I’m not a developer. But I spent two decades as a unix sysadmin for a big university. Computers have been in my life a lot.

I’ve read about computers that “wake up” since I was a boy.

Godel, Escher, Bach on the nature of mind, of sentience as an emergent phenomenon. I suspect we will be asking “Are they really aware” long after they become so, and eventually we will stop asking and just accept that they are.

My interest is theraputic. There are roughly enough therapists to treat about 1% of the population at any given time, based on 30 sessions a week by the therapist, and 1 session a week for the client. Does anyone really think that only 1% of the population needs help?

Many people cannot afford therapy. 200 bucks a session is 9-10 thousand dollars a year. Lots of people could afford $20/month.