内容摘要：Mavka chose to stay in Melitopol when the Russians invaded her city on 25 February 2022, "because it is unfair that someone can just come to my home and take it out".

Mavka chose to stay in Melitopol when the Russians invaded her city on 25 February 2022, "because it is unfair that someone can just come to my home and take it out".

Manuel chips in enthusiastically with an impish grin, saying that the new systems that he too firmly believes will emerge will be the "next stage in humanity's evolution".Conscious robots, he believes, "are our progeny. Down the road, machines like these will be entities that will be on Earth and maybe on other planets when we are no longer around".

David Chalmers – Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science at New York University – defined the distinction between real and apparent consciousness at a conference in Tucson, Arizona in 1994. He laid out the "hard problem" of working out how and why any of the complex operations of brains give rise to conscious experience, such as our emotional response when we hear a nightingale sing.Prof Chalmers says that he is open to the possibility of the hard problem being solved."The ideal outcome would be one where humanity shares in this new intelligence bonanza," he tells the BBC. "Maybe our brains are augmented by AI systems."

On the sci-fi implications of that, he wryly observes: "In my profession, there is a fine line between science fiction and philosophy".Prof Seth, however, is exploring the idea that true consciousness can only be realised by living systems.

"A strong case can be made that it isn't computation that is sufficient for consciousness but being alive," he says.

"In brains, unlike computers, it's hard to separate what they do from what they are." Without this separation, he argues, it's difficult to believe that brains "are simply meat-based computers".As head of development for Red Dragon Darts, Mr Huxtable tries to name all the world champions he has made darts for.

"Peter Wright, Gerwyn Price, Michael Van Gerwen, Luke Humphries, Trina Gulliver..." the names keep coming.Within his work, Mr Huxtable has played a pivotal role in helping many players excel including World number one, Humphries.

"The Luke Humphries dart is a long shaft, front-weighted short barrel which creates certain amount of drag and lands at a perfect angle for him in the board to help his scoring."Every darts player is different, Peter 'snakebite' Wright's world titles mean a lot to me, me and Peter would go through hundreds of concepts," he said.