2 ms·

I have basically fallen to the side of the Copernican principle on this. Consciousness feels like it may at least partially be our fancy word for “soul” in the

I have basically fallen to the side of the Copernican principle on this. Consciousness feels like it may at least partially be our fancy word for “soul” in the 21st century. Measures of basic intelligence appear to us in crazy places in the animal kingdom. We will find it is not special at all. I believe we are nothing but of a bunch of chemical states, the patterns and flow of which could be replicated in another system, natural or artificial. On this planet, we just have the fastest, most complex and efficient processor going at this time. Edit: I should add there may be more to human intelligence than “just” patter recognition, but that seems to do the bulk of the work.

2000UltraDeluxe 4y ago
> On this planet, we just have the fastest, most complex and efficient processor going at this time. Not neccesarily. We haven't really figured out how to benchmark other species' brains properly and I wouldn't be surprised if something like individual bottle-nosed dolphins or elephants couldn't rival at least some individual humans.
MaxBarraclough 4y ago
> On this planet, we just have the fastest, most complex and efficient processor going at this time. Depending on application. For arithmetic operations we're hopelessly outclassed even by pocket calculators.