> It’s somewhat true we’re moving the goalposts. But the reason is not stubbornness, but rather that we can’t properly define and subcategorize what reason and intelligence really is.
Disagree. Intelligence is a word created by humans. The entire concept is made up and defined by humans. It is not some concept that exists outside of that. It is simply a collection of qualities and features we choose to define as a word “intelligent”. The universe doesn’t really have a category or a group of features that is labeled intelligent. Does it use logic? Does it have feelings? Can it talk? Can it communicate? We define the features and we choose to put each and every feature under a category called “intelligence”.
Therefore when we define the “Turing test” as a benchmark for intelligence and we then invalidate it, it is indeed stubbornness and a conscious choice to change a definition of a word we Originally made up in the first place.
What you don’t realize is this entire thing is a vocabulary problem. When we argue what is conscious or what is intelligent we are simply arguing for what features belong in what categories we made up. When the category has blurry or controversial boundaries it’s because we chose the definition to be fuzzy. These are not profound discussions. They are debates about language choice. We are talking About personal definitions and generally accepted definitions both of which are completely chosen and made up by us. It is not profound to talk about things that are simply arbitrary choices picked by humans.
That being said we are indeed changing the goal posts. We are evolving our own chosen definitions and we very well may eventually change the definition of intelligence to never include any form of thinking machine that is artificially created. The reason why we do this is a choice. We are saying, “hey these LLMs are not anything amazing or anything profound. They are not intelligent and I choose to believe this by changing and evolving my own benchmark for what is intelligent.”
Of course this all happens subconsciously based off of deeply rooted instincts and feelings. It’s so deep that it’s really hard to differentiate the instincts between rational thinking. When you think logically, “intelligence” is just a word with an arbitrary definition. An arbitrary category. But the instincts are so strong that you literally spent your entire life thinking that intelligence like god or some other common myth made up by humans is some concept that exists outside of what we make up. It’s human to have these instincts, that’s where religion comes from. What you don’t realize is that it’s those same instincts fueling your definition of what is “intelligent”.
Religious people move the goal posts too. When science establishes things in reality like the helio centricity of the solar system religious people need to evolve their beliefs in order to stay inline with reality. They often do this by reinterpreting the Bible. It’s deeply rooted instincts that prevent us from thinking rationally and it effects the great debate we are having now on “what is intelligence?”.