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@ambulocetus It would be best if we just forgot that the sequel was ever made haha
Didn't know about the Star Trek episode, cool.

@seanfobbe Interesting!
I tried that with ChatGPT,
results are in the picture below.

After a recent rewatch, it became evident to me that "12 Angry Men" and "The Man from Earth" share several similarities. Both films have a comparable structure as discourse movies, with characters who progressively come to realize that their convictions may not be accurate. Additionally, both movies depict a collision of differing perspectives.

Any recommendations for similar ?

Karlo boosted

Introducing my hobby coding project since xmas:

Mastotron!

It's a different interface to Mastodon, replacing the mindless "feed" of most social media with a network map of conversations and recent and popular posts.

👉 You can download it here: github.com/quadrismegistus/mas 🖖

There's easy, double-click installation for Mac and Linux; Windows is a bit trickier for now.

This is b new, so bound to be bugs. But if you can, give it a whirl, and let me know if it works and what you'd like to see!

Found a way can be used for factual information: as a transformer of questions into search queries (for e.g. google).

> simulate an internet search helper AI that transforms questions into high-quality queries that have higher chance of finding scientific sources (answer only with the query):

@gordon That scene reminds me of the movie "The Man from Earth" imdb.com/title/tt0756683
One of my favorites.
Looks like it is on youtube now.

@LesleyBarnett@sigmoid.social
I think AI is unlikely to be conscious *only* if consciousness is foundational instead of emergent.

I am of the opinion that if there is a complete simulation of my brain in a normal computer, that simulation would be conscious - which would not be the case if consciousness is foundational.

If consciousness is foundational, an AI running on a normal computer would never become conscious.
If we knew exactly what that foundational *something* is, I guess we could construct a computer by using *that*.

But it would be very brave of anyone to think that we know what *that* is, and how to construct a computer using *that*.
I guess you assume *that* is something in quantum physics, but currently I see no reason why that would be so.

@LesleyBarnett@sigmoid.social
I see, that is a respectable position and I of course don't know which one is correct.

If consciousness is foundational and causal it is a part of physics (a core property of the universe that affects it). This would mean that a conscious brain has *something* fundamental that makes it conscious.

This position has a big drawback for you (I've seen on your website that you are into conscious AI) - we can't code that foundational *something* into AI, thus AI probably can't be conscious.
Similar to how we can code a simulation of gravity, but that isn't literal gravity.

@NicoleCRust Oh I love his stories!
The two collections "Stories of Your Life and Others" and "Exhalation: Stories" are must-reads!

@rachelwilliams
I think that way as well (I am not my body, and I am not my mind - I can observe thoughts that come up the same way I can observe sounds).

But I confused myself recently haha
If consciousness is noncausal (you used the word actless), it does not affect the universe (mind, body, environment - you used the word nature), and because of that the universe has no way of "knowing" about my consciousness.

But, I am (my mind and body) currently typing about my consciousness. How does my mind (and by extension - the universe) know that I (consciousness) exist?
If my mind knows that consciousness exists then consciousness must have causal power somehow.

Or is it the other way around: mind thinking from a consciousness-like perspective gives us the ability to talk about consciousness (even without being conscious - philosophical zombie).
A conscious being that doesn't think from a consciousness-like perspective wouldn't be able to talk about consciousness, because its mind would know nothing about consciousness.

Those are then two separate things: my mind that is thinking from a consciousness-like perspective (and about consciousness), and me (consciousness). Consciousness is aware of the mind, but the mind is not affected by consciousness in any way.

I am less confused now when I typed everything out haha

@LesleyBarnett@sigmoid.social I think the second possibility is more probable (humans don't have to be conscious), even though all humans (with functioning brains) are probably conscious.

All humans are probably conscious because (if consciousness is an emergent phenomenon) two identical brains must both either have consciousness or not. Our brains are very similar thus it makes sense we are both conscious.

If consciousness is fundamental then I could imagine two identical brains where one has that *something* fundamental while the other does not.
In the fundamental case, it is obvious that humans wouldn't have to be conscious.
In the emergent case, a brain capable of emergent consciousness can only be conscious. It would be impossible for consciousness to not emerge from such a brain, so it would make no sense to ask if it would behave in the same way if it were conscious-less.

I think the choices in the poll (causal or noncausal and fundamental or emergent) are clearer than the two possibilities.
Where would you place consciousness on the map I constructed? That would help me understand your position.

@TodePond "oesophagus of a rainbow" is such a good description hahah

@jhertzli
I do not understand how something can be both emergent and causal, so maybe the two of us interpret that combination differently.
As I understand it, an emergent phenomenon would be causal if it directly affects the universe. But it is always the fundamental constituents of a phenomenon that are the true source of the cause and not the "higher-level/emergent" phenomena.

Which do you think is?

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Other two possibilities: consciousness is either fundamental or emergent.

Consciousness compass:
- If it affects behavior (causal) and is fundamental -> physics (e.g. gravity).
- If it affects behavior (causal) and is emergent -> strong emergence (e.g. ??).
- If it doesn't affect behavior (noncausal) and is fundamental -> astral (e.g. soul).
- If it doesn't affect behavior (noncausal) and is emergent -> abstract (e.g. temperature).

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Nature of : thinking about two possibilities and their consequences.
We know that we are conscious (at least I am), but we do not know if we HAVE to be conscious (to behave as we do behave).

1. possibility: humans HAVE to be conscious (to behave as we do behave).
-> inference 1: consciousness affects behavior.
-> inference 2: selective pressure affects consciousness, thus it is evolved.
-> inference 3: a philosophical zombie would be distinguishable from a normal person.

2. possibility: humans DON'T have to be conscious (to behave as we do behave).
-> inference 1: consciousness doesn't affect behavior.
-> inference 2: selective pressure doesn't affect consciousness, thus it didn't evolve.
-> inference 3: a philosophical zombie would be indistinguishable from a normal person.

Karlo boosted

Just learn about the Arcane Algorithm Archive algorithm-archive.org I really like encyclopedic efforts. Which is one of the main motivations behind lygia.xyz

Karlo boosted

iPad Safari and desktop Chrome syncing a WebAssembly program that’s unaware it’s being synced.

@DrYohanJohn
This reminds me of a loop in Feynman diagrams, which can be interpreted as (if x-axis is time) a photon decaying into an electron-positron pair that is annihilated immediately after to create another photon. Or if y-axis is time, a virtual electron-positron pair created from nothing and quickly destroying each other.
Pizza traveling forwards in time would be the electron, and when it is traveling backwards it would represent the positron.

*Read with a 1 kg grain of salt, I'm not a physicist* haha

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