<i>Do hackernews readers think that computers will eventually have a &quot;mind&quot; and &quot;consciousness&quot; ? Or will it just be simulated?</i><p>Personally? Yeah, I do think computers will eventually achieve &quot;consciousness&quot;.   I don&#x27;t think of consciousness as being anything magical or terribly special to the point that a computer couldn&#x27;t have it.  I generally think it&#x27;s just a question of a sort of recursion where the brain is &quot;hearing&quot; it&#x27;s own internal processing as it works.  When we ask questions, run simulations (day-dream) and we &quot;see&quot; and &quot;hear&quot; those things, I suspect it&#x27;s just some sort of feedback loop between internal modules of the brain.<p>I&#x27;d go so far as to suggest that some computer programs may already be conscious, and we just don&#x27;t have any good way to measure&#x2F;test that fact.