John:Just "conscious" is too simple. It's too umbrella. A rock is conscious.
Is there an agent specific uniqueness to consciousness? No one is conscious
like me. And they all are unique as I am not conscious as they are... The
uniqueness may be a defining factor. Unreplicable and non-simulatable.
Just a quick thought not fully formulated. My model is in fact helpful here.
Consciousness is an iworld-movie - a self watching and directing a movie of
the world. How do you know if an agent is conscious - if it directs its
movie - if it tracks an object moving through its environment, and keeps
tracking, or looking for, it despite obstacles . Alternatively - if it keeps
looking at an object as it approaches, and then, looks around, that object -
if it is obviously investigating an object. I suspect that virtually all, if
not all, living creatures will pass those tests.
An agent is conscious if it shows signs of selective attention - if it
directs its movie, i.e. turns its sensors this way and that in an obviously
purposeful, problemsolving way.
(This makes me think a little tangentially of a movie of a sea anemone,
which is a pretty low order of life with only a neural net, suddenly
grabbing a fish that approaches near it with its tentacles, and swallowing
it. Quite amazing stuff. Consciousness alright, if not as we know it,
Spock).
Consciousness-as-sentience is different. But I suspect that too shouldn't be
that hard to pin down - if all creatures evince signs of pain. I would
suspect most do - although perhaps it may be immediately difficult to detect
in the v. lowest orders.
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agi
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