Well, as I said before, the AI could still consider the possibility that the world is composed entirely of hats (minus the AI simulation).
At this point I’m not sure there’s much point in discussing further. You’re using words in ways that seem self-contradictory to me.
You said “the AI could still consider the possibility that the world is composed of [...]”. Considering a possibility is creating a model. Models can be constructed about all sorts of things: mathematical statements, future sensory inputs, hypothetical AIs in simulated worlds, and so on. In this case, the AI’s model is about “the world”, that is to say, reality.
So it is using a concept of model, and a concept of reality. It is only considering the model as a possibility, so it knows that not everything true in the model is automatically true in reality and vice versa. Therefore it is distinguishing between them. But you posited that it can’t do that.
To me, this is a blatant contradiction. My model of you is that you are unlikely to post blatant contradictions, so I am left with the likelihood that what you mean by your statements is wholly unlike the meaning I assign to the same statements. This does not bode well for effective communication.
Yeah, it might be best to wrap up the discussion. It seems we aren’t really understanding what the other means.
So it is using a concept of model, and a concept of reality. It is only considering the model as a possibility, so it knows that not everything true in the model is automatically true in reality and vice versa. Therefore it is distinguishing between them. But you posited that it can’t do that.
Well, I can’t say I’m really following you there. The AI would still have a notion of reality. It just would consider abstractions like chairs and tables to be part of reality.
There is one thing I want to say though. We’ve been discussing the question of if a notion of base-level reality is necessary to avoid severe limitations in reasoning ability. And to see why I think it’s not, just consider regular humans. They often don’t have a distinction between base-level reality and abstractions. And yet, they can still reason about the possibility of life-long illusions as well as function well to accomplish their goals. And if you taught someone the concept of “base-level reality”, I’m not sure it would help them much.
At this point I’m not sure there’s much point in discussing further. You’re using words in ways that seem self-contradictory to me.
You said “the AI could still consider the possibility that the world is composed of [...]”. Considering a possibility is creating a model. Models can be constructed about all sorts of things: mathematical statements, future sensory inputs, hypothetical AIs in simulated worlds, and so on. In this case, the AI’s model is about “the world”, that is to say, reality.
So it is using a concept of model, and a concept of reality. It is only considering the model as a possibility, so it knows that not everything true in the model is automatically true in reality and vice versa. Therefore it is distinguishing between them. But you posited that it can’t do that.
To me, this is a blatant contradiction. My model of you is that you are unlikely to post blatant contradictions, so I am left with the likelihood that what you mean by your statements is wholly unlike the meaning I assign to the same statements. This does not bode well for effective communication.
Yeah, it might be best to wrap up the discussion. It seems we aren’t really understanding what the other means.
Well, I can’t say I’m really following you there. The AI would still have a notion of reality. It just would consider abstractions like chairs and tables to be part of reality.
There is one thing I want to say though. We’ve been discussing the question of if a notion of base-level reality is necessary to avoid severe limitations in reasoning ability. And to see why I think it’s not, just consider regular humans. They often don’t have a distinction between base-level reality and abstractions. And yet, they can still reason about the possibility of life-long illusions as well as function well to accomplish their goals. And if you taught someone the concept of “base-level reality”, I’m not sure it would help them much.