Comment by trollbridge
6 days ago
Agreed. The main reason we believe consciousness exists is because we all experience it. So it’s hard to deny.
6 days ago
Agreed. The main reason we believe consciousness exists is because we all experience it. So it’s hard to deny.
“We experience it, therefore it exists” proves less than it seems. It proves there is an experience to explain. It does not prove that consciousness is what it appears to be from the inside. A mirage is still seen, but the thing it seems to show is not really there. Consciousness might be real in that same limited sense, while our folk model of it could be deeply wrong.
This is a really good point and something that I think is important to clarify at the very start of the discussion. In that way, I'm less interested in explaining consciousness than explaining experience. When I read this article, I felt like the author was only making his points by convoluting the two. By the end, I felt like, for an expert on the subject, I don't think he actually groks the fundamental point.
Sleep paralysis entered the chat
I think the article has an interesting argument here. We also "experience" the sun going up and down in the sky. But actually this is an illusion of our vantage point on a spinning rock.
We don't experience the sun going up and down, we experience its direction changing relative to the horizontal plane, and it is not an illusion: it matches planetary motion. The mistake arises when interpreting the raw experience. Sensations don't lie. Another example: Metal feels colder than plastic, but the sensation is right again: you are loosing more heat when touching metal.
But the sensation in a sense is a lie. Cold strictly speaking isn't real. And for much of human existence we spoke of it as if it was a substance due exactly to this specific sensatation.
But the debate isn't whether consciousness exists. It's largely whether it's the product of normal neurons doing their thing or something more. Also the details of how it works of course.
It cannot be just a product of the body, else it could not have effect on the body and our tongues could not be moving speaking about it.
Chalmers’ claim is that the fact that it really exists and the fact that we can talk about it are unrelated and basically a coincidence, which I think is completely absurd… If you really believe in qualia IMO you have to bite the bullet and say that there must be physics that we don’t yet understand.
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Your arguments reminds me of logical loop. A implies B, B implies A. It doesn't mean that A and B are true. You have to be conscious to experience and to be conscious means to to experience. Maybe we are not conscious after all and do not experience? Maybe it is just a lie we are telling ourselves?
>> The main reason we believe consciousness exists is because we all experience it.
What about the NPC meme? LLMs behave like NPCs, and some people seem no more conscious than an NPC (I didn't invent that meme).
NPC meme?
No sir, we are a little more high brow around here. Around these parts we talk about p-zombies and solipsism!
I'll bite though, do NPCs behave as if they believe they are conscious? If so, how do you know you aren't one of them?
Isn't that just an insult people throw around? Or maybe some psychopath that tries to justify their worldview.
I have never had an conversation with someone who seems like an NPC.
As a philosophical zombie, I have to disagree here.