TagConsciousness
Computers Still Do Not “Understand”
Don't be seduced into attributing human traits to computers.The subtitle of a recent New Yorker article was: “Geoffrey Hinton has spent a lifetime teaching computers to learn. Now he worries that artificial brains are better than ours.” I respectfully disagree. As I’ve repeatedly argued, the real danger today is not that computers are smarter than us but that we think computers are smarter than us. Hinton is extremely intelligent, but he is not the first, and will not be the last, extremely intelligent person to be seduced by a full-blown Eliza effect, attributing human traits to computers. Consider Hinton’s argument about large language models (LLMs): People say, It’s just glorified autocomplete . . . Now, let’s analyze that. Suppose you want to be really good at predicting the Read More ›
Defending Why We’re More than Machines
We need to look beyond materialism to understand what it means to be human.With all the discussion surrounding chatbots and consciousness, you might think there are good reasons to affirm that machines will someday be conscious in the way that you and I are conscious. To affirm this would be to deny that ancient belief that we, as persons, are souls or spirits that could exist apart from our bodies. This notion would certainly be out of place in our scientific discussions today as low-level animals and machines are perceived, by some, as meeting all the necessary conditions for becoming conscious, rational agents who can enter into deep and meaningful relationships upon rational deliberation. But this assumption would be too quick. If we humans are souls (or spirits) and the soul is the Read More ›
Science Needs a Mind to Work
The use of science to discredit the existence of mental subjects is fatally flawed.Editor’s note: In coming weeks, we will be featuring excerpts from the important new book Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, and Empirical Science (Discovery Institute Press, 2023). In this excerpt, philosopher Angus Menuge explains why the practice of science relies on the reality of mental states. Any attempt to use science to discredit the existence of mental subjects is fatally flawed because the bedrock data for all science comes from observation, which presupposes the existence of conscious subjects. The idea that the findings of physical science are unproblematic but mental subjects are questionable ignores the fact that our only access to physical phenomena is via the minds of scientists. Thus, as Charles Taliaferro points out, one “cannot presume to Read More ›
If Science Doesn’t Support Dualism — Well, It Should
At Big Think, Kmele Foster interviews five figures in consciousness studies. Not one is a dualist but a listener may come away with a new appreciation for dualismIn “Consciousness: Not just a problem for philosophers” Big Think commentator Kmele Foster interviews five very different thinkers, some of them at a conference at the New York Academy of Sciences. Some highlights to watch for: Panpsychist researcher Christof Koch lost a 25-year wager with philosopher David Chalmers earlier this year because no one has found a “consciousness area” in the brain. He tells Foster: Panpsychism really says, “Fundamentally, everything in the universe has two aspects: has an inner aspect and has an outer aspect.” It’s not something in additional you have to presuppose, but it comes inherent with object, with things. Complex things have complex minds associated with it. Simple things like maybe a fly or Protozoa have very, Read More ›
Philip Goff’s “Why” and Inflated Success
We are still nowhere closer to arriving at a science of consciousnessAtheists continue to advance exotic solutions to consciousness, but here’s what they all show us — in the same way that we need a pilot for ships, we need a pilot of the universe. Now, there’s Philip Goff, who promises the best of theism, yet without theism in his new book Why?. But Goff advances the further claim, in the Wall Street Journal, that we can even be spiritually fulfilled surpassing the atheist, and yet without invoking what some scientists consider spooky entities — gods, spirits, angels and demons. However, Goff offers us an even more exotic theory of consciousness than his atheistic competitors, and one that he and others think gives us all that we need without the baggage of actually having to believe Read More ›
Gary Habermas on Near-Death Experiences
What is the evidence and how many reports of this phenomenon do we have?In October of this past year, Angel Studios released a documentary about near-death experiences (NDEs) called After Death, regarding people who reported a postmortem perception of the world and functioning consciousness after being physically declared dead. The synopsis on the site reads, After Death is a gripping feature film that explores the afterlife based on real near-death experiences, conveyed by scientists, authors, and survivors. From the New York Times bestselling authors who brought you titles like 90 Minutes in Heaven, Imagine Heaven, and To Heaven and Back, emerges a cinematic peek beyond the veil that examines the spiritual and scientific dimensions of mortality, inviting viewers to contemplate the possibility of life after death. After Death (2023) | Official Website | Now Streaming on Angel Read More ›
Reflections on “Are Atoms Conscious?” and Philip Goff
Can we admit consciousness without giving into theism?Upon finishing the recent debate with Philip Goff, which I found to be both fascinating and revelatory, I realized that there was much that I could’ve said but didn’t due to time constraints and tactical decision-making. Even more, there are a few things I now wish I said. Here is the debate below for reference. What I Could’ve Said I could’ve highlighted more explicitly the features of the unity of consciousness and drove home why it is in fact that variant naturalisms (including panpsychism) just don’t seem to give us what we need. The Unity of Consciousness rules out naturalistic agents. And, here’s one basic argument as to why this is the case. The basic features exhibited by our consciousness Read More ›
Don’t Expect AI to Revolutionize Science
Data science is a downstream phenomenon. Thinking isn't.Does Passing the Turing Test Guarantee We’ve Created True AI?
A true test of AI will be able to distinguish between AI and human intelligence.Megan Review, Part 2
Happy Halloween! A killer doll breaks protocol.Last time, we talked about how Gemma gave Cady, her niece, a robotic doll, Megan, to help her raise the child after Cady’s parents were killed. At first, things go smoothly enough, but then Megan is attacked by a dog. The writers seem to have given us two potential theories about what’s happening. The first is that the robot is going through some sort of awakening right at the beginning. Megan has overridden the various safety protocols put in place to keep the robot from hurting people, and it’s only pretending to be protective of Cady. The second option is that during this dog attack, the fail safes malfunction, and this enables the robot to go on its murderous rampage. Read More ›
How Could Human Consciousness “Evolve”?
Human consciousness entails a unique human ability to think abstractly .Megan Review, Part 1
An AI doll that does more than just play.Since it’s nearing Halloween, I figured now would be a good time to review some Sci-Fi movies that dabble in the horror genre. Megan came out in 2022 and has been referred to as Chucky for Zoomers. The premise is the same as the horror movie, Child’s Play, from 1988: a child gets a doll. Doll turns psychotic and kills people. It’s pretty straightforward. However, Megan differs by adding a technological twist, calling back to the creepy Furbies, which came out in 1998. Really, those awful toys should’ve had a horror movie of their own. There are many a tale of the mechanical monsters waking up under the bed in the dead of night six months after the poor child Read More ›
Science of Consciousness: The Elephant in the Room
Science has had great success in explaining many functions of living organisms in purely material terms. So why not consciousness?Zero K: A Novel About Escaping the World Through Technology
Zero K by novelist Don DeLillo is a frightening but prophetic tale of transhumanism and the temptation to evade suffering at all costs.Why Are We Obsessed With How Smart AI Is?
The people with the most specific knowledge should be assessing applications for AI and their risks.So AI is “Slightly Conscious” Now?
The AI optimists can't get away from the problem of consciousness.The idea that artificial intelligence could ever become actually “intelligent” is a minority view, but it’s espoused by some brilliant minds, including Jason Lemoine, an ex-Google employee who claimed the company’s developing AI system was sentient. Lemoine isn’t alone. According to Futurism, OpenAI’s top researcher, Ilya Sutskever, claimed in a Tweet this week that “large neural networks are slightly conscious.” Noor Al-Sibai writes, He’s long been preoccupied with artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which would refer to AI that operates at a human or superhuman level. During his appearance in the AI documentary “iHuman,” for instance, he even declared that that AGIs will “solve all the problems that we have today” before warning that they will also present “the potential to create Read More ›
When Science Points Beyond the Physical
The idea that science has somehow shown the irrelevance of the mind to explaining behavior is seriously confused.The Big Problem for Physicalism
One physicalist theory after another has either ignored or falsified the central characteristics of consciousnessEditor’s note: We are delighted to welcome the new book from Discovery Institute Press, Minding the Brain: Models of the Mind, Information, and Empirical Science, edited by Angus J. L. Menuge, Brian R. Krouse, and Robert J. Marks. Below is an excerpt from Chapter 2. Look for more information at MindingtheBrain.org. By Angus Menuge The history of physicalism is one of extraordinary diversity: a wide variety of theories, with multiple versions, have jockeyed for dominance. Yet it is also a tale of persistent failure. One physicalist theory after another has either ignored or falsified the central characteristics of consciousness, intentionality, and rationality that define our mental life. We will begin by tracing the history of physicalism from the early varieties of behaviorism Read More ›