内容摘要：, he recently said he spent only “eight days” on set of the new film.

, he recently said he spent only “eight days” on set of the new film.

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".

And if Prof Seth's intuition about life being important is on the right track, the most likely technology will not be made of silicon run on computer code, but will rather consist of tiny collections of nerve cells the size of lentil grains that are currently being grown in labs.

Called "mini-brains" in media reports, they are referred to as "cerebral organoids" by the scientific community, which uses them to research how the brain works, and for drug testing.The family-run Nodor group, which Red Dragon Darts is part of, moved production of its darts and dartboards to Kenya after it acquired the Winmau brand about 20 years ago.

The sisal plant grows naturally in the east African country and is the best material for bristle boards, lowering operating costs.Nodor opened up its own sales and distribution centre in Dallas, Texas in 2023 and now produces 30,000 sets of darts and 20,000 dartboards a week from its factories in Kenya, and employs 1,000 staff.

Mr Huxtable said: "It's always about the technology which goes into the dart for performance enhancement which is the most important for me."In one of my favourite darts we managed to fuse 85% tungsten at the back of the barrel with 95% tungsten at the front to move the centre of gravity forward.