4 ms·
Yes: it can experience qualia. And, yes, no one really knows what that means. This is by way of being the whole point: that the question of what consciousness
by throwanem 7y ago
Yes: it can experience qualia.
And, yes, no one really knows what that means. This is by way of being the whole point: that the question of what consciousness is and means is a matter for philosophy rather than science, as is everything else that can’t, or can’t yet, be precisely enough formulated to be susceptible to scientific inquiry.
(Personally, I take no position on the question, other than that as far as I’m concerned I have consciousness and that’s good enough for me, and I graciously extend the same privilege to all human and many nonhuman animals - dolphins, for instance, out of professional respect for a fellow species of highly successful bastards. I just think it’s fun to poke at unwarranted senses of certainty every now and again.)
- lostmsu 7y agoI think you are very mistaken about an assumption, that GPT-2 can not experience qualia. I am not even sure it would need any additional training. Or I misunderstand what you mean by qualia. But the only other alternative interpretation of a word I can think of is identical to "being a specific physical system", which does not involve consciousness at all.
- throwanem 7y ago“Qualia” is a philosophical term of art referring to the subjective experiences that are considered to uniquely define consciousness. A creature without qualia perceives a noxious stimulus; a creature with them feels pain. If, as other commenters would have it, there is something of the “god of the gaps” about consciousness, then qualia are what fill those gaps.