3 ms·

I think they may be referring to the principle task that consciousness serves in humans, which is to rationalize decisions we've already made subconsciously to

I think they may be referring to the principle task that consciousness serves in humans, which is to rationalize decisions we've already made subconsciously to other people so they will help us. The conscious "why" comes after the decision. In that sense it's exactly the kind of bullshit machine that LLMs are.

mcguire 3y ago
A thought experiment: what kind of functional MRI result would convince you that human consciousness is real and an important part of decision making? Note: if the result is someone reporting having made a decision before brain activity is seen, my next question is going to be "How does that work?"
- pixl97 3y ago
  https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/our-brains-reveal-our-choices-we%E2%80%99re-even-aware-them-study https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/our-brains-re... An important statement in the article is this... >“As the decision of what to think about is made, executive areas of the brain choose the thought-trace which is stronger. In, other words, if any pre-existing brain activity matches one of your choices, then your brain will be more likely to pick that option as it gets boosted by the pre-existing brain activity. If you observe con men, politicians, and advertisers, they'll commonly use precursors to pre-prime the pump in influencing what you'll agree to.
- famouswaffles 3y ago
  >Note: if the result is someone reporting having made a decision before brain activity is seen, my next question is going to be "How does that work?" This is not how we figure conscious explanations are often(always?) post-hoc rationalizations. See - Split brain experiments - https://www.nature.com/articles/483260a https://www.nature.com/articles/483260a Experiments on Choice preferences -https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3196841/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3196841/
- vjerancrnjak 3y ago
  https://direct.mit.edu/jocn/article-abstract/21/7/1269/4764/Posterior-Beta-and-Anterior-Gamma-Oscillations https://direct.mit.edu/jocn/article-abstract/21/7/1269/4764/... Here's a study from 2009 showing that the problem gets solved but it takes up to 8 seconds for the person to announce that the problem is solved. Showing that even for problem solving, there's a giant unconscious machinery that is active. Although I assume they cannot discount the effects of the conscious bits (struggle, suffering, anxiety, active as a mirror of that problem solving effort being a feedback loop to this unconscious effort).
- omginternets 3y ago
  >Note: if the result is someone reporting having made a decision before brain activity is seen, my next question is going to be "How does that work?" My Ph.D is actually about this. Here's a paper: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0148504 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...

mcguire 3y ago

A thought experiment: what kind of functional MRI result would convince you that human consciousness is real and an important part of decision making? Note: if the result is someone reporting having made a decision before brain activity is seen, my next question is going to be "How does that work?"

pixl97 3y ago
https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/our-brains-reveal-our-choices-we%E2%80%99re-even-aware-them-study https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/our-brains-re... An important statement in the article is this... >“As the decision of what to think about is made, executive areas of the brain choose the thought-trace which is stronger. In, other words, if any pre-existing brain activity matches one of your choices, then your brain will be more likely to pick that option as it gets boosted by the pre-existing brain activity. If you observe con men, politicians, and advertisers, they'll commonly use precursors to pre-prime the pump in influencing what you'll agree to.
famouswaffles 3y ago
>Note: if the result is someone reporting having made a decision before brain activity is seen, my next question is going to be "How does that work?" This is not how we figure conscious explanations are often(always?) post-hoc rationalizations. See - Split brain experiments - https://www.nature.com/articles/483260a https://www.nature.com/articles/483260a Experiments on Choice preferences -https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3196841/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3196841/
vjerancrnjak 3y ago
https://direct.mit.edu/jocn/article-abstract/21/7/1269/4764/Posterior-Beta-and-Anterior-Gamma-Oscillations https://direct.mit.edu/jocn/article-abstract/21/7/1269/4764/... Here's a study from 2009 showing that the problem gets solved but it takes up to 8 seconds for the person to announce that the problem is solved. Showing that even for problem solving, there's a giant unconscious machinery that is active. Although I assume they cannot discount the effects of the conscious bits (struggle, suffering, anxiety, active as a mirror of that problem solving effort being a feedback loop to this unconscious effort).
omginternets 3y ago
>Note: if the result is someone reporting having made a decision before brain activity is seen, my next question is going to be "How does that work?" My Ph.D is actually about this. Here's a paper: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0148504 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...