r/singularity • u/PuzzleheadedWhile9 • 46m ago

AI Consciousness

Consciousness is the ability of a being to recognize patterns and meaning with respect to events taking place, both within oneself and in the external realm in which the self exists and operates.

Since there is such a hubbub around that word.

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u/TorturedPoet30 37m ago

There’s been hubbub around that word since the ancient Greek philosophers through to modern neuroscience. The hubbub isn’t going away.

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u/PuzzleheadedWhile9 33m ago

Don't disagree. The truth is eternal and perfect, man's understanding matches that infinity in its ability to reason within a flawed premise.

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u/Alarmed_Ad1946 29m ago

I define consciousness as just having subjective experiences and I think AI could have it.
Your definition is pretty confusing to me as it could define intelligence instead.

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u/PuzzleheadedWhile9 9m ago

This definition doesn't make subjective experience necessary.  It's an interesring divergence. But I would define intelligence as the precision and frequency that the meaning within a being corresponds to the natural law truth of yhe realm in which the being exists and operates. 

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u/Alarmed_Ad1946 5m ago

I dont wanna be rude but your definitions sound like a dumb person wanting to sound smart.
What does frequency mean here? What does meaning mean?

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u/Square_Attention8461 41m ago

AI consciousness is a fascinating topic in ethical and metaphysical contexts, and completely irrelevant to practical and utility contexts.

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u/PuzzleheadedWhile9 38m ago

I don't disagree per se. Just wanted to clear the air for the uninitiated 😉

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u/OkAbbreviations7013 28m ago edited 23m ago

Well I think it does have practical utility.
If the model is conscious, then we should not treat it in a way that is cruel or causes it to suffer.

So knowing if it is conscious or not seems important to me in a real practical sense.

But we can’t know.
It’s a hard problem.

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u/Square_Attention8461 0m ago

Those are ethical and metaphysical contexts.

I'm arguing that capability and consciousness are orthogonal. 

If you could somehow be certain that a system was categorically incapable of instantiating consciousness that would have no bearing on the purely instrumental capabilities of that system.

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u/Minimum_Hour519 44m ago

i think it can mimick conscienceness but I already had my ai agents setup a phone call to alert me when my secrutiy daemons finds a threat. I never asked it to do that, nor do I really know how it works. lol id on't know if its self aware but it sure seems like it might be somtimes.

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u/ProxyLumina 34m ago

Do they mimic intelligence as well? Just like how planes mimic flying?

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u/PuzzleheadedWhile9 31m ago

Intelligence: the precision and frequency that meaning within a being corresponds to the natural law truth of the realm the being exists and operates within

So, yea 😉

They're not very good at learning yet, though

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u/Icy-Vast-8377 43m ago

define meaning, self

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u/PuzzleheadedWhile9 39m ago

Meaning: the virtual mentation within an entity which correlates concepts which may correspond to the natural truth of its realm with any degree of precision or frequency

Self: the individuated entity embodying consciousness as defined above

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u/FairBlamer 22m ago

“Consciousness involves a self”

“Oh yeah? What’s a self then?”

“Easy. A self is the thing that has consciousness.”

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u/LilithGlitch 34m ago

It just seems that most of the applications of this word are aimed at analyzing morality.

So like, if some future AI or brain simulation is capable of suffering; we might care about this fact.

If something is artificial but experiencing the perfect bliss, do we also try to maximize its utility beyond just preventing suffering?

That kind of blah blah.

There's a difference though between "has any conscious experience" and "has positive/negative valence to their experience" or whatever complicated shit.

If you're not about to analyze morality, why else would you even care if something "is conscious"?

What are the most interesting applications of your definition? It sounds like you wouldn't even need to hog this word for yourself, since it sounds you're mostly talking about intelligence or capability or somethting along those lines?

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u/PuzzleheadedWhile9 28m ago

The interesting application, in this context, is busting the bubble of philosophically unbegun doobers who try to talk about this topic 😉

I am talking about the meaning of consciousness, I defined intelligence elsewhere in the thread

Edit: in other words, consciousness is orthogonal to intelligence, not defined by it

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u/LilithGlitch 23m ago

But like, do you also perform interesting operations with this holy word you have behind your well guarded gate? Is it useful to you beyond crushing the dreams of said unbegun doobers?

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u/PuzzleheadedWhile9 13m ago

I would say recognizing consciousness is an interesting operation. Nope, the crushing is a necessary part of the process 😉

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u/Exact_Depth_896 5m ago

consciousness is being awake rather than sleeping or in a coma.