If digital computers are conscious, they are conscious at the hardware level
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Re: If digital computers are conscious, they are conscious at the hardware level
#2And if digital computers are conscious at the hardware level, the universe is conscious.
Re: If digital computers are conscious, they are conscious at the hardware level
#3Reminds me of this classic: https://xkcd.com/505/
Replace universe simulation with a LLM an it’s hard to consider a bunch of rocks shuffling on a beach as conscious.
Or alternatively, our own minds are simply (squishy, organic) rocks on a beach, which is quite humbling if you think about it long enough.
Re: If digital computers are conscious, they are conscious at the hardware level
#4And if digital computers are conscious at the hardware level, the universe is conscious.
The latter is easier to accept.
Re: If digital computers are conscious, they are conscious at the hardware level
#5And if digital computers are conscious at the hardware level, the universe is conscious.
That’s an interesting thought. I’ll try not to type too hard on my keyboard then
Re: If digital computers are conscious, they are conscious at the hardware level
#6And if digital computers are conscious at the hardware level, the universe is conscious.
[dead]
Re: If digital computers are conscious, they are conscious at the hardware level
#7Reminds me of this classic: https://xkcd.com/505/ Replace universe simulation with a LLM an it’s hard to consider a bunch of rocks shuffling on a beach as conscious. Or alternatively, our own minds are simply (squishy, organic) rocks on a beach, which is quite humbling if you think about it long enough.
Our bodies could just be rocks on a beach, but whatever it is about us that is capable of observing the output of our own internal thinking (preventing us from just being p-zombies) is not contained within the beach.
Re: If digital computers are conscious, they are conscious at the hardware level
#8And if digital computers are conscious at the hardware level, the universe is conscious.
I mean, we are as much a part of the universe as everything else. We're just dead star matter arranged in specific ways.
A part of the universe is objectively conscious.
Re: If digital computers are conscious, they are conscious at the hardware level
#9Reminds me of this classic: https://xkcd.com/505/ Replace universe simulation with a LLM an it’s hard to consider a bunch of rocks shuffling on a beach as conscious. Or alternatively, our own minds are simply (squishy, organic) rocks on a beach, which is quite humbling if you think about it long enough.
Our bodies could just be rocks on a beach, but whatever it is about us that is capable of observing the output of our own internal thinking (preventing us from just being p-zombies) is not contained within the beach.
This makes no sense at all as soon as you start trying to define where the internal/external line actually is.
Re: If digital computers are conscious, they are conscious at the hardware level
#10Reminds me of this classic: https://xkcd.com/505/ Replace universe simulation with a LLM an it’s hard to consider a bunch of rocks shuffling on a beach as conscious. Or alternatively, our own minds are simply (squishy, organic) rocks on a beach, which is quite humbling if you think about it long enough.
Indeed a classic (upvoted!), but it presupposes that there is a theory of everything that can be used to perfectly simulate the universe, and I'd like to remind everybody that we still don't know whether such a thing exists. Nor do we know whether it's possible to simulate "just" neurons and get meaningful results on some higher level. People have been trying at that for decades, so far without success. (nice overview here: https://ccli.substack.com/p/the-biggest-mystery-in-neuroscie...)