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I'm not sure I'd agree that people in groups 1 and 2 aren't worth engaging with. The interesting bit to do for both cases is look at the 'they talk like a huma
by sunrunner 6mo ago
I'm not sure I'd agree that people in groups 1 and 2 aren't worth engaging with.
The interesting bit to do for both cases is look at the 'they talk like a human' and 'are obviously somehow special' parts, separate the ideas of language, intelligence (memory, fluidity, abstract reasoning), _aliveness_ (as a biological process) and finally ideas about metacognition and theory of mind, and see whether their idea of consciousness as a super-bundle of the above (which is how I assume a lot of default ideas about consciousness are) actually sticks, or whether it falls apart when beings can have a subset of those properties but not all.
Also, I nominate myself to be in the 'People who have thought about it and are becoming more doubtful that I myself am conscious, and the question might be moot.' group.
- in-silico 6mo agoI'm curious about your doubting your own consciousness statement, given that "we humans are conscious" is pretty axiomic to its definition and one of the few pieces that most agree with.
- Kim_Bruning 6mo agoTake a look at Daniel Dennett, for starters! If you're looking for one of the genuine angles on this: Consciousness is horrendously under-defined, to the point some people go something like "you know, at this point I figure we'd be better off not having this word at all. " Some days that's me, with a headache.
- in-silico 6mo agoSo it's more of a semantic argument than an actual rejection of the idea that you experience qualia/sentience/something?
- joquarky 6mo agoWhat exactly is the "you" in your sentence?
- Kim_Bruning 6mo agoYou'd have to define those terms operationally first, somehow, before I could give you an honest reply. Most people can't -and those who do disagree- which suggests something structural. [It can be done. But it'll be dirty]
- reverius42 6mo agoDennett's whole thing is the rejection of qualia. See https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~drkelly/DennettQuiningQualia1988.pdf https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~drkelly/DennettQuiningQualia1988...