I'm also attracted to the idea of reducing rule sets to simple algorithms and axioms, in every case you can. But I'm skeptical that consciousness can be reduced

I'm also attracted to the idea of reducing rule sets to simple algorithms and axioms, in every case you can. But I'm skeptical that consciousness can be reduced that way. I think if it can be, we'll see it in the distillation and quantizing of smaller and smaller scale models converging on similar adaptations, as opposed to the need for greater scale (at least in inference). I still believe language processing is the wrong task to train to that point. I'd like to see AIs that model thought process, logic, tool construction, real-world tasks without language. Maybe even those that model vocal chords and neurological processes instead of phonemes. Most animals don't use language, and as a result we can't ask if they're conscious, but they probably are. Navigating and manipulating the physical world from the cellular level up to swinging from trees is far more complex - language is a very late invention, and is not in and of itself intelligence - it may just be a lagging indicator. To the extent that we vainly consider ourselves intelligent for our linguistic abilities, sure. But this underrates the other types of spatial and procedural reasoning that humans possess, or even the type that spiders possess.