I've always said that neuroscience will likely figure out consciousness/generalized intelligence before the AI engineers do. There is something fundamental to letting facts and data lead you rather than working from a conclusion or goal and trying to fill in the gaps with brute force or intuition. That said, if history is any indication, I'm sure it will be tech engineers who profit on any discoveries first...because 👉 greed/capitalism.
Whether or not history unfolds this way, it's a lesson we should consider; that we spend far too much time trying to create "products" (i.e. Business/Engineering) without sound conceptual models or understanding of the repercussions (i.e. Science). Using technology before truly understanding it, has been the cause of just about all modern material problems.
This is not a call to ludditism, but a warning that we are not intelligently creating/managing human civilization. At this point in time, our "system" is thrashing out of control, and we are just desperately clinging to its ankles. We must be wise, we must slow society down, build understanding, take care of our people, and take care of our environment.
