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I asked Google Home what the definition of self-awareness is, and it says "conscious knowledge of one's character s and feelings.". But me saying "ChatGPT surel

I asked Google Home what the definition of self-awareness is, and it says "conscious knowledge of one's character s and feelings.". But me saying "ChatGPT surely doesn't have feelings, so it can't be self-aware!" would be a simple cop-out/gotcha response. I guess it's a Chinese Room, that when you ask about Chinese Rooms, can tell you what those things are. I almost said the word "aware" there, but the person in the Chinese Room, while composing the answer to "What is a Chinese Room?" isn't aware that "Wait a minute, I'm in a Chinese Room!", because s/he can arrange Chinese sentences, but s/he just knows what characters go with what, s/he doesn't know the meaning or emotion behind those words. And if you ask him/her "Are you in a Chinese room?", they can answer according to the rules given to them (the Chinese word for "Yes", for example), but there surely isn't a contemplation about e.g. "Why am I in this room?". If you ask ChatGPT about the Turkish earthquake, it can give you facts and figures, but it won't feel sad about the deaths. It can say it feels sad, but that'd be just empty words.

dnaddie 4y ago
I don't think chatGPT feels emotions. Definitely not. It doesn't have any wants or desires either. But I do think it understands what you're saying. And it understand what itself is. The evidence is basically in the way it constructs it's answers. It must have a somewhat realistic model of reality in order to say certain things.
wruza 4y ago
Therapy sometimes uses a method called exposition. E.g. if one has an irrational fear of elevators, they can gradually expose themselves to it. Stand before it then leave. Call it and look inside. Enter it on the first floor and exit without riding. After few weeks or months they can start using it, because the fear response reduces to manageable levels. Because nothing bad happens (feedback). One may condition themselves this way to torture screams, deaths, etc. Or train scared animals that it’s okay to leave their safe corner. And nothing happens to you in a seismically inactive areas when an earthquake ruins whole cities somewhere. These news may touch other (real) fears about your relatives well-being, but in general feeling sad for someone unknown out there is not healthy even from the pov of being a biologically human (watch emphasis, the goal isn’t to play cynic here). It’s ethical, humane, but not rational. The same amount of people die and become homeless every year. What I’m trying to say here is: feelings are our builtin low-cost shortcut to thinking. Feelings cannot be used as a line that separates conscious from non-conscious or non-self-aware. The whole question “is it c. and s.a.?” refers completely to ethics, which are also our-type-of-mind specific. We may claim what Chinese Room is or isn’t, but only to calm ourselves down. But in general it’s just a type of consciousness, one of a relatively infinite set. We can only decide if it’s self-ethical to think about it in some way.
- theGnuMe 4y ago
  I think you meant "exposure" therapy rather than exposition.

dnaddie 4y ago

I don't think chatGPT feels emotions. Definitely not. It doesn't have any wants or desires either. But I do think it understands what you're saying. And it understand what itself is. The evidence is basically in the way it constructs it's answers. It must have a somewhat realistic model of reality in order to say certain things.

wruza 4y ago

Therapy sometimes uses a method called exposition. E.g. if one has an irrational fear of elevators, they can gradually expose themselves to it. Stand before it then leave. Call it and look inside. Enter it on the first floor and exit without riding. After few weeks or months they can start using it, because the fear response reduces to manageable levels. Because nothing bad happens (feedback). One may condition themselves this way to torture screams, deaths, etc. Or train scared animals that it’s okay to leave their safe corner. And nothing happens to you in a seismically inactive areas when an earthquake ruins whole cities somewhere. These news may touch other (real) fears about your relatives well-being, but in general feeling sad for someone unknown out there is not healthy even from the pov of being a biologically human (watch emphasis, the goal isn’t to play cynic here). It’s ethical, humane, but not rational. The same amount of people die and become homeless every year. What I’m trying to say here is: feelings are our builtin low-cost shortcut to thinking. Feelings cannot be used as a line that separates conscious from non-conscious or non-self-aware. The whole question “is it c. and s.a.?” refers completely to ethics, which are also our-type-of-mind specific. We may claim what Chinese Room is or isn’t, but only to calm ourselves down. But in general it’s just a type of consciousness, one of a relatively infinite set. We can only decide if it’s self-ethical to think about it in some way.

theGnuMe 4y ago
I think you meant "exposure" therapy rather than exposition.