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Chalmers is an important figure in the recent study of consciousness, in particular illuminating the distinction between consciousness and cognition. You shoul

Chalmers is an important figure in the recent study of consciousness, in particular illuminating the distinction between consciousness and cognition. You should consider familiarising yourself with the ideas before dismissing then as silly.

IshKebab 6y ago
As far as I know we still have literally no idea what consciousness is. History has shown that when we have no evidence about something, philosophers like to just make stuff up that they thing sounds compelling and consistent. Nobody can prove them wrong so they can write entire volumes on their idea! Forgive me for not wasting time familiarising myself with his made up distinction between consciousness and cognition.
- mellosouls 6y ago
  If you have such contempt for philosophers and refuse to open your mind to their ideas (even if just to critique them) - perhaps best not to comment on them at all.
  - IshKebab 6y ago
    I could say the same thing about Flat Earthers, QAnon, and so on. Do you read the blogs? Of course not. Does that mean you can't criticise them?
- dj_mc_merlin 6y ago
  Although your wording is pretty rough, I agree with the idea in general. With no way to really evaluate an idea beyond "it sounds good" or "lots of people agree with it", most philosophers are just very wordy circlejerkers.
- Kednicma 6y ago
  Here's a basic warmup question: How do you know that a person is conscious? There are basic medical tests, of course, but maybe they're faking it. You know, as a person, what it feels like to be a person; you feel when you're conscious. Is this feeling universal, or are there people who just don't have it? This question is known as the question of philosophical zombies [0], or p-zombies, and it is worth taking seriously, if for no other reason than that GPT-3 and friends are very much like p-zombies; they sound very cogent and coherent but are definitely not conscious in the same brain-based way that humans are conscious. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_zombie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_zombie
  - IshKebab 6y ago
    It's an interesting question. Philosophers have tons of interesting questions! They rarely have disprovable answers.

IshKebab 6y ago

As far as I know we still have literally no idea what consciousness is. History has shown that when we have no evidence about something, philosophers like to just make stuff up that they thing sounds compelling and consistent. Nobody can prove them wrong so they can write entire volumes on their idea! Forgive me for not wasting time familiarising myself with his made up distinction between consciousness and cognition.

mellosouls 6y ago
If you have such contempt for philosophers and refuse to open your mind to their ideas (even if just to critique them) - perhaps best not to comment on them at all.
- IshKebab 6y ago
  I could say the same thing about Flat Earthers, QAnon, and so on. Do you read the blogs? Of course not. Does that mean you can't criticise them?
dj_mc_merlin 6y ago
Although your wording is pretty rough, I agree with the idea in general. With no way to really evaluate an idea beyond "it sounds good" or "lots of people agree with it", most philosophers are just very wordy circlejerkers.
Kednicma 6y ago
Here's a basic warmup question: How do you know that a person is conscious? There are basic medical tests, of course, but maybe they're faking it. You know, as a person, what it feels like to be a person; you feel when you're conscious. Is this feeling universal, or are there people who just don't have it? This question is known as the question of philosophical zombies [0], or p-zombies, and it is worth taking seriously, if for no other reason than that GPT-3 and friends are very much like p-zombies; they sound very cogent and coherent but are definitely not conscious in the same brain-based way that humans are conscious. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_zombie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_zombie
- IshKebab 6y ago
  It's an interesting question. Philosophers have tons of interesting questions! They rarely have disprovable answers.