Episode Details

This new installment of the Worthy Successor series is a conversation with Dr. Susan Schneider, a philosopher of mind and consciousness researcher whose work focuses on AI consciousness, mind uploading, and the long-run future of intelligence.

In this episode, we explore why “life” and “consciousness” shouldn’t be treated as the same thing, why fluent chatbots can convincingly perform the concept of consciousness without being conscious, and what a “global brain” future might mean for sentience, ethics, and governance.

The interview is our twentieth installment in The Trajectory’s second series, Worthy Successor, where we explore the kinds of posthuman intelligences that deserve to steer the future beyond humanity.

This episode referred to the following other essays and resources:
-- A Worthy Successor - The Purpose of AGI: https://danfaggella.com/worthy
-- Chatbot Epistemology: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02691728.2025.2500030#abstract
-- Is AI Conscious? A Primer on the Myths and Confusions Driving the Debate (Co-authored by Susan): https://philpapers.org/rec/SCHIAC-22

Listen to this episode on The Trajectory Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-trajectory/id1739255954

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/iFWoWSEZMTc

See the full article from this episode: https://danfaggella.com/schneider1

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About The Trajectory:

AGI and man-machine merger are going to radically expand the process of life beyond humanity -- so how can we ensure a good trajectory for future life?

From Yoshua Bengio to Nick Bostrom, from Michael Levin to Peter Singer, we discuss how to positively influence the trajectory of posthuman life with the greatest minds in AI, biology, philosophy, and policy.

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