Re:How does consciousness even make sense?
by tenebrisalietum on Monday November 09, 2020 @07:41PM
(#25041717)
Thought experiment.
An entity is conscious if:
- it has external inputs and a facility for creating a symbolized account of them,
- it has a facility that stores these accounts,
- it can order those accounts roughly by time,
- it can place or relate a symbol representing itself in these accounts.
The quality of consciousness varies widely, a program that has an object that references itself and can do the above things is very technically conscious but likely nowhere near to the depth of a human being.
An entity is conscious if:
- it has external inputs and a facility for creating a symbolized account of them,
- it has a facility that stores these accounts,
- it can order those accounts roughly by time,
- it can place or relate a symbol representing itself in these accounts.
The quality of consciousness varies widely, a program that has an object that references itself and can do the above things is very technically conscious but likely nowhere near to the depth of a human being.