4 ms·

From how I see it, understanding consciousness is impossible because it's difficult to define and even harder to explain. Go back a couple billion years before

From how I see it, understanding consciousness is impossible because it's difficult to define and even harder to explain. Go back a couple billion years before we had life on Earth. There was no life until abiogenesis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis) occurred. Somehow, over the course of a couple billion years, self-replicating molecules turns into single-celled life, then multicellular life, and eventually the complex lifeforms we see today. But...that still doesn't explain consciousness. To an external observer, a brain is just a very complex set of electrical and chemical reactions. But to that person, there's a consciousness behind it all. But that consciousness can be altered by drugs and physical injury. It calls into question if anybody actually truly has free will, or if a sufficiently advanced computer could perfectly simulate exactly how a person would react to anything given a perfect snapshot of the wiring of their neurons and states of synapses. I don't know how to define consciousness in a way that couldn't also be applied to a sufficiently advanced AI/AGI.

tasty_freeze 5y ago
> understanding consciousness is impossible because it's difficult to define and even harder to explain. For sure there isn't one agreed upon definition of consciousness. On the odd occasion I get in a discussion about it, the first thing I say is: what is your definition of consciousness. I think given a definition of consciousness, it can be discussed and progress can be made explaining that particular definition. But if the two parties don't agree to a definition up front, then it is likely to result in a trainwreck.
jstanley 5y ago
> if a sufficiently advanced computer could perfectly simulate exactly how a person would react to anything given a perfect snapshot of the wiring of their neurons and states of synapses. And if so, would that simulation still create the subjective experience? Or would it act exactly the same as the real person except the subjective experience never occurs?

tasty_freeze 5y ago

> understanding consciousness is impossible because it's difficult to define and even harder to explain. For sure there isn't one agreed upon definition of consciousness. On the odd occasion I get in a discussion about it, the first thing I say is: what is your definition of consciousness. I think given a definition of consciousness, it can be discussed and progress can be made explaining that particular definition. But if the two parties don't agree to a definition up front, then it is likely to result in a trainwreck.

jstanley 5y ago

> if a sufficiently advanced computer could perfectly simulate exactly how a person would react to anything given a perfect snapshot of the wiring of their neurons and states of synapses. And if so, would that simulation still create the subjective experience? Or would it act exactly the same as the real person except the subjective experience never occurs?