Shouldn’t mastery and self-awareness/self-modelling come in degrees? Is it necessary to be able to theorize and come up with all of the various thought experiments (even with limited augmentation from extra modules, different initializations)? Many nonhuman animals could make some of the kinds of claims we make about our particular conscious experiences for essentially similar reasons, and many demonstrate some self-awareness in ways other than by passing the mirror test (and some might pass a mirror test with a different sensory modality, or with some extra help, although some kinds of help would severely undermine a positive result), although I won’t claim the mirror test is the only one Eliezer cares about; I don’t know what else he has in mind. It would be helpful to see a list of the proxies he has in mind and what they’re proxies for.
EY: I give serious consideration to the proposition that I am reflective enough for consciousness only during the moments I happen to wonder whether I am conscious.
Me: If this proposition is false, we need to allow unsymbolized (non-verbal) ways to self-attribute consciousness for self-attributing consciousness to matter in itself, right?
You: My model of Eliezer says “In lieu of an algorithmic account of the cognitive antecedents of people insisting they are conscious, that sort of claim is not even wrong.” (And similarly with various other claims in that section.) My model continues: “You seem to me to be trying to do far more with the word ‘consciousness’ than your understanding of the phenomenon permits. I recommend doing less abstract reasoning about how ‘consciousness’ must behave, and more thinking about the cognitive causes behind the creation of the Mary’s Room hypothetical.”
To make sure I understand correctly, it’s not the self-attribution of consciousness and other talk of consciousness like Mary’s Room that matter in themselves (we can allow some limited extra modules for that), but their cognitive causes. And certain (kinds of) cognitive causes should be present when we’re “reflective enough for consciousness”, right? And Eliezer isn’t sure whether wondering whether or not he’s conscious is among them (or a proxy/correlate of a necessary cause)?
Shouldn’t mastery and self-awareness/self-modelling come in degrees? Is it necessary to be able to theorize and come up with all of the various thought experiments (even with limited augmentation from extra modules, different initializations)? Many nonhuman animals could make some of the kinds of claims we make about our particular conscious experiences for essentially similar reasons, and many demonstrate some self-awareness in ways other than by passing the mirror test (and some might pass a mirror test with a different sensory modality, or with some extra help, although some kinds of help would severely undermine a positive result), although I won’t claim the mirror test is the only one Eliezer cares about; I don’t know what else he has in mind. It would be helpful to see a list of the proxies he has in mind and what they’re proxies for.
To make sure I understand correctly, it’s not the self-attribution of consciousness and other talk of consciousness like Mary’s Room that matter in themselves (we can allow some limited extra modules for that), but their cognitive causes. And certain (kinds of) cognitive causes should be present when we’re “reflective enough for consciousness”, right? And Eliezer isn’t sure whether wondering whether or not he’s conscious is among them (or a proxy/correlate of a necessary cause)?