[ExI] it's alive! maybe!

[Jason Resch]

On Sun, Mar 8, 2026, 11:36 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
> Oops forgot to include Musk’s retort.  Included below.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* spike at rainier66.com <spike at rainier66.com>
> *Subject:* it's alive! maybe!
>
>
>
> >…Dario says Claude may or may not have gained consciousness:
>
>
>
> https://x.com/Polymarket/status/2029897104072540415
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Elon disagrees.
>
>
>
> https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2029912774827200801
>

The root of the problem is that people are largely just relying on from
their intuitions, rather than anything like a deductive theory.

We're apt to make mistakes (and significant ones) when we judge the
consciousness of others using heuristics like "Does it look like us?" "Does
it have a big brain like us?" "Does it signal states of pain like we do?",
etc.

With a reason-based consciousness theory, we could finally reach a
consensus on this question (and many more), rather than have people trade
their opinions endlessly.

For various reasons I think the computational theory of mind is rationally
and scientifically justifiable. Further, I believe a strong argument can be
made that any process that exhibits intelligence must also, to some extent,
be consciousness (since any intelligent behavior requires knowledge of
external or internal information states, so intelligent actions to be
conditioned on that knowledge.)

If so, then consciousness was never difficult to achieve. A chess playing
program would be conscious. What was difficult was making an AI of
sufficient sophistication that it triggers people's human-centric
heuristics/intuitions for judging the presence of other minds.

Most people would agree a goldfish is conscious, even though their brains
are vastly simpler than our current AI models.

Jason



>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> If we are going to compare Dario with someone, it should be Elon or Mark
> Zuckerburg.
>
>
>
> Sheesh what a time to be alive.  As we have noted for some time, decades,
> in this forum, the singularity might slay all of humanity, but if the
> singularity doesn’t happen, we all know what will happen to us.  As
> individuals, the singularity is the only way to make it out of this
> biological life “alive.”
>
>
>
> spike
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20260308/9685e8bd/attachment.htm>