[ExI] Ben Goertzel on Large Language Models

[Gordon Swobe]

On Fri, Apr 28, 2023 at 3:46 PM Jason Resch via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
> On Fri, Apr 28, 2023, 12:33 AM Gordon Swobe via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> Quite by accident, I happened upon this quote of Erwin Schrodinger this
>> evening.
>>
>> "Consciousness cannot be explained in physical terms. Because
>> consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be explained in any
>> other terms."
>>
> That is actually what I also hold to be true about consciousness, though
>> not necessarily for reasons related to quantum mechanics or eastern
>> philosophy. (Schrodinger is said to have been influenced by
>> eastern philosophy).
>>
>
> Me too. Its strange then that we disagree regarding AI.
>

Yes, that is interesting. To be clear, I agree with Schrodinger that
consciousness cannot be explained in physical terms, but this is not quite
the same as saying it is immaterial or non-physical. I mean, and I think he
meant, that it cannot be explained in the third-person objective language
of physics. I take "absolutely fundamental" to mean irreducible.  I take
"It cannot be explained in other terms" to mean that the experience itself
is the only way to understand it. This is also why I try to stay out of the
endless discussions about what are qualia.

I cannot explain in the language of physics, or in the language of
computation or of functionalism generally, why I see the red quale when I
look at an apple. I just do. It is fundamental and irreducible.

-gts
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20230429/70e53376/attachment.htm>