[ExI] Taxonomy of Minds (was: Re: Uploads as a group of AI agents)

[ilsa]

Excellent!

Ilsa Bartlett
Institute for Rewiring the System
http://ilsabartlett.wordpress.com
http://www.google.com/profiles/ilsa.bartlett
www.hotlux.com/angel <http://www.hotlux.com/angel.htm>

"Don't ever get so big or important that you can not hear and listen to
every other person."
-John Coltrane

On Sat, Mar 28, 2026, 1:30 AM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> On 28/03/2026 07:36, Jason Resch wrote:
> > A proposed taxonomy for various levels of minds:
> >
> >   1  Reactive: can respond to stimuli
> >   2  Stateful: keeps distinct internal states
> >   3  Adaptive: can store memories and learn
> >   4  Attentive: maintains a model of the environment
> >   5  Reflective: models the self in relation to the environment
> >    6 Empathic: models others as entities with their own minds
> >   7  Contemplative: thinks about abstract objects and the future
> >   8  Introspective: can have second-order thoughts about thoughts
> >    9 Metacognitive: has third-order thoughts about nature of thought
> >   10  Superfluid: can arbitrarily reorganize itself to experience any
> qualia
>
>
> I would reverse the order of 5 & 6. Modelling others comes before
> modelling self. Young humans start to form theory of mind involving what
> others think, very early on. It's usually only around puberty or later that
> self-awareness seems to emerge. It makes sense that 5 is dependent on 6
> (following the normal pattern of duplication and re-purposing of mental
> modules).
>
> I'm not sure that 7 necessarily comes after 5 & 6. Some of these stages
> may be simultaneous.
>
> 8 is probably linked to 5.
>
> 9 seems to be the same as 8, or near enough that one implies the other.
>
> Not sure about 10. Seems highly speculative. That might be better put as
> "can re-organise its own structure"
>
> But anything beyond what we are currently capable of, is of course
> speculative. We won't know until we know, what lies beyond our current
> capabililties.
>
> ---
> Ben
>
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