ThailurCorp t1_j7lgugx wrote on February 7, 2023 at 5:38 PM

I'm in the camp that sees consciousness as substrate independent (emergent consciousness.)

I don't think there is a "hard problem of consciousness."

There's self referential information stacking until what we perceive as consciousness is shown to be present.

So any consciousness that arises that comes close to ours or surpasses ours should be treated with the same reverence and doesn't need it's own special term.

Skarr87 t1_j7los32 wrote on February 7, 2023 at 6:29 PM

I personally believe that is the case as well or at least something close to that. Philosophy circles seem to in general not like the idea that consciousness is probably an emergent property so they come up with things like dualism or claim that consciousness is fundamental. The problem is all the actual evidence we have suggests it’s emergent or at least resides physically within the brain. Also, in general emergence seems to be a normal property of reality, so why wouldn’t consciousness just be another example of this?

If this turns out to be the case an interesting consequence of this would be that if an AI gains or is conscious it would be reasonable to believe that it may be capable of experiencing qualia from sensory input. I find that possibility interesting.

alanskimp OP t1_j7ljoz3 wrote on February 7, 2023 at 5:56 PM

I agree but I wonder if most people will or not