[ExI] Is Artificial Life Conscious?

[Jason Resch]

On Fri, Apr 29, 2022, 1:01 PM Mike Dougherty <msd001 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, Apr 29, 2022, 9:33 AM Jason Resch via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>>
>> I appreciate your thinking and questions on these topics. They're deep
>> and lead to some of the most fundamental and relevant questions of our time.
>>
>
> What you explained of type and token reminded me of class and object in
> computer science.
>

It is very similar, though classes may have different internal properties
between in each instance. Though I suppose this is also true of types and
tokens. Like the letter 'A' is a type, of which there are many instances in
this sentence, some might be upper or lower case but each if them is
perfectly 'a'. Or the various tokens of US dollars might come in bill or
coin form.


> I have considered this consciousness question,  but it feels like
> requisite enabling technology is still lacking for us to be able to convey
> meaning.
>

Do you mean we don't have devices today that understand meaning? What do
you think of this device's ability to translate verbal descriptions into
images:

https://youtu.be/U1cF9QCu1rQ ?

Is that a task that can be completed without understanding meaning?


> AI seems like a useful tool inasmuch as it helps us determine where to
> look next for clues.  It'll be even cooler when a conscious-seeming AI
> joins the discussion with novel insights.  :)
>

Indeed, and it doesn't seem like that day is far off.


> A cube can cast a shadow that is a square.
> A cube also casts a shadow that is a hexagon.
>
> Consciousness is a higher dimensional construct casting a lower
> dimensional shadow that we're trying to understand much as Plato's cave
> dwellers.
>

Something of that sort might partly explain the difficulties trying to
verbally explain a qualia. Since we communicate audibly, describing a color
using what are, after all, "just sounds" (speech), might be like trying to
explain a sound in terms of smell, or a feeling in terms of a taste. These
various qualia spaces corresponding to our different senses can have
different dimensionality, or otherwise don't commute.

Jason
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