John_Whittemore on Nostr: Excellent thoughts, Lyn. I should have guessed you were philosophically minded! I ...
Excellent thoughts, Lyn. I should have guessed you were philosophically minded!
I don’t think a material explanation of of the “lights on” of a first person perspective is possible. The only successful accounts of consciousness to my mind are those that acknowledge it to be primary and not derived from material processes. Still we “make” conscious objects all the time. Humans have been making babies as long as there have been humans.
I see no reason why a conscious first person perspective might not be present in an AI. We should prolly err on the side of presuming consciousness where it cannot be proven and acting with respect.
Even if there isn’t a first person “lights on” in animals or AI but merely the illusion of one, treating them badly based on that unprovable assumption reflects poorly on the ethics of anyone who does it.
I don’t think a material explanation of of the “lights on” of a first person perspective is possible. The only successful accounts of consciousness to my mind are those that acknowledge it to be primary and not derived from material processes. Still we “make” conscious objects all the time. Humans have been making babies as long as there have been humans.
I see no reason why a conscious first person perspective might not be present in an AI. We should prolly err on the side of presuming consciousness where it cannot be proven and acting with respect.
Even if there isn’t a first person “lights on” in animals or AI but merely the illusion of one, treating them badly based on that unprovable assumption reflects poorly on the ethics of anyone who does it.