• foggy@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    If it were so simple, you’d think we’d be able to put our thumb down on what consciousness “is” and “isn’t,” where it comes from, etc.

    • beSyl@slrpnk.net
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      11 months ago

      Why? What does OP’s answer have anything to do with what counscioness is or isn’t and where it comes from? You are committing a logical fallacy. There is no relation between these two.

    • Flumsy@feddit.de
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      11 months ago

      That sounds like a possible answer though. And if some hypothetical entity gave you the answer to that question “with 100% certainty” you’d not be much smarter… still dont know why…

      • foggy@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Tell me you’re unfamiliar with the hard problem of consciousness and how it relates to AI research without telling me you’re unfamiliar with the hard problem of consciousness and how it relates to AI research.

        • Flumsy@feddit.de
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          11 months ago

          Btw when you are unconcious you are by definition not concious, the same counts for when you are dead. The soul is a religious thing and there is the possibility that ir doesnt exist. This would have answered your question perfectly withojt concidering any problems related to conciousness and AI

        • fbmac@lemmy.fbmac.net
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          11 months ago

          consciousness is just an illusion. the only hard problem is people trying to make reality fit into their beliefs instead of the other way around

        • Flumsy@feddit.de
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          11 months ago

          Can you prove that that answer is impossible? If not, it is logically an option. And as a result, there is the possibility of that answer being correct and your question being answered with that way which still doesnt help you understand why.

      • foggy@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        A nobel prize if you could prove it, which you cannot currently.

        Literally the biggest, hairiest problem in computation right now. Only thing keeping us from blowing the lid off AGI is not knowing or even remotely understanding what consciousness is.

        • RangerAndTheCat@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          One of my favorite quotes about this subject:

          “Consciousness is a much smaller part of our mental life than we are conscious of, because we cannot be conscious of what we are not conscious of. How simple that is to say; how difficult to appreciate! It is like asking a flashlight in a dark room to search around for something that does not have any light shining upon it. The flashlight, since there is light in whatever direction it turns, would have to conclude that there is light everywhere. And so consciousness can seem to pervade all mentality when actually it does not.”

          -Julian Jaynes

          The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

          • this_is_router@feddit.de
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            11 months ago

            I think another good analogie is the human eye. Only the center has high resolution, everything around it is rather shitty, but you never realize that, because the stuff you focus on is always in the center.

            Try to look at your self into your eyes the mirror while you are not looking at yourself :)

        • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Our brain is literally nothing but electrical impulses.

          We don’t know what specific arrangement of impulses, but we know 100% that it’s electrical impulses.

          • foggy@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Again, it has been yet to be proved.

            If it seems so obvious to you, please go on and prove it. You’ll die a nobel laureate rather than an armchair dbag.

            • AggressivelyPassive@feddit.de
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              11 months ago

              What proof do you want? We can explain everything in the brain. We know how neurons work, we know how they interact. We even know, where specific parts of “you” are in your brain.

              The only thing missing is the exact map. What you are lacking is the concept of emergence. Seriously, look it up. Extremely simple rules can explain extremely sophisticated behavior.

              Your stance is somewhere between “thunder go boom! Must be scary man in sky!” And “magnets! Can’t explain how they work!”.

                • AggressivelyPassive@feddit.de
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                  11 months ago

                  OF WHAT? There’s nothing to give you. I could lay out an exact map of your brain and you would still complain. You obviously just desperately want there to be some magic, because everything else would just implode your world. There is no magic.

                  Also, if you want your pseudoscientific parlance: non-existence can’t be proven. However, you’re arguing for the existence of something. It’s your burden to prove it.

                  • foggy@lemmy.world
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                    11 months ago

                    The burden of proof is on you, not me.

                    If there’s nothing to give me then I guess you’re agreeing it’s not so straightforward.

                    You can go away now. 🥂 cheers.

            • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              What are you smoking? It’s been proved, inasmuch as “it’s daytime when the sun is out” has been proved.

              Our brain is made up of neurons firing electrical impulses.

              Consciousness is in the brain.

              Therefore, somewhere in those electrical impulses is consciousness.

              Strange you get so defensive. Maybe it’s because your psyche can’t handle the fact that there’s nothing after death, and you need to cling to whatever faint hope you have that there might be such thing as a soul?

              • zero_iq@lemm.ee
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                11 months ago

                No it hasn’t, and if you don’t see why, and why your explanation is incredibly simplistic and insufficient as an explanation of consciousness, you may not fully realise or understand the problem.

                I don’t believe in life after death etc. and I believe consciousness is indeed manifested somewhere in the brain (and tied to those electrical impulses in some way), yet find your explanation utterly insufficient to address the “hard problem” of consciousness. It doesn’t explain qualia, or subjective experience.

                Now obviously we do seem to have proved that consciousness is somehow related to such electrical impulses and other processes in the brain… but to say that we even begin to understand how actual subjective conscious experience arises from this is simply not true.

                For starters: your logical steps from brain uses electricity -> consciousness is in the brain -> therefore consciousness is in the electrical impulses is a non-sequitur.

                To illustrate: CPUs are made up of logic gates that utilise electricity to perform many operations. We know mathematical calculations are done in the CPU. Therefore mathematics is in the logic gates. Does that sound right to you? Is that in any way a satisfactory explanation of what maths is, or where mathemarical concepts exists or how marhs came to be? Does maths only exist in electrical logic gates?

                Doesn’t seem at all right does it? Yet that’s precisely the same leap of logic you just used.

                Now before you reply with “ah, but that’s totally different” carefully examine why you think it’s different for consciousness…

                In addition, there are more than just electrical impulses going on in the brain. Why do you choose electrical or only electrical? Do you think all electrical systems are conscious? What about a computer? What about your house electrical system? Do you draw a distinction? If so, where is the distinction? Can you accurately describe what exactly about certain electrical systems and not others gives rise to direct subjective experience and qualia? What is the precise mechanism that leads to electrons providing a conscious subjective experience? Would a thinking simulation of a brain experience the same qualia?

                If you really can’t see what I’m getting at with any of this, perhaps you might be a philosophical zombie… not actually conscious yourself. Just a chemical computer firing some impulses that perfectly simulates a conscious entity, just like an AI but in meat form. Carefully consider: how do you personally know if this is or isn’t true?

                • foggy@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  Damn homie, you’re way more patient with people who are confidently wrong than I am.

                  Good looks 😎

                • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  Okay, I’ll give it a shot.

                  For starters: your logical steps from brain uses electricity -> consciousness is in the brain -> therefore consciousness is in the electrical impulses is a non-sequitur.

                  To illustrate: CPUs blah blah mathematics

                  Okay, fine. Consciousness is exclusively in the brain. Now your whole metaphor falls apart, because mathematics is not exclusively in the CPU. It is not subjective. It does not arise from the existence of the CPU. It is a concept separate from the CPU, or indeed any matter.

                  Now before you reply with “ah, but that’s totally different” carefully examine why you think it’s different for consciousness…

                  I thought about it, and my conclusion is “it’s because I’m not a fuckin moron” .

                  In addition, there are more than just electrical impulses going on in the brain.

                  Pedantry. “Electrical impulses” is a close enough phrase to describe a host of related but slightly different things.

                  All the rest of your questions are stupid ridiculous garbage based on some weird fixation you have with electricity. Like I said, it’s a phrase I used to avoid giving a 3 semester lecture on the minutiae of everything going on in the brain.

                  • zero_iq@lemm.ee
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                    11 months ago

                    My comment just touched the tip of an iceberg that is an entire realm of philosophical and scientific debate that has occupied some of the brightest minds, across multiple disciplines, for decades. But sure, it’s just stupid ridiculous garbage 🙄

                    You probably think you sounded really clever.

                • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  Oh god you’re a philosopher. I don’t know if I have the energy for the level of bullshit about to be thrown my way.