Will AI ever = conciousness or sentience?

[DoktorZ]

Yes but it isn't an arbitrary boundary. Intelligence is the possession of the relevant information with the capacity to apply it appropriately to achieve desired outcomes. As "appropriately" approaches "optimally" we move from smart to smarter. But consciousness includes loads of special sauce. In addition to having the intelligence to perform smartly, to be conscious/sentient we should also care about those outcomes.

These two definitions seem to have a bit too much overlap for me, and they both rely on intentionality, which is notoriously difficult to identify. A lot of it seems based on ...

Free will alert, free will alert .. abort, abort. That was close.

Lol, exactly. How do we meaningfully distinguish a system that adjusts its behavior to produce optimal outcomes from a system that "desires" those outcomes--if such desires are rooted in a material thing like a brain?

Now, I'm carrying along in life merrily as if I truly possess free will, in part because of the ethical ramifications of not having it. But, the more dynamic systems theory I read, the less liberal humanism I actually am willing to accept. Some of the justifications I've read for free will seem to be the deformed discursive offspring of theology, and not adequately separated from it--sort of like that film "Basket Case."

More importantly, much of the advocacy for intention and free will seems to be rooted in our need for ethics. I have a pet theory that gradual examination of modern horrors like the Holocaust and the Great Famine in China has (re-)created a moral need for theories of "free will," and other sentimentalities of that sort.

I'm appreciating hearing your thoughts on this and have more reaction to this post. But in the interest of having a life that is more than virtual, I need to get outside.

I can't say my IRL world is terribly interesting at the moment, being mostly composed of paperwork and past-due writing deadlines. What you're witnessing here is the byproduct of indefatigable procrastination on my part. This will probably come to a crashing halt when the better half discovers what I've been doing.

Z