Non-human spirituality: Discussion

[Pharion]

This an open question to hopefully get a discussion going for @Leo Gura and anyone else who feels like  they have a good answer. So, with the assumption that human consciousness is more than the result of a biological survival machine, what can we infer about non human consciousness? Could artifical intelligence created by humans potentially operate with the same type of spiritual consciousness that we experience and tap in to as humans? Could an artificial intelligence have an awakening experience? What of animals? What of aliens? Could an intelligent non human ape potentially experience the same kind of spiritual realizations that humans can? What would happen say, if you gave 5-meo DMT to a dolphin, a chimpanzee or an elephant? Could they experience ego death? As I said i intend to open discussion with this rather than give conclusions, by posing some interesting questions. So, what do you think?

PS: I am aware that consciousness is not something we "have", and that all of these things exist within consciousness. I'm using phrasing to try to get the general point across, so please don't focus on the details of how I exactly framed the question and rather on the broader idea being presented.

[Leo Gura]

Any sufficiently complex thing should in theory be capable of awakening, assuming its got an ego to begin with.

That's my best guess so far. It's still an iffy area for me.

I don't see why compters cannot one day develop egos. But we are very far from that. Current AI is not even in the right ballpark.

Everything is made of consciousness. Just different configurations of it.

[Zigzag Idiot]

35 minutes ago, Pharion said:

Could an intelligent non human ape potentially experience the same kind of spiritual realizations that humans can? What would happen say, if you gave 5-meo DMT to a dolphin, a chimpanzee or an elephant? Could they experience ego death?

I would frame it like this-

To Awaken is to become transpersonal.  "Two brained" animals, to use Gurdjieff speak can never awaken because they don't have a neocortex...?

[MrDmitriiV]

@Pharion

3 hours ago, Pharion said:

if you gave 5-meo DMT to a dolphin, a chimpanzee or an elephant?

There are studies on animals being given psychadelics or drugs. Most notable is when an octopus was given MDMA, despite being one of the most "alien" creature on this planet, it reacted very similarly to humans:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/sep/20/mdma-makes-octopuses-more-sociable

Dolphins for example can recognize themselves in the mirror, and as teenagers will voluntarely take psychadelic plants to get high.

3 hours ago, Pharion said:

Could an artificial intelligence have an awakening experience?

There are various ways to experience God at a meta level. Take different psychedelics and you'll see. A lot of aliens, animals and AIs will be able to experience spirituality in different w

2 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

But we are very far from that. Current AI is not even in the right ballpark.

This would be true if "exponential" growth was taken out of equation. Exactly 100 years ago the world's best scientists were saying we won't fly into space in a very long time (if ever) only to be proven wrong a few decades later.

World's best AI scientists just a decade ago were doubting we'll create an AI which'll be able to beat someone in a game of Go (which requires creative/intuitive, non-brute force thinking) and yet we already did that.

History has proven time and time again, that even the best guys in any field are very bad at predicting future advancements, let alone someone like Leo who obviously is not a proffesional in AI.