The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #174464 Message #4230338
Posted By: Bill D
19-Oct-25 - 11:06 AM
Thread Name: BS: Consciousness
Subject: RE: BS: Consciousness
Well, Tegmark & Hinton make interesting arguments, but 'machines having consciousness' is not what most people understand as consciousness. It is a bit of equivocation. Post-hypnotic suggestions presume that something- (some collection of neurons in a human brain)- have been planted as a 'memory' that will be accessed upon some external stimuli and acted on by the bearer of the consciousness. What a machine that is partially controlled by AI can do certainly resembles a mode of awareness, but unlike brain activity, it isn't continuously monitoring both itself and it's surroundings. Science fiction has posited 'conscious' computers for years, as in Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". Turing tests were created to differentiate between a machine and a human. I am still working my way thru the video, but nothing yet convinces me that the standard concept of consciousness needs to be re-evaluated.