3 ms·

I don't see a connection between how an agent works and what it experiences. Sure, depriving myself or LLMs of all neural activity results in uninteresting beha

I don't see a connection between how an agent works and what it experiences. Sure, depriving myself or LLMs of all neural activity results in uninteresting behavior. How does this fact buy us insight into how agents feel in other circumstances?

Retric 3y ago
A human in a sensory deficit chamber still thinks demonstrating they aren’t necessarily purely reacting the the current stimulus. An LLM is only reacting to its current stimulus.
- famouswaffles 3y ago
  a sensory deficit chamber isn't literally depriving people of any stimulus.
  - Retric 3y ago
    There’s no external light, sound, taste, or smell. Most people can always touch themselves or notice the passing of time etc. But it’s possible to be conscious without any external sensation.
    - a_wild_dandan 3y ago
      You've exclusively described contexts with tons of active stimuli (temperature, interoception, balance, and frankly most of the other senses you named). But more importantly, suppose we grant that humans function independently of stimuli. Why does that matter? How does this premise imply anything about an agent's capacity for internal experience? In the counterfactual where our brains don't work when surgically placed in life-support vats, does that mean our prior experiences weren't real? I'm genuinely so confused at this connection between subjective experience and the necessity of stimulus.
      - Retric 3y ago
        Reacting to stimulus doesn’t require subjective experience. A light switch reacts to stimulus. Reacting without stimulus does. A stopwatch maintains an internal state, the neural networks used by LLM’s don’t. Someone who starts lucid dreaming can have zero awareness of their body and still do stuff like make up a story which they then recall after waking up. PS: Balance over all but very brief periods depends on noticing your body weight pressing on something this is one of the reasons people can get disoriented under water. Temperature can be lost track of for similar reasons, rapid changes are noticeable but slowly moving in the neural region ~30-36 °C and all people can detect is a lack of extreme heat or cold not some objective temperature.

Retric 3y ago

A human in a sensory deficit chamber still thinks demonstrating they aren’t necessarily purely reacting the the current stimulus. An LLM is only reacting to its current stimulus.

famouswaffles 3y ago
a sensory deficit chamber isn't literally depriving people of any stimulus.
- Retric 3y ago
  There’s no external light, sound, taste, or smell. Most people can always touch themselves or notice the passing of time etc. But it’s possible to be conscious without any external sensation.
  - a_wild_dandan 3y ago
    You've exclusively described contexts with tons of active stimuli (temperature, interoception, balance, and frankly most of the other senses you named). But more importantly, suppose we grant that humans function independently of stimuli. Why does that matter? How does this premise imply anything about an agent's capacity for internal experience? In the counterfactual where our brains don't work when surgically placed in life-support vats, does that mean our prior experiences weren't real? I'm genuinely so confused at this connection between subjective experience and the necessity of stimulus.
    - Retric 3y ago
      Reacting to stimulus doesn’t require subjective experience. A light switch reacts to stimulus. Reacting without stimulus does. A stopwatch maintains an internal state, the neural networks used by LLM’s don’t. Someone who starts lucid dreaming can have zero awareness of their body and still do stuff like make up a story which they then recall after waking up. PS: Balance over all but very brief periods depends on noticing your body weight pressing on something this is one of the reasons people can get disoriented under water. Temperature can be lost track of for similar reasons, rapid changes are noticeable but slowly moving in the neural region ~30-36 °C and all people can detect is a lack of extreme heat or cold not some objective temperature.