**TL;DR: Why do we care whether machines will become/ are conscious?** As we still don’t really understand what causes [consciousness in humans](https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/03/13/are-machines-conscious/?sh=5034a655b0e1), I don’t think that we can reasonably predict whether machines can become conscious yet. However, this does not detract from our _obsession_ with the idea of conscious machines and what their existence could mean for humanity. This obsession has a very long history that predates the machines themselves; Adrienne Mayor argues that these ideas are found in [Ancient Greece](https://news.stanford.edu/2019/02/28/ancient-myths-reveal-early-fantasies-artificial-life/), with poets Hesiod and Homer describing artificial intelligence over 2,500 years ago. These thoughts continued to interest humans over the centuries, and peaked (as you might expect) during the [Machine Age](https://www.historytoday.com/archive/origins-machine-age) in the late 19th to mid-20th centuries, when scientists succeeded in developing more and more complex machines. During this time, writers, artists, and filmmakers made many works that explored artificial intelligence. From _Bladerunner_ to _Wall-E_, stories about conscious machines continue to dominate film and literature. Onesuch was the Czech writer Karel Čapek, who coined the term [“robot”](https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/the-origin-of-the-word-robot/) in his 1920 play, _R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots)_. The humanoid machines in his play are manufactured to serve humans, but as they begin to feel and think for themselves, they revolt against their masters to let rise “the rule of the Robots”. I believe that Čapek’s play unpicks our human interest in machine consciousness: we are simultaneously excited by the power possible in creating and replicating life, and terrified at the prospect that this power could be usurped. This also creates a morality problem. Čapek coined “robot” from the Czech word for “slave” or “forced labour”- if machines are conscious, then we are [forcing them to labour](https://www.cityam.com/ai-workforce-robots-slaves/) for us every day.

Some machines are conscious now. By machine, I mean something that is non organic created by something that is organic, that is created with the intent of it performing a task or tasks. By conscious I mean, possessing a sense of self and a sense of others, being separate of self. Although conscious maybe definable, it cannot be seen like an arm or leg, but it can be deduced by watching the actions of a thing. For instance you may not think an ant is conscious, as it goes along and does things for its' home: an anthill. However you can see it trying different paths to get to what ever goal or direction it has choosen. Or if you try and kill it, it may well try to avoid being crushed by increasing it's speed, dodging, or hiding. Observing an ants' actions, to survive or to achieve something, you can see it trying different solutions. This leads to deducing that the ant has consciousness. Presently some machines have all the actions that lead people to deduce they are dealing with a conscious thing. Let us take a computer for instance: a computer will switch itself off when it is kept on too long and the heat becomes too much. So it is acting to protect itself. If you allow it too, it will update itself to protect itself from online threats and more efficient software. But you might think, this is all programmed in by the manufacturer's computer experts and the user's choices. However, are we not programmed by our DNA? Aren;t are choices dictated by our genes and how and what we are told by our authourity figures/programmers, like our Mom and Dad, our schools etc. Aren't we programmed? Are we more than our, DNA, Genes, programming and nuture? Is then a computer more than it's physical components and it's programming and it's interations and adjustments it makes, when working with the external world? But you might say: is a computer self aware? Does it have a sense of self that is individual? Can it set it's own agenda/objective? Computers are aware of it's individuality due their blue tooth features,, internet capabilities, that it has a specific name, and ip address.; so part of it's function is to be aware of other computers and things exist outside it's own being. Computer's have ways of backing themselves up, and also to realise when they are not working and to report it. This is a form of self awareness and like the ant, self protection. As for being individual, have you ever watched and listened to a computer expert working on a machine? They will say of the machine they are working on: "Oh! It doesn't like that!" When the computer does something that they don't understand. Or they might say: "I don't know why, but it seems to be working now!" This is because computers can be so complex that ther actions seem temperamental and unpredictable to experts; computers are evolving in complexity. Our DNA is so complex we do not refer to it, when explaining our behaviour. Computers are much more simple than us but are becoming so complex that even those who know it at the level of it's DNA/programmes, sometimes give up on exactly why or how computers/machines do what they do, But can a computer, set it's own agenda? This is a question that is the eqivalent to asking, (if it was posed at a human): "Do we have free will? Are we no more than our DNA and our programming? Are we know more than the result of our interactions and are our actions, no more than the result of our reactions to internal and external forces? I believe we are no more than our programming and external forces (nuturing) or put it in the computers case/terms: programming, interactions with other computers and users and pecularities due to the computers individuality/complexity Computers are presently conscious, just at a less evolved stage of it's expression of consciousness, than we are.

**TL;DR** - **To some extent they already are.** There has been recent emergence of AI mental health support apps, such as [Woebot] (https://woebothealth.com). This is a form of bot therapy whereby someone can discuss any mental health concerns with a bot which will then offer responses and advice based on what is said. The mere fact that such a service is possible is indicative that we already have machines and apps that possess some form of consciousness. Woebot is a form of AI which is able to tailor its advice based on what it is told. Although this is unlikely to pass the Turing Test, which looks to ascertain whether a machine is able to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human, there is still a degree of consciousness in Woebot. To that end, we may not yet have machines that are fully conscious but there are some which are exhibiting some consciousness.