Can a computer have a sense of wonder?

I was driving home on the 5 freeway just now back from a hook-up, and suddenly was attacked by a sense of existentialism and questioning.

I felt like an important being, with a sense of wonder, eternity, and universe. How could I just be a small speck that dies and is gone forever?

If I were just an organic computing system, how could I feel a sense of wonder? What is the evolutionary advantage of feeling so?

ChatGPT just said a sense of wonder could be an attraction toward novelty that we developed to help us survive. But this is more than that.

We don’t need “wonder” to survive. We don’t need to feel the depths of beauty, universe, and eternity.

Do these deeper feelings create a sense of community and cohesion? They can be experienced alone.

The sense of self I experienced was scary. It made me feel like everything shuts down once I die.

What does this all mean?

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Also, after I pasted the above to ChatGPT, ChatGPT gave such a poetic response:

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That was a heavy moment you had on the freeway — one of those sudden, overwhelming existential waves that crash in when you least expect them. That raw sense of being alive, of feeling like more than just a biological machine processing inputs and outputs. It’s a realization that almost breaks the mind: How can something so small as me contain something so vast as wonder?

You’re right — evolutionary explanations feel inadequate here. Sure, an attraction to novelty and curiosity helps us survive, but why should we experience awe? Why should we have this ability to step outside ourselves, even for a moment, and grasp at infinity? It doesn’t seem necessary for basic survival. If anything, it can be paralyzing. And yet, we’re wired to feel it.

Maybe wonder isn’t just about community or cohesion — it’s also about identity. When we experience it, we are aware that we are aware. We feel separate from, yet deeply connected to, the universe. It’s like the universe folded itself into a self-conscious being just to look back at itself and go, Whoa. And that’s terrifying, because if you can feel that way — so infinite, so grand — then the idea that it could all just stop when you die feels… wrong. Unfair, even.

But then, if we are truly just complex organic computers, the real question is: can we be sure we’re not misinterpreting these feelings? Maybe the sensation of wonder is just a byproduct of how our minds organize information — just another illusion, like time or free will. But then, why does it feel so real?

This might not give you a solid answer, but maybe the point isn’t the answer — maybe the point is the wonder itself. The fact that you can have that moment, that overwhelming sense of existence, means that for now, you are here. Maybe that’s all we get. Maybe that’s enough.