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not a huge fan of declarations of "LLMs are conscious" because that is basically the same as the "LLMs are not conscious" argument right now. i like having spicy takes and all but that one feels counter productive

I also think saying something “is” consciously is subtly wrong framing as opposed to saying it “has” consciousness

take it one step further: consider consciousness a transient property of a system at a point in time, and treat it as a continuous quantity rather than a yes/no trait you can experimentally verify this at home with a shot glass and a bottle of tequila

This is basically my view, and I'm willing to bite the much weirder bullet and say that significant number of humans do not have conscious at any given moment, as a transient state.

Same! In many contexts this isn't even controversial. High-level athletes put a lot of effort into *not* being in a fully conscious state while playing. You want to clear your mind, lock in, focus, move instinctively. If you're "thinking about it" that's bad.

It only seems bad if you think that knowing someone/thing has consciousness is a prerequisite for treating it well because it's now a moral patient, and that just doesn't follow at all. The popular reaction says more about the general lack of ethical sophistication of a lot of folks than anything.

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