Submitted by wtfcommittee t3_1041wol in singularity
turnip_burrito t1_j350gah wrote
Reply to comment by eve_of_distraction in I asked ChatGPT if it is sentient, and I can't really argue with its point by wtfcommittee
It's actually a pretty interesting question that we might be able to test and answer. Not solipsism, but the question of whether our machines have qualia, assuming we believe other humans have it.
There some specific subset of our brains that has neural activity that aligns with our conscious experience. If we try adding things to it, or temporarily removing connectivity to it, we can determine what physical systems have qualia, and which ones separate "qualia-producing" systems and unconscious systems while still allowing information to flow back and forth.
We have to tackle stuff like:
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Why are we not aware of some stuff in our brains and not other parts? The parts we are unaware of can do heavy computational work too. Are they actually also producing qualia too, or not? And if so, why?
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What stops our conscious mind from becoming aware of background noises, heart beat, automatic thermal regulation, etc?
Then we can apply this knowledge to robots to better judge how conscious they are. Maybe it turns out that as long as we follow certain information-theoretic rules or build using certain molecules, we avoid making conscious robots. For people that want to digitize their mind, this also would help ensure the digital copy is also producing qualia/not a philosophical zombie.
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