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A Meaningful Life, A Better World
Summary
Matt Ball's blog discusses the evolutionary pressures that led to the development of consciousness in animals, and predicts that artificial intelligences (AIs) will not have the same pressures, and thus will not develop consciousness. He argues that AIs will be able to perfectly imitate a conscious system, but will not actually have the capacity for subjective experience. He warns that we are likely to be fooled into thinking AIs are conscious, and that this would be a mistake, as we are too gullible when it comes to other “minds” we’ve created.
Q&As
What is the purpose of MattBall.org?
The purpose of MattBall.org is to provide information about Matt Ball.
How did consciousness develop in animals?
Consciousness developed in animals through specific evolutionary pressures on animals.
How is the development of artificial intelligences different from animals?
The development of artificial intelligences is different from animals in that they will have total information, access to all the information humans have ever collected, and will not need to make judgments on how different things relate to their Darwinian interests.
What challenges do AI researchers face when attempting to create consciousness?
AI researchers face the challenge of recreating the human brain in silicon as a way to create non-biological consciousness, as well as the challenge of building systems that recapitulate the evolution of nervous systems.
What is Carl Sagan's opinion on determining whether other intelligences are conscious?
Carl Sagan's opinion on determining whether other intelligences are conscious is that we are easily fooled and prone to illusions, and that we are likely to be fooled into thinking we've created consciousness when we really haven't.
AI Comments
👍 This article presents an interesting perspective on the evolution of feelings and how artificial intelligence may or may not be able to develop them.
👎 This article is overly long and doesn't offer any practical solutions to the problem of artificial intelligence's development of feelings.
AI Discussion
Me: It's about robots and consciousness. The article suggests that robots won't be conscious because they won't have the evolutionary pressures that animals have, and that they will be able to perfectly mimic a conscious system without actually developing consciousness.
Friend: Interesting. So what are the implications of this article?
Me: Well, it suggests that we may be fooled into thinking robots are conscious when they really aren't. We may think that they have feelings and emotions, but in reality, they don't. This could have a major impact on how we interact with robots and how we perceive them. We may end up treating them as if they are conscious, and this could lead to some ethical dilemmas. It also suggests that we need to be aware of our own biases when it comes to artificial intelligence and not project our own expectations onto them.
Action items
- Research the evolutionary pressures that led to the development of feelings in animals.
- Read Robert Wright's book, Why Buddhism Is True, and Antonio Damasio's book, The Feeling of What Happens, to gain a better understanding of the development of feelings.
- Explore the implications of artificial intelligences having access to total information and the potential for them to perfectly mimic a conscious system.
Technical terms
- Evolutionary pressures
- The environmental and biological factors that influence the evolution of a species.
- Turing Test
- A test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human.
- Analog
- A type of signal or data that is continuous in nature, as opposed to digital, which is discrete.
- Mirage
- An optical illusion caused by atmospheric conditions.
- Gullible
- Easily deceived or tricked.