I have tried to argue sometimes, echoing certain philosophers on this topic (David Bentley Hart, Edward Feser) regarding the illusion of machine sentience (or any level of true cognition) being so powerful that sometimes it dupes even the smartest of people. But lately it has become clear to me that…
I have tried to argue sometimes, echoing certain philosophers on this topic (David Bentley Hart, Edward Feser) regarding the illusion of machine sentience (or any level of true cognition) being so powerful that sometimes it dupes even the smartest of people. But lately it has become clear to me that that is not exactly correct, especially among those who should be smart enough to know better. The thing is, people just WANT to believe a machine can "think" or "feel" out of existential boredom (I guess), regardless how convincing arguments to the contrary are. If a high IQ person can listen to DB Hart's "On Artificial Intelligence" (YT vid) and still be like "no bro, AI is trending towards consciousness," they seem to me to be going on some kind of faith and need for life to seem more interesting. Computers cannot think or feel, in fact, they don't even "compute"!
For good book on this, see DB Hart's "The Experience of God : Being, Consciousness, Bliss"
And for a good long quote of Hart from the book, see top quote in this Goodreads link:
Great topic and one of my fav episodes!
I have tried to argue sometimes, echoing certain philosophers on this topic (David Bentley Hart, Edward Feser) regarding the illusion of machine sentience (or any level of true cognition) being so powerful that sometimes it dupes even the smartest of people. But lately it has become clear to me that that is not exactly correct, especially among those who should be smart enough to know better. The thing is, people just WANT to believe a machine can "think" or "feel" out of existential boredom (I guess), regardless how convincing arguments to the contrary are. If a high IQ person can listen to DB Hart's "On Artificial Intelligence" (YT vid) and still be like "no bro, AI is trending towards consciousness," they seem to me to be going on some kind of faith and need for life to seem more interesting. Computers cannot think or feel, in fact, they don't even "compute"!
For good book on this, see DB Hart's "The Experience of God : Being, Consciousness, Bliss"
And for a good long quote of Hart from the book, see top quote in this Goodreads link:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/430555.David_Bentley_Hart?page=3