• Perspectivist@feddit.uk
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    23 hours ago

    Same argument applies for consciousness as well, but I’m talking about general intelligence now.

    • Valmond@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      Well I’m curious then, because I have never seen or heard or read that general intelligence would be needing some kind of wetware anywhere. Why would it? It’s just computations.

      I do have heard and read about consciousness potentially having that barrier though, but only as a potential problem, and if you want conscious robots ofc.

      • Perspectivist@feddit.uk
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        13 hours ago

        I don’t think it does, but it seems conceivable that it potentially could. Maybe there’s more to intelligence than just information processing - or maybe it’s tied to consciousness itself. I can’t imagine the added ability to have subjective experiences would hurt anyone’s intelligence, at least.

        • Valmond@lemmy.world
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          1 hour ago

          I don’t think so. The consciousness has very little influence on the mind, we’re mostly in on it for the ride. And general intelligence isn’t that complicated to understand, so why would it be dependent on some substrate? I think the burden if proof lies on you here.

          Very interesting topic though, I hope I’m not sounding condescending here.

          • Perspectivist@feddit.uk
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            58 minutes ago

            Well, first of all, like I already said, I don’t think there’s substrate dependence on either general intelligence or consciousness, so I’m not going to try to prove there is - it’s not a belief I hold. I’m simply acknowledging the possibility that there might be something more mysterious about the workings of the human mind that we don’t yet understand, so I’m not going to rule it out when I have no way of disproving it.

            Secondly, both claims - that consciousness has very little influence on the mind, and that general intelligence isn’t complicated to understand - are incredibly bold statements I strongly disagree with. Especially with consciousness, though in my experience there’s a good chance we’re using that term to mean different things.

            To me, consciousness is the fact of subjective experience - that it feels like something to be. That there’s qualia to experience.

            I don’t know what’s left of the human mind once you strip away the ability to experience, but I’d argue we’d be unrecognizable without it. It’s what makes us human. It’s where our motivation for everything comes from - the need for social relationships, the need to eat, stay warm, stay healthy, the need to innovate. At its core, it all stems from the desire to feel - or not feel - something.