I'm scared about biological computing

Post by GTP » Tue, May 05, 2026, 9:30 PM UTC

rubslopes wrote: post #43

myrmidon wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This does not follow. Just because biological brains can be conscious does not mean that all of them are, the same way that not every computer is running windows XP. Why would you expect more concern from people about biological computing? It's not even demonstrated feasibility yet, while LLM based "AI" is already widely used.

Correct. Still, the day we manage to run a full LLM on biological neurons, even if using conventional code under the hood, will be a very interesting day for consciousness discussions.

Post by fellowniusmonk » Tue, May 05, 2026, 9:39 PM UTC

altruios wrote: post #90

fellowniusmonk wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or not a problem at all. People smuggle in so many assumptions when they use words like consciousness or thinking or soul or personhood, I've never met a lay person who could talk clearly about ai safety issues unless we switched to language like process. Consciousness is an absolutely terrible term that's going to get us all killed by Ai. I know a huge swath of people who think its nbd to torture Ai because it doesn…

I wouldn't torture a chair, and I would not associate anyone who gains pleasure from such. It is worse if the chair were to expressed displeasure. That indicates something deeply wrong. Having such psychopaths revealed: use that information to alter your associations, is what I would suggest.

Post by akomtu » Tue, May 05, 2026, 9:52 PM UTC

mrweasel wrote: post #50

In the same line of thinking: I'm a little concerned that humans are, to some extend, just LLMs in a meat suit.

Post by krater23 » Tue, May 05, 2026, 9:58 PM UTC

vjvjvjvjghv wrote: post #68

philips wrote: post #2

I think this is the same ethical questions of veganism and our use/abuse of biological systems. This is an excerpt from "The Pig that Wants to be Eaten" by Julian Baggini > After forty years of vegetarianism, Max Berger was about to sit down to a feast of pork sausages, crispy bacon and pan-fried chicken breast. Max had always missed the taste of meat, but his principles were stronger than his culinary cravings. But…

Did Priscilla also want to be living in absolute misery every single day of her life? The way animals are treated while they are alive is my main objection to our farming practices and the reason why i don’t eat meat.

Post by slibhb » Tue, May 05, 2026, 10:13 PM UTC

Tharre wrote: post #94

slibhb wrote: post #60

I read an interesting book about consciousness recently: The Hidden Spring by Mark Solms. Solms argues, I think convincingly, that consciousness fundamentally has to do with emotions and not cognition. Consciousness is not produced by the cortex but rather by the brainstem, where signals from all over the body converge (e.g. pain, hunger, itchiness, etc). If that argument is true then a petri-dish of neurons is unlik…

> Consciousness is not produced by the cortex but rather by the brainstem, where signals from all over the body converge (e.g. pain, hunger, itchiness, etc). Which just begs the question of how pain or hunger is any different from a reward function, the very thing neural networks are based on. Or how it's even different from fungi growing towards food (pleasure), while avoiding salt (pain).