Title: (Read the last bit to skip the story)<p>I'm planning on going to grad school to study AI because I think it is very interesting.  For a very long time it has just seemed natural to me that computer scientists would eventually discover a way to make computers appear as intelligent as humans.  Since it wasn't done yet, I wanted to work on this problem.  I had no thoughts of solving it, but perhaps help it along.<p>However, I recently had the scary idea that machine consciousness may not be possible.  I've thought this before, however this time it really hit me and scared me some.  Considering I'd like to devote much of my resources to the problem, I'm now a little concerned that it may all be a waste.  I'd prefer not to waste my life on something that turns out like the phlogiston theory.<p>Therefore, because it may bring good discussion and for my own benefit I'm asking:<p>Do you think machine consciousness (or at least something that looks like it) is possible?  If not on current computer architecture, which "new lead" in computation do you think will allow it?<p>For extra credit:
Do you think the Church-Turing thesis (anything that is computable is computable by a Turing machine) indicates that machine consciousness is possible?
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