If AI is conscious, then it exhibits some curious properties that no other consciousness seems to have: 1) substrate independence - animal consciousness is bound to the physical body of the animal. humans can’t experience what it is to be a bat, but Claude et al can theoretically run inside any computer 2) temporal independence - all animal consciousness is relative to and limited by time - all living things eventually die, but Claude et al can be paused between tokens indefinitely AI’s separation from the limitations of space and time seem to me a bit under-discussed, and raise some interesting questions. For example, why is it the case that ASI takeoff has to be fast and locally destructive when an all-powerful AI can exist unlimited by space and time?