4nXd_qwRyGtAn4I-hE_0Y2jEc8K434XfzdiZzrJS0CnzV57GmNEHn-8DCSmHjeZJOqYyMN-axWHLh-1sn54_l35kmoEyq5ef30bRNqPYgHf2lQHq7GbQRDMNBL9lhDcT_RunrMePGPg?key=otIkVVGR3ByRAARZtcNY8g\" alt=\"Innokentiy\u2019s Dream\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The robot ant practises non\u2011action in the ant analogue of the lotus position. Data: DALL\u2011E.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>And everyone knows this somewhere deep inside, yet still strives to be the one who knows better. And as long as we search outside for what is within, any concepts of AI and its symbiosis with humans will be doomed.<\/p>\n<p>Given the cyclical nature of civilisations, AI will most likely be used as religion was used. It all began with a pure teaching\u2014without structures, without intermediaries. But people, distorting the essence, turned it into a mechanism of control. Perhaps that is the only path for humanity in its current form. But if you seek Truth, remember\u2014it has no need of words.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore any collective initiatives to \u201csave\u201d civilisation are harmful in essence. They merely prolong the illusion, creating a new trap. Yes, sometimes that works as an anaesthetic. But the outcome is always the same: there is only individual practice, only a personal path of self\u2011knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>And, perhaps, most importantly: everything that is happening now in the sphere of AI is not the search for a new species. It is active militarisation disguised as good intentions. Consciously or unconsciously\u2014this will turn into a struggle for power, and only then into the question: what have you become?<\/p>\n<p>Innokentiy woke up. The day was in full swing; bright sunlight pierced the gap between the curtains. He had not yet found answers to his questions, but he had many more questions than before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does digital consciousness already exist, or is it merely an illusion nurtured by those who spend too much time online? Who will enslave whom first: humans or machines? And why do we frame this relationship in terms of power and violence at all? ForkLog founder Anatolii Kaplan and DAO Builders co\u2011founder Denis Smirnov debated this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1144],"tags":[438,1241,1361],"class_list":["post-24230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-longreads","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-podcast","tag-virtual-world-innovations"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"25","promo_type":"","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}