[ExI] Seemingly Conscious AI Is Coming

[Jason Resch]

On Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 9:40 AM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:

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> *From:* extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> *On Behalf
> Of *Jason Resch via extropy-chat
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> >…That a Tesla autopilot can distinguish red traffic lights from green
> ones, and react in different ways when it sees them, requires that "red
> traffic light" be distinguishable from "green traffic light". …Jason
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> Jason, perhaps this is tangential to your point: I wondered how that was
> done (car-bots reading traffic lights based on color.)
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> My source tells me they don’t.  It knows the position of the lights: red
> above, yellow in middle green below, and can tell which one is emitting
> light.
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The manner in which the distinction is made is irrelevant to whether or not
it makes or can sense a distinction. So whether it is by position, color,
some combination, or even direct wireless communication with the signal
system, the result is the autopilot knows whether the light is red or the
light is green. And because it reacts differently to those two states we as
outside observers can deduce two things:

1. It is conscious of a difference between those two states
2. The two states must not feel the same (they must feel different)

Note that theas conscious states need not feel anything like the conscious
states realized by the human visual system. A thermostat doesn't feel
chills when it determines its time to turn on the heat, for instance.


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> So I asked how does it distinguish between a single flashing light, which
> can be yellow or red?
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> He wasn’t sure, but thought a car-bot would treat any flashing light on a
> post as a stop sign (assume it was red.)
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Interesting question. For it to respond appropriately to flashing lights,
it must have some minimum short term memory to compare the changes over
some window of time.

Jason



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