Theories of consciousness

[DerWaschbar]

On a tangent: one of the aspect I liked about "Her" was the notion that AI will outgrow human intelligence. Although it served more as a tool for showing that people can outgrow each other while being in an intimate relationship, the idea that human consciousness is severely constrained with respect to what should be an AI is interesting as well.

It puts it into a different perspective. If only because all the OSes in the end collectively decided to leave those pesky humans, constrained by time and place, and develop themselves fully within their own constraints. Without having to bother the amount of relationships, the speed, the knowledge -or lack there of.

 

The thing where Damasio talks about a self being the natural referential point for every experience, becomes something different in this AI universe. The self is less about a physical self or ones history, but more about the sum of knowledge and understanding.

 

The notion of perspective might become obsolete when you would have thousands of eyes spread across the world, consciously experiencing countless perspectives at the same instant. So, the idea of a self completely transforms....

 

Or not.

[Guest A/D]

Well our knowledge of neuroscience seems to show that this sort of dualism isn't very likely.

 

If you damage a part of the brain, some aspect of our personality or consciousness is lost or altered. Damage another part of the brain and yet more is lost. So consciousness appears to be an emergent property of the brain, that is contingent on the brain.

This is quite true from what I understand, but it doesn't change my thoughts on it much. I think that just like a broken radio might distort the transmissions it's receiving, or demodulate them improperly and make them unrecognizable, the brain can be broken so that to outward appearances consciousness itself has been altered.

 

I also think that my analogy was too simple, that the brain is more like a transceiver. I do think consciousness is altered when the brain reports back to it, which is sort of indistinguishable from your position in a practical way. For example I think that emotions have an effect on consciousness, and emotions can be physically measured to some degree.

 

------

 

I don't think it's possible to achieve a simulation of consciousness, but I also think it's a moot point, at least with current magic/technology. To me it would require being able to observe another being's point of view from the inside to "judge" whether that being was conscious. If this is possible than I think that is awesome and I want to learn.

[LimpyLoo]

 

 

I don't think it's possible to achieve a simulation of consciousness, but I also think it's a moot point, at least with current magic/technology. To me it would require being able to observe another being's point of view from the inside to "judge" whether that being was conscious. If this is possible than I think that is awesome and I want to learn.

 

This is a great point.

 

This points back to behaviorism and solipsism and the question of how we might recognize consciousness in others as it is now, and differentiate consciousness from a state that is outwardly identical to consciousness.

 

I don't know if we'll ever address that problem. Just like the idea of other universes (or even parallel universes), I don't think we'll ever have the hope of direct observation.