I’m kind of straying across the lanes of two philosophical debates here. One is whether an artificial brain (wtm) can be intelligent — that at least we can demonstrate, even though definitions of intelligence are woolly. The other is this pesky consciousness question, and the only reason I don’t chuck it in the waste basket is because “they’re not actually conscious” will be the new racism of the coming century.
Of course it also begs the question of whether other people are actually conscious.
I find that fiction often has a better idea of what a sentient artificial intelligence would be like: ORAC, Data, Bender, C3PO, the Minds of the Culture, etc. Many of these do behave just like people in metal suits but that’s rather the point.
I’m always open to any suggestion for an experiment to objectively determine whether something is conscious or not. It might be like an experiment to determine if something is beautiful, however.
Well, I'm in the opposite camp, of course. Or rather, slightly beyond it: I consider consciousness to be like centrifugal force in that the fact it's observable doesn't mean it exists as a thing distinct from its cause.
I think there’s at least one Stanislaw Lem story where emulated intelligences prove to be real intelligences.
I’m kind of straying across the lanes of two philosophical debates here. One is whether an artificial brain (wtm) can be intelligent — that at least we can demonstrate, even though definitions of intelligence are woolly. The other is this pesky consciousness question, and the only reason I don’t chuck it in the waste basket is because “they’re not actually conscious” will be the new racism of the coming century.
Of course it also begs the question of whether other people are actually conscious.
I find that fiction often has a better idea of what a sentient artificial intelligence would be like: ORAC, Data, Bender, C3PO, the Minds of the Culture, etc. Many of these do behave just like people in metal suits but that’s rather the point.
I'm glad that working with Claude feels more having Data as a partner than ORAC!
"Possibly. However similarities between myself and Ensor^H^H^H^H^HData are entirely superficial. My mental capacity is infinitely greater"
If consciousness is somehow not observable from the outside then OK, but that makes people who believe this cognitive solipsists.
I’m always open to any suggestion for an experiment to objectively determine whether something is conscious or not. It might be like an experiment to determine if something is beautiful, however.
Well, I'm in the opposite camp, of course. Or rather, slightly beyond it: I consider consciousness to be like centrifugal force in that the fact it's observable doesn't mean it exists as a thing distinct from its cause.
I'm always interested to know why people believe they're conscious, not being at all convinced that I am.