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Yeah, this is something I've consistently noticed + also been very weirded out by, with "What a neural network sees"/"Neural network image synthesis" pictures.
by gavinray 5y ago
Yeah, this is something I've consistently noticed + also been very weirded out by, with "What a neural network sees"/"Neural network image synthesis" pictures.
Many of them are eerily similar to the visual phenomena I've experienced on various psychedelics. To the point where you don't really have a choice but to recognize that there's some mathematic/scientific explanation of consciousness and the way psychedelics interact with it that relate to how neural networks function.
I'm far too dumb to put those pieces together but I'd believe whatever someone more intelligent put in front of me.
Wish it were possible to show other people what these kinds of experiences look/feel like, our language and vocabulary obviously don't have terms for most of it.
Seeing impossible colors or shapes, or being/existing in multiple points in space + time simultaneously, as different creatures or people, in different places. It can shake you to your core by challenging what you always assumed were fundamental givens of the universe and "the way things work" (TM).
- whatshisface 5y agoScientific explanations of perception =/= scientific explanations of consciousness.
- Igelau 5y agoIsn't consciousness a perception?
- mhh__ 5y agoI think an issue here is that I know what NN outputs look like and have some folk intuition as to what psychedelics to do my brain, so I end up seeing what I want to see.
- sneak 5y ago> To the point where you don't really have a choice but to recognize that there's some mathematic/scientific explanation of consciousness and the way psychedelics interact with it that relate to how neural networks function. I don't get any of these types of visuals (or any visuals whatsoever other than wobbling/throbbing edges/borders) on most of the common psychedelics on which most normal people get visuals, even at 2-10x standard doses. I'm aware of the stereotypical wooshy GAN-style trailer visuals people report; I've never seen them. Either I'm an alien or your hypothesis has a hole.