Consciousness and intelligence |
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This is a chat I had with a guy on the Internet about consciousness and intelligence.
The topic given was:
Computers can already beat the world's best chess players, and they have a wealth of information on the Web to draw on. What are the limits of learning by machines?
| Me: | From the point of view of intelligence, not much limit, theoretically at least, but the idea that they will become conscious has no good basis. |
| Guy: | I don't see why they shouldn't. |
| Me: | To me personally it seems more important to see why they should. |
| Guy: | Well, our brains manage it. |
| Me: | We can understand how a brain can be intelligent, we have an explanation for that, but we have no explanation for how they would cause consciousness. |
| Guy: | Agreed, and I don't really just expect computers to become conscious - but I expect we will get to that point; I don't expect there to be any limitation except us understanding how to do it - although I submit there is a possibility an AI might figure it out itself once they become flexible enough. |
| Me: | Ok, well, I dont even feel a need to expect that. |
| Guy: | Why? |
| Me: | Well, basically a brain is intelligent, but I do not equate intelligence and awareness. |
| Guy: | Agreed, but I'd have expected you need some level of intelligence to get awareness. |
| Me: | Ok, yes, that could seem reasonable, but I would like to wait with that assumption for a while. I mean, I can imagine being aware without really reflecting on what I experience or even understanding what I experience. |
| Guy: | But isn't aware actually understanding that image is yourself? |
| Me: | Not sure why we talk about "yourself" here but, I dont think being aware necessarily means to understand. |
| Guy: | Was assuming we're talking about self awareness? |
| Me: | Oh ok, well I mean just awareness in the most general sense of the word. |
| Guy: | Hmm, what do you mean by awareness, other than self awareness? |
| Me: | Like being aware when you look at a mountain for example (now not concerning myself with the question whether intelligence is involved or not). |
| Guy: | Sorry, I don't understand what you mean by being 'aware' has to do with looking at a mountain. |
| Me: | Experiencing the mountain visually. Like "are you aware of the mountain?" "yes, I am". |
| Guy: | Again, what do you mean 'experiencing' - you mean 'wow - that's a big beautiful mountain' ? |
| Me: | In general, by 'experiencing' I would mean just the experiencing as such, no matter whether what one experiences is true or false, real or illusion. |
| Guy: | I'm not quite sure where the line of 'experiencing' is though. |
| Me: | Yes, well, that's ok, that is part of the process of understanding what awareness is, I guees. Probably something that is going on in practices of ancient techniques of self-realization. I am not an expert at it either. |
| Guy: | *nods* |