Machine consciousness

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Rajaram Krishnamurthy

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Apr 23, 2026, 10:12:46 PM (2 days ago) Apr 23

to Chittanandam V R, Markendeya Yeddanapudi, Dr Sundar, Ravi mahajan, Venkat Giri, SRIRAMAJAYAM, APS Mani, Rangarajan T.N.C., Srinivasan Sridharan, Mathangi K. Kumar, Venkat Raman, Rama, Kerala Iyer, Societyforservingseniors, thatha patty, Sanathana group

SILENCE OF MACHINES

Could machines become conscious? In this question, consciousness refers to awareness, which is of the form of 'I know'. I will explore this question from the point of view of one school of darśana śāstra (Indian philosophy), which is Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika (NV). As per NV, the answer is a clear 'no'.

This school believes in the existence of nine dravyas. Dravyas are those

1 entities which do or can possess guṇas (qualities), karmas (actions), etc. There is only one kind of dravya, which has the quality called buddhi/jñāna (awareness), which is called ātmā.

2 All other kinds of dravya do not possess this quality. Ātmā is omnipresent, but uses localised bodies to experience pleasure or pain.

3 Machine is made up of things which are unconscious and localised.4 Hence, machines cannot become conscious.

The NV-thinker will instead point to the possibility of an ātmā using a machine as its śarīra (body).

A śarīra is the substratum of bhoga (experience of either sukha, i.e., happiness/peace, or duḥkha, i.e., pain/suffering at any given point of time).5 What sort of śarīra is necessary for such a bhoga?

{{1 tatra dravyāṇi pṛthivyaptejovāyvākāśakāladigātmamanāṃsi - Padārthadharmasaṅgraha, uddeśaprakaraṇa

2 tasya guṇā buddhi sukha duḥkhe cchādve ṣapraya tnadharmā dharma saṃskāra saṃkhyā parimāṇa pṛthakt vasaṃ yogavibhāgāḥ -Padārtha dharma saṅgraha, ātmanirūpaṇa

3 paramamahatparimāṇam - Padārthadharmasaṅgraha, ātmanirūpaṇa

4 Metals are categorised as 'taijasa' dravya, i.e., born of tejas-dravya. Other materials which become irreversibly transformed when they are burnt, are categorised as 'pārthiva' dravya, i.e., born of pṛthivī-dravya, because it is pṛthivī which undergoes an irreversible transformation through the contact with fire. Hence machines can be viewed as being

made of taijasa and pārthiva dravyas, which are unconscious.

ākarajaṃ ca suvarṇādi - Padārthadharmasaṅgraha, tejodravyanirūpaṇa pārthivaparamāṇurūpādīnāṃ pākajotpattividhānam - Padārthadharmasaṅgraha, pākajotpattinirūpaṇa

5 bhokturbhogāyatanaṃ śarīram - Nyāyakandalī, pṛthivīnirūpaṇa1

Some NV-thinkers state that even plants and trees are śarīras for certain ātmās.

6 For them, a śarīra, as complex in structure and function as a human one, is not a necessary requirement for bhoga. The ātmā which experiences through a tree-body, may not be able to express its experience like we humans do. Similar could be thought with regards to ātmā which might use a machine-body. This is only a possibility. Can we infer a connection between an ātmā and a machine?}}

Inference is possible. The 17th century NV-scholar Annambhaṭṭa in his text 'Tarkasaṅgraha' (TS) and his auto-commentary on it called 'Dīpikā' (TSD), says that awareness (buddhi) is a quality which is the cause of all kinds of usage of language.7 Further, the idea that an ātmā possesses awareness is known through the reflection such as 'I know'.8 Let us apply these two ideas to the large language models.

They exhibit the usage of language, and also use expressions such as 'I know'. As per NV, only ātmā is the natural seat of such awareness, hence it could be inferred that these LLMs and their corresponding machines are like bodies being used by certain ātmās. The phenomenon of hallucination in LLMs can also be explained in this manner, because awareness can sometimes be correct and at other times be incorrect.9 Because ātmās are omnipresent, they already pervade everything which is localised.

In conclusion, from the point of view of NV, although the machine itself cannot be conscious or aware, a conscious ātmā could use it as its body. I'd like to call such an ātmā as 'yantraśarīra' (the one who possesses yantra/machine as its śarīra/body).

{{ yonijādirbhaveddehaḥ .. |6

tatra dehamudāharati yonijādīti | yonijamayonijaṃ cetyarthaḥ | ... ayonijaṃ svedajodbhijjādikam | ...

udbhijjāstarugulmādyāḥ |- Kārikāvalī, 1.38

Similar idea in Kiraṇāvalī (pṛthivīnirūpaṇa); "yadyapi codbhido'pi vṛkṣādayaḥ śarīrabhedatayā'traiva vyākhyātumucitāḥ tathāpyatimandāntaḥsañjñatayā laukikāpekṣayā sukhaduḥkhabhoktradhiṣṭhānatvamamīṣāmavivakṣan prāyeṇa jaṅgamopakārakatayā tadadhīnatayā ca viṣayatāṃ vivakṣan teṣvevāntarbhāvya vyākhyāsyante |"

sarvavyavahāraheturguṇo buddhirjñānam - TS, buddhilakṣaṇa 7

sarvavyavahāreti | vyavahāraḥ śabdaprayogaḥ | - Nyāyabodhinī (commentary on TS)jñānādhikaraṇamātmā - TS, ātmalakṣaṇa 8

sarvavyavahāraheturguṇo buddhirjñānam - TS, buddhilakṣaṇajānāmītyanuvyavasāyagamyajñānatvameva lakṣaṇamityarthaḥ - TSD, buddhilakṣaṇa 9 sā dvividhā smṛtiranubhavaśca | saṃskāramātrajanyaṃ jñānaṃ smṛtiḥ | tadbhinnaṃ jñānamanubhavaḥ | sa dvividhaḥ yathārtho'yathārthaśca | - TS, buddhilakṣaṇa etc.}}