With the rapid development of chatbots and other AI systems, questions about whether they will ever gain true understanding, become conscious, or even develop a feeling agency have become more pressing. When it comes to making sense of these qualities in humans, our ability for counterfactual thinking is key. The existence of alternative worlds where things happen differently, however, is not just an exercise in imagination – it’s a key prediction of quantum mechanics. Perhaps our brains are able to ponder how things could have been because in essence they are quantum computers, accessing information from alternative worlds, argues Tim Palmer.
Professor Tim Palmer is an internationally renowned meteorologist with a particular interest in the predictability and dynamics of the weather and climate. Tim’s work has led to the development of probabilistic techniques to forecast weather and climate, and he has applied this to disease, crop yield prediction and more. His recent research exploits ideas in imprecise computing to develop computer simulations of weather and climate at very high resolution, and he has recently published The Primacy of Doubt, a popular science book focussing on the science of uncertainty.
Read Tim's latest article for the Institute of Art and Ideas by clicking here.
