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I'd define consciousness as something like "subjective experience". You have consciousness if you can experience the experiencing of things. I don't think that

I'd define consciousness as something like "subjective experience". You have consciousness if you can experience the experiencing of things. I don't think that's a circular definition. I think humans have it. I don't think plants or video game characters have it. However: it is not testable, and it's not obvious that it could be. If someone claims to have subjective experiences, I don't think there's any way to know whether they're conscious or whether they're just an automata acting conscious. If consciousness is just being able to experience experiences, then that's a function that doesn't have any outputs, how could you possibly test for it? And this applies equally to humans, c.f. solipsism. It could also apply to all matter in the universe, it's just that most of that matter has no computational capability, and no way to express itself even if it did.

ben_w 5y ago
> I'd define consciousness as something like "subjective experience". You have consciousness if you can experience the experiencing of things > However: it is not testable, and it's not obvious that it could be. If it isn’t testable, do you really have a definition rather than a tautology? What does it mean to have “subjective experience”? One instance of a game AI is subject to different inputs than another instance of the same AI, which you reject (as would I: I listed it as an example of how bad the definitions have been and definitely not as a claim they’re sentient).
- jstanley 5y ago
  It is perfectly consistent for something to be well-defined and also untestable. For example, you could ask me any question about the contents of my mind. Let's say you ask me if my favourite colour is green, and I say it is. You don't know whether my favourite colour really is green or if I'm lying. The fact that you have no way to ascertain my true favourite colour doesn't mean favourite colours are ill-defined! You just can't know what anyone else's favourite colour is. (Not that I'm claiming my "subjective experience" definition is well-defined -- I accept that it's pretty vague as definitions go).

ben_w 5y ago

> I'd define consciousness as something like "subjective experience". You have consciousness if you can experience the experiencing of things > However: it is not testable, and it's not obvious that it could be. If it isn’t testable, do you really have a definition rather than a tautology? What does it mean to have “subjective experience”? One instance of a game AI is subject to different inputs than another instance of the same AI, which you reject (as would I: I listed it as an example of how bad the definitions have been and definitely not as a claim they’re sentient).

jstanley 5y ago
It is perfectly consistent for something to be well-defined and also untestable. For example, you could ask me any question about the contents of my mind. Let's say you ask me if my favourite colour is green, and I say it is. You don't know whether my favourite colour really is green or if I'm lying. The fact that you have no way to ascertain my true favourite colour doesn't mean favourite colours are ill-defined! You just can't know what anyone else's favourite colour is. (Not that I'm claiming my "subjective experience" definition is well-defined -- I accept that it's pretty vague as definitions go).