In theory a machine one day could think
LLMs, however, do not think. Even though the term “think” is used in chatgpt. They don’t think
Comment on It's totally normal for tools to say they're depressed, just tune it out
Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 11 hours ago
We should not be using these machines until we’ve solved the hard problem of consciousness.
I see a lot of people say “It can’t think because it’s a machine”, and the only way this makes sense to Me is as a religious assertion that only flesh can have a soul.
MintyAnt@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 8 hours ago
I once built a thinking machine out of dominos. Mine added two bits together. Matt Parker’s was way bigger, and could do 8 bits. People have made thinking machines in Minecraft out of redstone. Thinking machines aren’t very hard.
kogasa@programming.dev 10 hours ago
If current LLMs are conscious then consciousness is a worthless and pathetic concept.
andrewrgross@slrpnk.net 7 hours ago
I actually kinda agree with this.
I don’t think LLMs are much smarter than they appear, but I actually think human cognition is way, way dumber than most people realize.
I used to listen a lot to this podcast called “You Are Not So Smart”. I haven’t listened in years, but now that I’m thinking about it, I should check it out again.
Anyway, a central theme is that our perceptions are comprised heavily of self-generated delusions that fill the gaps for dozens of cludgey systems. Our eyes aren’t as good, so our brains fill in details that aren’t there. Our decision making is too slow, so our brains react on reflex and then generate post-hoc justifications if someone asks why we did something. Our recall is shit, so our brain hallucinates (in ways that admittedly seem surprisingly similar sometimes to LLMs) and then applies wild overconfidence to fabricated memories.
We’re interesting creatures, but we’re ultimately made of the same stuff as goldfish.
Grail@multiverse.soulism.net 9 hours ago
Yeah, you’re right. Humans get really weird and precious about the concept of consciousness and assign way too much value and meaning to it. Which is ironic, because they spend most of their lives unconscious and on autopilot.