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Soul (2025-05-31) (midwest.social)
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

http://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/soul-8

Alt textAM I RIGHT?!

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[-] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago

Conversations about consciousness always wind me up because as soon as you ask them to define consciousness, nobody can come up with a measurable definition

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

That's bcz we have no idea what consciousness actually is. The harder you try to define it the less certain you are likly to be.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

It's frustrating reading discussion about AI, because 90%+ of it is just people without any measurable definition of terms like "consciousness" or "intelligence" or "knowledge" talking past each other.

I actually think "consciousness" is easily definable as soon as you realize the question isn't "Is X conscious?", it's "What is X conscious of?", which in turn means "What is included in the world model of X?".

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

I think, therefore I am.

Consciousness is what both observes and chooses. It’s discernment and will. Though measuring that objectively is obviously an issue.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

If you dont know how to measure it, then you dont actually know what consciousness is.

[-] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

The subjective experience. The sequence of qualia which represents our internal state.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

But that doesn't mean anything if you can't measure it. It may as well not exist. How can you tell something is having a subjective experience? How can you tell if something is experiencing "qualia"? You can't.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Well, I know that at least one subjective experience exists, mine. The inability to measure it is precisely why it's such a difficult topic.

this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
77 points (96.4% liked)

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

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Posts and discussion about the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal by Hugo Award-winning author Zach Weinersmith (and related works)

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