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First: these studies are unrelated to AI and mostly predate modern LLMs, so no, they draw no direct comparisons. At best, this is pointing out two surprisingly

First: these studies are unrelated to AI and mostly predate modern LLMs, so no, they draw no direct comparisons. At best, this is pointing out two surprisingly similar behaviors we observe in LLMs and the actual functioning of the human mind. Second: Being unable to reconstruct a prior mental state =/= remembering a thought process. I'll use an accursed programing analogy because we are on an accursed programing website: it's like the difference between debug logs and time-travel debugging. In plain language: humans retroactively reason about their thought process based on the artifacts produced by that thought process. The quality and reliability of these artifacts will vary heavily, but the reasoning itself is always backward-looking and speculative in nature.

dataflow 3y ago
That's all fine, but if the claim is really "I cannot know which exact neurons were firing at some moment in the past" (that's what time-travel debugging would be), that's not a particularly insightful or useful statement. I'm pretty sure I can reconstruct some states of my brain for some moments in the past sufficiently adequately to be able to explain my reasoning in that moment without fabricating anything. The claim was that this is always impossible for all humans, which seems quite obviously false, and in any case, unsupported by the studies linked.
- pixl97 3y ago
  Honestly the proof of evidence that you can recall your memory state needs to be proven by you, as I don't believe any one has brought forth evidence of what you're suggesting. Almost everything I've seen and read about this suggests the opposite. Activating memory changes memory. Intermediate events between the initial activation and the final questioning can also change those memories. And furthermore, that you are only aware of your conscious memories (and even most of that is forgotten) and that memory is accessed unconsciously all the time. It's all post ad hoc.

dataflow 3y ago

That's all fine, but if the claim is really "I cannot know which exact neurons were firing at some moment in the past" (that's what time-travel debugging would be), that's not a particularly insightful or useful statement. I'm pretty sure I can reconstruct some states of my brain for some moments in the past sufficiently adequately to be able to explain my reasoning in that moment without fabricating anything. The claim was that this is always impossible for all humans, which seems quite obviously false, and in any case, unsupported by the studies linked.

pixl97 3y ago
Honestly the proof of evidence that you can recall your memory state needs to be proven by you, as I don't believe any one has brought forth evidence of what you're suggesting. Almost everything I've seen and read about this suggests the opposite. Activating memory changes memory. Intermediate events between the initial activation and the final questioning can also change those memories. And furthermore, that you are only aware of your conscious memories (and even most of that is forgotten) and that memory is accessed unconsciously all the time. It's all post ad hoc.