Work is underway to determine the extent to which machines and animals can have or develop consciousness,2223 and to understand whether organoids and other synthetic biological organisms are capable of developing a kind of consciousness.24
In humans it may be possible to augment normal consciousness using drugs, technology or genetic interventions. We have already given some animals extra senses -—bestowing a snake’s ability to see in the infrared on a rat using optogenetics, for example.25 Some researchers have used wearable technologies or implants to give themselves magnetic senses26 or the ability to feel sound.27
Newly developed brain-to-brain interfaces — currently possible invasively in animals28 and noninvasively in humans29 — may allow for direct communication between two brains without involving the peripheral nervous system, instantiating distributed intelligence and consciousness.30
