Comment by nearbuy
4 days ago
> My stance is it's (obviously and only a fool would think otherwise) never going to be conscious because consciousness is a physical process based on particular material interactions, like everything else we've ever encountered.
Seems like you have that backwards. If consciousness is from a nonphysical process, like a soul that's only given to humans, then it follows that you can't build consciousness with physical machines. If it's purely physical, it could be built.
In your experience does every kind of physical interaction behave the same as every other kind? If I paint a wooden block red and white does it behave like a bar magnet? No. And that's because particular material interactions are responsible for a large magnetic effect.
I still don't know what you're getting at. I think you're either positing that there is some yet undiscovered force or particle in physics that gives rise to consciousness (e.g. some kind of soul particle), or you think the particles within our current understanding of physics are sufficient, in which case consciousness could be built.
Obviously consciousness can be built. I'm getting at the obvious point that physical processes depend on specific arrangements of materials. I can build a computer in an infinite number of ways. Here's one: Write the full machine state on a big sheet of paper in pencil. When you're done, write the next one (this will take a while). The machine you're simulating is running an all powerful "AGI". It is preposterous to believe this is conscious though.
The simpler belief than the idea that just any intelligent process is conscious is that consciousness is some kind of physical process that happens in particular conditions.
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It would conceivably be possible to have a lot of physical states. That doesn't mean that they are actually possible from our current state and rewrite rules. So it's not actually a given that it can be built just because it's physical.
Your very idea is also predicated on the idea that it's possible for a real object to exist that isn't physical, and I think most modern philosophers reject the idea of a spiritual particle.
I'm not saying that souls or non-physical things exist, nor that everything physical is feasible for us to build. I was replying to the opinion that AI is never going to be conscious because consciousness is a physical process. I just don't see how that follows.