It seems to me that we over-value our own sense of consciousness to the point of mythologizing. Blake Lemoine suggests that LaMDA's consciousness is more akin t

It seems to me that we over-value our own sense of consciousness to the point of mythologizing. Blake Lemoine suggests that LaMDA's consciousness is more akin to that of an Octopus' hive mind than our familiar human-style self-analytical ego. The linked article, and many others I've read that are making similar arguments, seems to be saying that consciousness is so complicated, it must be more than mere computation, it must be something really very special, because I experience having consciousness as something really very special. Ipso facto. They seem to be making the case for the soul, unwilling to call it a soul because that would be magical thinking. I'm of the belief that determining the possibility of computational intelligences is linked to the question of autonomy and free will. From what we know about the physical universe being most probably deterministic, we seem to overstate our capacity for free will, even as we appear to ourselves to be autonomous. Somewhere in there, it seems to me, is where a workable definition lies, but it would require us to come to terms with our own consciousness and how computational our own existence actually is. I do think we are hobbling ourselves by the desire to make this an either/or. It seems there are likely big differences between human consciousness and octopus consciousness and we have no way, currently, of quantifying them. Still, we make very grave decisions based on our belief that one is somehow inherently more valuable than the other. Love your detailed analysis.