On Fri, Nov 7, 2025, 3:34 PM John Rose via AGI <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Friday, November 07, 2025, at 3:29 PM, Basile Starynkevitch wrote: > > This first requires defining consciousness (those of humans; or even of > cats). Please suggest a definition. > > > The definition I use is UCP, Universal Communication Protocol, basically > the MDL protocol on matter to be inclusive of panpsychist and half-duplex > things like rocks being conscious :) Then denser forms of consciousness and > intelligence is built on that via higher levels of symbol system > complexity. I’ve yet to expand it to a quantum definition though for > classical systems it appears to make sense. > Are dogs conscious? Are fish conscious? Are insects conscious? At what point after conception does a human become conscious? Is an LLM that passes the Turing test conscious? Is a simple reinforcement learner like http://mattmahoney.net/autobliss.txt conscious? A philosophical zombie is defined to be exactly like a human by any behavioral test except for lacking consciousness. Are you OK with this definition? If not, what is your test for consciousness? Some people equate consciousness with the ability to feel pain or suffering. But suffering only exists when you see it. Why is it a worse crime to post a video of killing one chicken than to kill a billion chickens per month for food? About 1% of humans are psychopaths, lacking the part of the brain that feels fear, anxiety, and guilt. Negative reinforcement has no effect on them. They feel pain but not suffering. Are they conscious? -- Matt Mahoney, [email protected] ------------------------------------------ Artificial General Intelligence List: AGI Permalink: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/T7ff992c51cca9e36-M3a6f0576c7396960fd27d9ea Delivery options: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription
