RE: evolution
March 15, 2022 at 10:34 am
(This post was last modified: March 15, 2022 at 10:39 am by The Grand Nudger.)
I mean, I feel like I'm giving the prospect of an all B brain serious consideration. To the point where I'm willing to provisionally categorize a great amount of human consciousness to the b side.
In all B brain, though, a minimally self aware machine possesses an ability A that we do not. Even though we seem to experience negative ideations about some item of our attention in a compelling 1st person perspective, and even though it seems like these negative ideations can be involved when we assume or alter a course of action, in mere reality (in the thought experiment) it's all not-that. Just an incredibly specific coincidence. You didn't really go to the gym because you felt fat. You didn;t put on makeup explicitly because you thought it would make you prettier. You didn't really stop smoking because you didn't want to die. You didn't actively remove "like, um" from your vocabulary because it made you uncomfortable around your more eloquent peers. Neither guilt nor shame were related to why we abandoned some horrendous ideology. You didn't notice you were hungry and wanted beef over chicken, and so, hauled your ass to the store.... and there's no actual connection between enjoying the smell of fresh cut cilantro being thrown into the pot so much that you then directed your hands to chop more and toss more in. Being able to direct your attention on your hand was in no way useful to employing the knife.
That, in short, the human brain is physically incapable of doing anything that a minimally self aware machine can do. With the understanding that any observation can be objected to with "maybe it only seems that way" - yes..that's what an observation is - how things seem to be.... since it's you, I'll bite. Sure, it seems like we possess at least some ability A, it seems like the ability to attend to and direct attention is an ability A - at least insomuch as you've described it. Self awareness is involved in directing physical behaviors. Physical events can influence mental events. Mental events can influence mental events, and mental events can influence physical events. We can see ourselves according to a standard of beauty, and we can take action to make our physical image (or mental image) more closely conform to that standard. We can even adjust for changes in that standard over time, and all of it premises an ability on our part to predict the attention of others, as well. As things seem....we have a great deal more abilities A than any minimally self aware machine.
...but, just as I started up above, I'm willing to entertain the idea that this is wrong. That things only seem this way, powerfully, uniformly, and quantifiably. In personal experience, in the results of lab trials, out in the field. I just don't know how I'd make that case. In the end (I think?) you and I are agreed that much of the apparatus and/or effect of human consciousness is of dubious reproductive and survival benefit.
In all B brain, though, a minimally self aware machine possesses an ability A that we do not. Even though we seem to experience negative ideations about some item of our attention in a compelling 1st person perspective, and even though it seems like these negative ideations can be involved when we assume or alter a course of action, in mere reality (in the thought experiment) it's all not-that. Just an incredibly specific coincidence. You didn't really go to the gym because you felt fat. You didn;t put on makeup explicitly because you thought it would make you prettier. You didn't really stop smoking because you didn't want to die. You didn't actively remove "like, um" from your vocabulary because it made you uncomfortable around your more eloquent peers. Neither guilt nor shame were related to why we abandoned some horrendous ideology. You didn't notice you were hungry and wanted beef over chicken, and so, hauled your ass to the store.... and there's no actual connection between enjoying the smell of fresh cut cilantro being thrown into the pot so much that you then directed your hands to chop more and toss more in. Being able to direct your attention on your hand was in no way useful to employing the knife.
That, in short, the human brain is physically incapable of doing anything that a minimally self aware machine can do. With the understanding that any observation can be objected to with "maybe it only seems that way" - yes..that's what an observation is - how things seem to be.... since it's you, I'll bite. Sure, it seems like we possess at least some ability A, it seems like the ability to attend to and direct attention is an ability A - at least insomuch as you've described it. Self awareness is involved in directing physical behaviors. Physical events can influence mental events. Mental events can influence mental events, and mental events can influence physical events. We can see ourselves according to a standard of beauty, and we can take action to make our physical image (or mental image) more closely conform to that standard. We can even adjust for changes in that standard over time, and all of it premises an ability on our part to predict the attention of others, as well. As things seem....we have a great deal more abilities A than any minimally self aware machine.
...but, just as I started up above, I'm willing to entertain the idea that this is wrong. That things only seem this way, powerfully, uniformly, and quantifiably. In personal experience, in the results of lab trials, out in the field. I just don't know how I'd make that case. In the end (I think?) you and I are agreed that much of the apparatus and/or effect of human consciousness is of dubious reproductive and survival benefit.
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