Artificial intelligence has been a global hot topic ever since Chat GPT was released over three years ago. Since then, it has made significant advancements at a rate that only makes one wonder how drastically it’ll change the world in the near future.
However, there is another growing field of technology, one that is still in the stages of early research. It isn’t being used practically in the world like AI yet. Furthermore, it is its exact opposite and has the potential to drastically change the way humans live in the same way.
I’m talking about Organic Intelligence.
What Is Organic Intelligence?
As opposed to artificial intelligence whose hardware consists of silicon chips and metallic components and whose software consists of man-made language learning models and algorithms, organic intelligence consists of actual biological material, for example, human brain cells and nervous tissue.
Researchers who are working on this are trying to make biological computers out of human neurons, trying to achieve the same short-term and long-term goals that AI developers are trying to achieve for society. However, this tech is more appreciable as a man-made horror than AI is.
I mean, just imagine you’re talking to Chat GPT. However, instead of an invisible LLM (language learning model) connected to a data center somewhere in the world, you’re staring at a malformed lab-grown human brain connected to a screen with wires.
So, just how far has this technology progressed?
Mini-Brains Playing Computer Games
A company called Cortical Labs has been working on developing organic intelligence for some time now, developing an interface with a cluster of 800,000 brain cells that were taught to play the video game Pong:
About 800,000 cells linked to a computer gradually learned to sense the position of the game’s electronic ball and control a virtual paddle, a team reports in the journal Neuron.
One of the goals of this experiment was to understand how neurons learn and understand things. They were given various stimuli in order to guide them into learning how to play this game.
For instance, they were stimulated positively when the paddle hit the ball and negatively when it missed. In other words, the neurons were taught to hit the ball using reward and punishment, which makes sense since these are innate driving factors in the human brain.
More recently, Cortical Labs has succeeded in improving this interface, allowing the brain cells to play Doom, a 3D first-person shooter game:
The neuronal computer chip, which used about a quarter as many neurons as the Pong demonstration, played Doom better than a randomly firing player, but far below the performance of the best human players. However, it learnt much faster than traditional, silicon-based machine learning systems and should be able to improve its performance with newer learning algorithms, says Kagan.
This is significant, because if you can make brain cells play an actual shooting game, where does it stop? I mean, eventually, you could potentially have it shoot actual weapons in the real world too.
The conversation then becomes similar to the ones surrounding AI development, and since that topic has been discussed many times on Muslim Skeptic, I won’t be going into the details of what purposes OI (organic intelligence) can be used for and to what extent it can replace humans. If you want to get an idea of that might look like, I would recommend reading this article which discusses the same changes but in relation to AI.
Instead, what we’ll be discussing here is how OI compares to AI.
Notice how the developers mentioned that the brain cells learned much faster than silicon-based machines. This ties into our next topic, which is that OI is far superior to AI.
Allah’s Flawless Design vs a Man-Made Mess
If we think about why OI performed better than AI, it’s obvious that it is because of the OI’s base material, i.e., living brain and stem cells.
While silicon drives and microchips are designed by humans and are full of faults, living cells are made by Allah and are perfect and flawless. Even until the Day of Judgement, no matter how far science advances, scientists and inventors will never come anywhere close to creating something even a fraction as flawless.
O humankind! A parable is [here] set forth. So listen to it. Indeed, those [beings] whom you call upon apart from Allah can never create [so much as] a fly, even if they were [all] to come together for that [purpose]. Rather, if a fly were to rob them of [even a mere speck of] anything, never could they even retrieve it from it. Most feeble are the seeker and the sought! (Qur’an, 22:73)
Consider how AI, even at the level it’s at now, requires huge data centers and vast amounts of water to operate. This is a huge obstacle for these tech companies, as all of them are now in a battle to acquire these resources that will allow them to advance AI faster. And arguably, AI is still in its early stages. What scale of resources do you think it will consume in the future?
On the other hand, it’s doubtful that OI will require the same amount. I mean, just look at us. The average human with adequate access to drinking water consumes only about 2–3 liters per day.
The human brain requires far less energy to function far more efficiently than AI:
The human brain operates on roughly 12 to 20 watts of electricity—about the same as a dim light bulb. That tiny power budget fuels a massively parallel network of approximately 86 billion neurons, capable of learning, adapting, reasoning, and sensing in real time.
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In contrast, even the most advanced supercomputers consume millions of watts.
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In 2013, the Blue Brain Project attempted to simulate one second of activity in just one percent of the human brain. It required the processing power of the Blue Gene/P supercomputer, one of the fastest at the time. Despite using 1.4 megawatts of electricity (enough to power over 1,000 homes), it took the system 40 minutes to simulate just 1 second of neural activity in real time.
Look at the superiority of Allah’s creation over what man creates, in that an organ that can perform such impressive feats weighs only about 1.4kg. Compare this to the vast data centers and water reserves that power AI which are nowhere near as powerful as the human brain. And we definitely only understand the human brain to a very small degree compared to its actual complexity and the perfect design that is largely yet to be explored and discovered.
Human beings are constantly thinking and pondering, and they are extremely complex purposeful beings, whereas AI will never form even a single actual thought. This shows us the infinite gap between the Design of the Creator and the creation.
In their attempt to ‘improve’ Allah’s creation and usher in the ‘next stage of evolution’ through AI, transhumanists are failing miserably, especially due to the vast resources required to power it.
And it looks like the best solution to their problem is to discard their designs and turn back to Allah’s Perfect Design, using brain cells and living tissue that are infinitely superior to their creation, to make their dystopian tech.
Ironically, it’s possible that, in the future, these transhumanists will abandon AI for OI, and in a way, they will turn back to their Creator in order to advance science and technology. In doing so, they would implicitly admit that Allah’s Design is infinitely superior to theirs, such that there is no comparison to be made.
So [as to the People of the Scripture]: Is it, then, other than Allah’s religion that they seek, when all those in the heavens and [in] the earth submit to Him — willingly or unwillingly — and [when it is] to Him that they shall all be returned [for Judgment]? (Qur’an, 3:83)
Could Organic Intelligence Gain Consciousness?
This is essentially the million-dollar question.
When it comes to AI, this question is pretty straightforward and easy to answer. Since AI will never be alive, it will never actually be self-aware or conscious.
However, with OI it could appear a bit tricky to some, because the biological material it is made of is the stuff of life.
Scientists working with this tech are less like inventors and more like gardeners. A gardener doesn’t create a plant. He simply nourishes its growth. Similarly, these scientists won’t be creating brain cells, they’ll be developing technology to grow, multiply, and then train them.
Some of you may be thinking, hold on though, AI scientists don’t create silicon and aluminium and whatever metals are used in AI development either. Those metals are also created by Allah, and tech CEOs are just figuring out ways of using them.
Well, let’s look at the whole picture.
The metals and algorithms used in AI development are not living things. It’s lifeless material that is used in order to design intelligence, i.e., the ability to learn and understand things.
AI scientists figure out ways to ‘CREATE’ intelligence where it doesn’t exist.
With OI, the intelligence is already present. The base material used are living cells, and these cells possess the intelligence to autonomously coordinate and work together in mind-blowing ways. There’s no need to create life or intelligence, so that’s the meat of the work already done.
That’s why I used the term OI, because organic means living and real, as opposed to lifeless and artificial.
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Can a Lab-Grown Adult Brain Form Thoughts?
So, the question isn’t whether OI will be living or not. It’s already made of living cells. The question is, if it becomes complex enough, could its intelligence end up unlocking a level of consciousness similar to what humans have?
For instance, there is the usage of organoids in the biotech field, which are basically 3D printed or lab-grown bits of cells, tissues, and organs such as the heart, liver, kidneys, and brain.
Now, let’s say this field advances to the point where an entire adult human brain can be grown and preserved and kept alive in a special solution or medium. Will this brain have the ability to think for itself?
If we just look at something like a piece of muscle grown in a lab from stem cells, then given an electric stimulus which causes the muscle fibers to twitch, we can say it is living tissue. However, it’s clearly not self-aware or conscious in the way human beings are.
That being said, with a fully grown brain that also has all the higher brain regions present, such as those associated with decision making or fear, will this organoid experience such things?
For instance, the eyes are a part of the nervous system, so in this hypothetical scenario the brain would also have a pair of eyes attached to it. Now, imagine these eyes looking around, taking in the surrounding information.
Light from the room enters the jar, it refracts due to the solution, enters the pair of eyes, is converted into electrical information, passes through the optic fibers and finally ends up in the visual cortex where the image is interpreted.
And then what?
The floating brain ‘sees’ the room? Does it experience this sight in the same way a human would? In the same way that humans have a first-person subjective experience of the world? Would it have that kind of perception? Would it have thoughts about what it sees?
Different Forms of Perceptions and Awareness
What is consciousness? Is it merely self-awareness? Is it merely free will?
Is there only one type of consciousness?
Well, we learn from Islam that there can be different degrees and levels of awareness or being.
Is consciousness or awareness only possessed by living beings with souls, or do living beings without souls possess it as well?
For instance, trees don’t have souls, yet they are living things that do possess some degree of awareness, such as the trees that showed reverence to the Prophet ﷺ or the trees that will inform Muslims of the Jews hiding behind them.
What about non-living things? Do inanimate objects possess a kind of awareness too?
For example, mountains are not even living things, yet they possess awareness to some extent, for example, their rejection of taking on the burden of the trust by Allah that humans accepted. We also know that stones too will speak and inform the believers of the Jews hiding behind them.
In fact, everything praises and glorifies Allah in a way that we do not perceive:
The seven heavens and the earth and all that are in them give due exaltation to Him. For there is not a [single] thing but that it exalts Him with [all] praise. But you [human beings] fathom not their exaltations. Indeed, ever is He most forbearing, all-forgiving. (Qur’an, 17:44)
Even the human body parts will have their own perceptions and will be able to speak on the Day of Judgement:
Thus [remind of] the Day [of Judgment], when the enemies of Allah shall be assembled before the Fire [of Hell] — and thus shall they be [duly] marshaled — until when they come to it [and are questioned about their life in the world], their ears, and their eyes, and their [very] skins shall [all] bear witness against their own souls for all that they used to do. So they shall say to their [own] skins: Why did you bear witness against us? They shall say [in response]: Allah who causes everything to speak has caused us to speak. For it is He [alone] who has created you the first time. And to Him are you [now] returned! (Qur’an, 41:19–21)
This is pretty relevant because the organoids we’ve been discussing so far can also be classified as ‘body parts.’
And we know that it isn’t just our limbs. Everything in creation, even the non-living, will give testimony either for or against us.
Even non-physical things that are abstract concepts in this world will have forms in the Hereafter that will perceive and communicate as well. For instance, salah, righteous deeds, fasting, and the Qur’an will intercede for the believers.
Then there are also angels and jinn, who are conscious living metaphysical beings.
So, it is possible for all sorts of things, from living beings that have souls to non-physical abstract entities, to have different levels of awareness and perceptions.
Now, some of you may ask, if non-living things can have a special form of metaphysical perception, then wouldn’t it be possible for AI to possess that as well?
And once again, the answer is no.
Yes, it might be possible that the atoms that constitute the AI data centers have a form of metaphysical awareness that is imperceptible to us through which they constantly praise and glorify Allah. However, that might be true for all atoms everywhere in the universe, and doesn’t constitute the kind of consciousness or intelligence being discussed with the ‘brain in a vat’ example.
The Importance of the Heart in the Human Body
Humans and animals have souls, yet it is widely held by scholars that trees don’t have souls. We learn this from Ibn ‘Abbas (May Allah be pleased with him) who warned an image-maker against making images, but then he told him that if he must do so, he could make images of things that don’t have souls, such as trees.
Now, trees are made of living cells, just like humans and animals. So, what is it that differentiates them such that we can say humans and animals have souls but trees do not?
Could it perhaps be the heart?
Both humans and animals have hearts, yet trees do not. Now, you might say that well, trees don’t have brains either, so that could be the key differentiator. However, I feel a little more inclined towards it possibly being the heart, and I will explain my reasons why.
As explained in previous articles as well, Allah has described the heart as more than just a physical organ in the Qur’an. Indeed, it is a metaphysical organ that is a receptor for Guidance from Allah, and it can either follow that Light and be on the Straight Path or reject it and eventually become sealed off from this Guiding Light completely, i.e., a dead heart.
So have they [who deny faith] not journeyed through the lands [and seen enough of such ends, so as] to have [their] hearts [awakened] to understand with [them], and [their] ears [opened so that] they [may] truly hear with [them]? For it is not the eyes that become blind but the hearts within the breasts that go blind. (Qur’an, 22:46)
[Therefore,] Allah has set a seal upon their hearts and upon their hearing. And over their eyes, there is a veil. Thus for them there is a great torment [awaiting in the Hereafter]. (Qur’an, 2:7)
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The Nafs and Its Different Types
In this way, even the believer and the disbeliever have different levels of consciousness. The believer is more spiritually aware of the reality around him. He understands that the world and this life are but temporary and fleeting and will wither away, and it is the Hereafter that will last forever, and he has realized this through Allah’s Guidance. The stronger his beliefs and the purer his intentions, the more closely his heart is connected to this Guiding Light and thus the less he is thwarted by the devil’s temptations and the more mastery he has over his nafs.
The nafs can be translated as the self or the soul.
In contrast, the disbeliever has buried his soul by rejecting the Guiding Light and choosing to live in darkness, becoming completely unaware of the reality around him, submitting fully to the worldly temptations and discarding the Hereafter, and he has become misguided. He is easily deceived by the devil’s deceptions.
And [by] the soul and Him who fashioned it — and informed it with [consciousness of] its wickedness and its righteousness! Truly, whoever purines it has succeeded. And truly, whoever defiles it has failed. (Qur’an, 91:7–10)
There are different types of nafs mentioned in the Qur’an, and in the science of tasawwuf, it is said that these refer to the different stages that a soul goes through in its process of purification. There is al-nafs al-ammarah, which is the soul that commands or tempts one to evil; al-nafs al-lawwamah, which is the reproaching soul that feels guilt and yearns for repentance; and al-nafs al-mutma’innah, which is the ideal state of peace everyone should strive for.
An explanation of these different types of nafs is found within the the famous tafsir of the Qur’an, Ma’arif al-Qur’an of Mufti Muhammad Shafi’ (May Allah have mercy on him), in the interpretation of the second verse of Surat al-Qiyamah, in which Allah mentions al-nafs al-lawwamah:
In sufi terminology, we come across the following concepts. The noble sufis say that man in his nature goes through three stages of human development. The first stage is called al-nafs al-ammarah, ‘the self that tempts (to evil)’ as said by the Holy Qur’an: اِنَّ النَّفْسَ لَاَمَّارَةٌۢ بِالسُّوْۗءِ ‘…Surely, man’s inner self often incites to evil [12:53].’
The second stage of development is called al-nafs al-lawwamah, ‘the self that blames’ – translated above as ‘the self-reproaching conscience.’
The first stage is developed into the second stage when the traveler performs righteousness, and exerts himself in riyadah, i.e., ‘ascetic discipline,’ and mujahadah, i.e., ‘spiritual struggle.’ This Self is conscious of its own imperfections. It regrets its evils and shortcomings, but it is not completely cut off from the evils.
The third and highest stage of development is called al-nafs al-mutma’innah, ‘the self at peace.’ This self develops into this stage when it progressively performs righteousness and attains Divine nearness and applies the sacred laws of the Shari`ah so rigorously that the Shari’ah becomes his nature and develops a natural hatred for anything contrary to the Shari`ah . The title of the self at this stage is mutma’innah.
So, we learn a characteristic about the nafs from Surat al-Shams: that Allah has inspired it with the ability to discern between right and wrong. Then there are different types of nafs depending on the status a person has achieved via spiritual struggle, by doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong.
We also know that Allah created humans upon the fitrah:
Set your face [devoutly toward Allah and] to the [true] religion, [O Prophet, and so too all who would follow you] — being [ever] upright [in heart]! This is the natural disposition [given you] by Allah, upon which He originated [all] humankind. There shall be no altering of Allah’s creation. That is the upright [way of] religion, but most people do not know it. (Qur’an, 30:30)
Allah is telling us to adhere to the fitrah, i.e., the pure, natural state that we were created in, to dedicate ourselves to obey and worship Allah alone. This is what the spiritual struggle of this life is about, and the fight against one’s self, i.e., jihad al-nafs, is to become as closely in-line with the fitrah that we were created upon as possible, until a believer reaches the state where he, as mentioned in the tafsir above, the Shari’ah becomes his nature.
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The Ruh Is in the Hand of Allah
The ruh and the nafs (the soul and the self), the fitrah, the ability to discern between right and wrong, the inclination towards desires, the metaphysical ability to receive or reject Guidance from Allah, and free will, these are all very special gifts from Allah that form the unique consciousness that humans have.
I don’t believe that a lab-grown brain will possess this until and unless the ruh is inserted into it by Allah and it is imbued with a nafs.
What is more likely is that this brain might indeed possess the ability to analyse information better than any man-made artificial machine or AI in existence. However, despite possessing such great analytical skill, it is devoid of a moral compass.
This brain will then do purely what it’s trained to do by its masters, never developing any sense of self or thoughts of its own. It will be the best machine, but it will still be a machine nonetheless. The pain and pleasure centers in this brain can be stimulated to train it, but will it actually experience those sensations?
Let me use an example. Experiments were done that found that certain areas of the brain, such as the medial prefrontal cortex, light up when a human subject is told to think about themselves. Now, the experiment tells us what part of the brain is active during this interaction, but where did the thought and subjective experience of the situation arise from? And the fact that we question the source of its origin beyond the body implies that there is one.
You, the reader, can try this for yourself. Think of your name, where you are right now, what you do, etc. Now think about where those thoughts are coming from. If you feel as if they are originating from beyond your physical body, then that’s probably because it’s true.
An experiment was conducted where the link between the sense of self and an area of the brain known as the anterior precuneus were investigated:
Left aPCu stimulations in 7 cases were largely associated with the sense of falling or being dropped (5 participants), dizziness (3 participants), and lack of focus (2 participants). By comparison, the stimulation of the right aPCu in 7 cases caused mental block or mental shift (6 participants) and floating (3 participants) sensations. Three of the nine participants reported a sense of self-dissociation after the stimulation of the right aPCu. For instance, Participant S01 reported feelings of floating up in the clouds and losing focus associated with an analogy of “frontal lobe getting dumber” (i.e., hard to think straight), and a sense of self-detachment. Participant S08 also reported a state of being thrown up on the clouds and out-of-body. Both S08 and S01 reported that their experience reminded them of their previous dissociative feelings on psychedelics. Participant S09, who had chronic right aPCu seizures, reported the feeling of being disconnected with a loss of confidence in his ability to hold on to his body, being weightless in his own mind as a personality, less connected to everything, and overly aware of this disconnection as a result of aPCu stimulation.
This experiment showcased that the sense of self can actually be taken away from the physical body, or it can be made to experience the world in an unreal way as it dissociates from the body. Such experiences are also reported by people who do psychedelic drugs, such as has been described by one of the subjects.
This strongly indicates that the source of the self is beyond the physical body, and by itself is something that isn’t within one’s control, i.e., these subjects couldn’t control where their ‘self’ was sinking or floating once the dissociation was experienced, in the same way they could normally control their hands and feet, for example.
Souls are created by Allah, given control of our bodies by Allah, and will ultimately return to Him. There are so many ahadith where the Prophet ﷺ has used the phrase ‘By Him in Whose Hand lies my soul.’
Blessed be the One in whose [mighty] Hand is all the dominion. For He is powerful over all things; the One who created death and life to test you, [and to reveal] which of you is best in deeds. For He [alone] is the Overpowering [One], the All-Forgiving; (Qur’an, 67:1–2)
It is Allah [alone] who takes the souls [of people] at the [predestined] time of their death. But as for those [souls] that have not yet died, [He takes them] during their sleep. Then He withholds the ones upon which He has decreed death, while He sends the others [back] to [reach] a stated term [of life]. Indeed, in [all of] this there are sure signs for a people who would reflect [on life and death]. (Qur’an, 39:42)
Every [single] soul shall taste death. Then to Us shall you [all] be returned [for recompense]. (Qur’an, 29:57)
Of course, we do not need scientific experiments to prove or believe in the truth and the true nature of reality that Islam teaches us. Rather, these experiments are shared simply because they corroborate the truth that Islam already tells us.
So, in summary, the safest conclusion is that, without Allah’s Permission and without His act of Creation, there is no ruh and there is no nafs, and so we cannot expect the type of consciousness that humans have from lab grown organoids without it being given a soul by Allah that denotes a nafs.
Otherwise, it’s just a hollow zombie.
But what about clones? What about if a technology is achieved whereby entire human clones can be grown; or what about human babies grown in artificial wombs? Could these lab-grown humans be conscious?
Well, with these hypotheticals, we’re talking about actual humans with all the organs and body parts present, but even still, unless there is a ruh and a nafs inserted into it by Allah, it might as well be a living yet dead human running about. Living in the sense that it is made of living cells, tissues, and organs, but dead in the sense that there is no soul or self present to direct it.
Think of a video game machine. You have a screen with a character in the game, a controller, and you, the player who uses the controller. The character is like our physical bodies, the controller like the brain and heart, and you, the player, like the soul that controls the character in the game/world.
The human body is the perfect vessel created by Allah that can house a ruh and have a nafs. It isn’t even present from the get-go, i.e., when the zygote is formed. Rather, the ruh is breathed into the body at 120 days after conception. Interestingly, this is also around the time the mother feels the baby’s movements in the womb.
Even after the child is born, it isn’t accountable just yet. It isn’t until he grows and reaches a point of maturity where he is aware enough and understands the world around him that he will finally be accountable for how he uses his free will. This is yet another interesting point to note regarding consciousness.
So, theoretically, it seems possible that a baby developed in an artificial womb could be given a ruh at this 120-day mark. However, since the technology hasn’t been made and we haven’t seen its results, it’s best not to speculate or make any definitive statements except that it can only be conscious if Allah grants it the ruh and nafs and if Allah Wills for it to be so.
Now, they [who disbelieve] ask you, [O Prophet,] about the [nature] of the spirit. Say [to them]: The spirit [of life] is of the affair of my Lord [alone]. Nor have you [human beings] been given of knowledge more than very little. (Qur’an, 17:85)
At the end of the day, these are topics that we will never fully have a complete grasp and understanding of, and the little we are able to know and comprehend is only through the limited knowledge granted to us by Allah.
And Allah knows best.
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