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As far as I know we still have literally no idea what consciousness is. History has shown that when we have no evidence about something, philosophers like to just make stuff up that they thing sounds compelling and consistent. Nobody can prove them wrong so they can write entire volumes on their idea!

Forgive me for not wasting time familiarising myself with his made up distinction between consciousness and cognition.




Here's a basic warmup question: How do you know that a person is conscious?

There are basic medical tests, of course, but maybe they're faking it. You know, as a person, what it feels like to be a person; you feel when you're conscious. Is this feeling universal, or are there people who just don't have it?

This question is known as the question of philosophical zombies [0], or p-zombies, and it is worth taking seriously, if for no other reason than that GPT-3 and friends are very much like p-zombies; they sound very cogent and coherent but are definitely not conscious in the same brain-based way that humans are conscious.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_zombie


It's an interesting question. Philosophers have tons of interesting questions! They rarely have disprovable answers.


If you have such contempt for philosophers and refuse to open your mind to their ideas (even if just to critique them) - perhaps best not to comment on them at all.


I could say the same thing about Flat Earthers, QAnon, and so on. Do you read the blogs? Of course not. Does that mean you can't criticise them?




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