3 ms·

It seems that you are thinking that perceptions lead to experience, and then nothing else. My view is that perceptions lead to internal processing

It seems that you are thinking that perceptions lead to experience, and then nothing else. My view is that perceptions lead to internal processing that in turn is itself perceived by our cognition, in addition to the original perceptions By this definition, which I don't necessarily disagree with, wouldn't a single level of reflection/introspection have to qualify as consciousness? If we decide that a simple light sensor isn't "conscious" because it's a pure input/output machine with no machinery that could reasonably be described as "internal processing", then what about a Roomba?

layer8 4y ago
I wouldn’t describe it as a single level, because there is some recursiveness involved, and different parts of an experience may involve a different “strength” (like individual tangled weeds have different strengths) or a different number of levels. I think of it as having an organic shape. I also don’t think consciousness is black and white, there is certainly a spectrum. To us, qualia have complex, multi-faceted and multi-layered textures, in line with what we can cognitively perceive and process, and they trigger just-as-complex associations and emotions. It seems to me that this richness is a large part of what makes consciousness wondrous. I don’t think a Roomba is observing its own internal processing. A program that debugs/profiles its own execution and uses those data as inputs of its main functions, or a neural network that feeds back the changing weights of its edges as additional inputs for itself, would maybe come closer to asking that question. As an analogy, does a simple light sensor qualify as “seeing”? “Seeing” on the level of a mammal, with object and motion recognition and building an internal spacial model of what it sees, along with predicting what will happen in the next moments based on what it sees, is certainly on a whole other level.

layer8 4y ago

I wouldn’t describe it as a single level, because there is some recursiveness involved, and different parts of an experience may involve a different “strength” (like individual tangled weeds have different strengths) or a different number of levels. I think of it as having an organic shape. I also don’t think consciousness is black and white, there is certainly a spectrum. To us, qualia have complex, multi-faceted and multi-layered textures, in line with what we can cognitively perceive and process, and they trigger just-as-complex associations and emotions. It seems to me that this richness is a large part of what makes consciousness wondrous. I don’t think a Roomba is observing its own internal processing. A program that debugs/profiles its own execution and uses those data as inputs of its main functions, or a neural network that feeds back the changing weights of its edges as additional inputs for itself, would maybe come closer to asking that question. As an analogy, does a simple light sensor qualify as “seeing”? “Seeing” on the level of a mammal, with object and motion recognition and building an internal spacial model of what it sees, along with predicting what will happen in the next moments based on what it sees, is certainly on a whole other level.