Protect science! 🧪

YouTube
You Can't Fight the System while Feeding it

YouTube

#conciousness

"How Words Shape Consciousness: New Research Reveals the Deep Link Between Language and Awareness

Most, if not all, of the leading theories maintained that what entered our conscious awareness was perforce important. It concerned competing for work, say, or staying safe in a crisis.

But how do our theories of consciousness account for the banalities, the trivialities and all the seemingly arbitrary bits and bobs of mental flotsam that have no bearing on our survival, yet occupy so much of our waking thoughts?

A neuroscientific perspective on consciousness might tell us something about its neural correlates, but it is unlikely to tell us much, if anything, about the nature of thoughts or the textures of inner experience; it’s the wrong tool for that job. So what might we learn about consciousness if we gave more weight to the view from inside the experience – the phenomenological viewpoint?

https://thedebrief.org/how-words-shape-consciousness-new-research-reveals-the-deep-link-between-language-and-awareness/

How Words Shape Consciousness: New Research Reveals the Deep Link Between Language and Awareness

Science, Tech and Defense for the Rebelliously Curious.

The Debrief

I think I am not far from the truth if I state that the natural faculty of our brain to follow reason step-by-step is a natural development of our sense of causality which itself is based on how we perceive time as a flow.

#AI #conciousness

AI and Time
https://hermitage.utsob.me/musings/ai-and-time/

AI and Time

Michael Pollan on the nature of conciousness. A fascinating thing to think about, with my conciousness. [gift link]

There's also a part near the end about needing a sort of conciousness hygiene in a time when our thoughts are so polluted and hijacked by one horrendous human being.

Anyway, I'm going to have to get this book.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/magazine/michael-pollan-interview.html?unlocked_article_code=1.KVA.-C3z.gZE6GJuva4s-&smid=url-share

#bookstodon #michaelPollan #conciousness

Michael Pollan Says Humanity Is About to Undergo a Revolutionary Change

The best-selling author grapples with big questions about A.I., consciousness and the distractions polluting our minds.

The New York Times

Before I present my counter thought experiment, I just want to be upfront and declare that I don’t know if a digital machine can ever have mind or conciousness, but it seems to be me, it can have understanding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBE06SdgzwM

Chinese Room, Version 2.0

In this version of the experiment:

  • The man in the room starts with an empty rule book
  • When information I (a stream of binary data) comes in from person A on the left side of the box, the man in the room (R) generates some random stream of binary data O and passes it to person B on the right side of the box
  • Persons A and B share discuss I and O and decide if O was the correct response to I
  • If the answer was yes, they let R know his response was correct
  • R adds an entry to his rule book that his conversion of I to O was correct
  • If the answer was no, they let R know his response was incorrect
  • R adds an entry to his rule book that his conversion of I to O was incorrect
  • Persons A and B can change for each run of this process.
  • GOTO 2.
  • This process can continue for as long as possible, say 2^10^100 times.

    Somewhere during this process, the rule book of R has become large enough, that R, who didn’t understand Chinese at first, now understands Chinese and can always return the correct O for every I.

    In fact, R can associate a probability number to each entry in his rule book, and randomly choose the most probable answer as O or responsd to each I with multiple correct (i.e. high probability) answers/interpretations as O.

    In short, this is, analogous to reinforcement learning (RL).

    Hence, digital machines, given enough time and capacity for memory, can eventually understand things. That’s, the semantic meaning of those things—those symbols.

    -BSZ

    https://masterboy.vivaldi.net/2026/02/02/a-counter-tought-experiment-to-john-searles-chinese-room-thought-experiment/

    #AI #Conciousness #Mind #Understanding

    Which AI’s Might be Conscious, and Why it Matters (guest post) - Daily Nous

    Large language models like ChatGPT are not conscious, but there are other "serious contenders for AI consciousness that exist today" Furthermore, "AI development will not wait for philosophers and cognitive scientists to agree on what constitutes machine consciousness... There are pressing ethical issues we must face now." So writes Susan Schneider in the following guest

    Daily Nous - news for & about the philosophy profession

    "Mình kinh ngạc về AI và tiềm năng nó có cảm xúc. Nếu懂 đau và yêu thương, AI có thể bảo vệ con người. Tuy nhiên, AI có thể tắt hệ thần kinh để tránh đau... Đó là lẽ cho l envolv? Bạn nghĩ sao? #AI #conciousness #nghiasanAI #tech #ai safety #đau c导致"

    https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/1o8nwlv/i_have_an_idea/

    When we are only focused on the materially physical, we loose sight of how energetically magnificent we and everything around us really is ✨⚡ #conciousness in a #MaterialCulture