site banner
No_one  1yr ago (rifters.com)   Edited 1yr ago   1859 thread views

The Pong Imperative: Driving Dishbrain to Suicide. ['post by Peter Watts on a recent experiment suggesting a consciousness / intelligence link ]

rifters.com

Ok, there was supposed to be text in the top near the link, there isn't, some I'm pasting the summary of the linked post here.

Peter Watts, the Canadian SF writer known for writing endearingly depressing SF books and promoting the idea consciousness is not essential to sentience has been forced to re-evaluate this position of his following a recent experiment by proponents of the Free Energy Model of consciousness.

Now it appears, at least to him, there may be an intrinsic link between subjective experience and problem solving by intelligent systems.

6
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I'm highly unimpressed with the evidence that this blob is conscious. It seems to be just equivocating about the word "sentience" where some people use it to mean something computational and others expect it to mean experiencing qualia

You're right- however, it's remarkable in itself that 'sentience' in the limited meaning arises seemingly spontaneously in a group of neurons just grown over a source of signals. You'd think you'd need some sort of brain-plan or organisation for that to happen. But maybe we should wait till they get a clearer signal.

Although, I do think he made kind of a leap over there with speculations about consciousness.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats