Comment on Our understanding of reality might be a result of the way cousciousness works
ageedizzle@piefed.ca 2 weeks agoBut there’s no reason to think it isn’t.
That’s not the case. This is a very active area in academic philosophy and there are, objectively speaking, several reasons to think that consciousness is not solely a material process (whether or not you think these are good reasons is for you to decide). For an accessible introduction to this topic I recommend Facing up to the problem of consciousness by David Chalmers. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on the Knowledge Argument is also a good intro if you are looking to dive right into something a bit more technical.
CannonFodder@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah thanks, you can keep that naval gazing. Consciousness can never be the subject of science since it cannot be measured. It’s all conjecture and metaphysics. I don’t see the point of trying to classify it, since one can never test a theory.
The argument that consciousness isn’t based on the physicality of the brain is silly. When you attribute consciousness to magic, if magic is real, then magic is a part of physics - it’s just physics that isn’t understood. We cannot know if something is or isn’t conscious. So we cannot know if AI is or can be conscious. Any argument that it definitely isn’t or can’t be conscious is therefore wrong.
ageedizzle@piefed.ca 2 weeks ago
Notice that I said this is a very active topic in academic philosophy (not science). I literally sent you links to what professional metaphysicians have to say on this topic. Do you really think you can contribute more to this topic in one lemmy comment than experts who have studied this problem for their entire careers?
This is exactly one of the reasons why it poses a problem. Physical things can be measured but consciousness can’t.
CannonFodder@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
So what’s the point of saying AI can’t be conscious? That’s where we started here. It’s a stupid argument that’s clearly wrong.
ageedizzle@piefed.ca 2 weeks ago
I’m not discussing whether AI could be conscious. I’m responding to your claim that consciousness must be a physical phenomenon, which is a separate issue.