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Jesse and the Purple Crayon … of Death!!

1. We don't know what consciousness is. Strictly speaking we don't know if consciousness - or, hell, anything - exists outside our own individual experience. Maybe rocks are conscious like you are. Maybe other humans aren't. Maybe neither rocks nor other humans exist. All possible!

Jesse and the Purple Crayon … of Death!!

@misctakes.com

2. In general we make certain assumptions to get by. We tend to assume the external world is as it seems, and further that when we encounter other beings in it, who arose in ways analogous to us, and respond to the world in recognizable ways, that they too have a conscious experience.

15/10/26, 4:10 pm0 reposts0 likes

Jesse and the Purple Crayon … of Death!!

@misctakes.com

3. This assumption of a conscious experience is not proportional to linguistic output. I assume dogs are conscious, and I think most people share this intuition. I certainly assume non verbal humans are conscious.

Jesse and the Purple Crayon … of Death!!

@misctakes.com

4. The first iteration of ChatGPT was already more linguistically fluent than a dog. I see no threshold for presumption or even supposition of consciousness that LLMs have passed since then, that they hadn't already passed.

Jesse and the Purple Crayon … of Death!!

@misctakes.com

5. I don't have a strong opinion about whether consciousness can theoretically be created in software. But I do see no reason to ask that now about this technology, if we wouldn't about other software.

Jesse and the Purple Crayon … of Death!!

@misctakes.com

6. If software that wasn't explicitly designed to imitate human language started unexpectedly acting in ways we recognize from other life forms, I'd respond differently.