Second, I’d imagine that a mature science of consciousness would increase MCE significantly. Many people don’t think animals are conscious, and almost no one thinks anything besides animals can be conscious. How would we even know if an AI was conscious, and if so, if it was experiencing joy or suffering? The only way would be if we develop theories of consciousness that we have high confidence in. But right now we’re very limited in studying consciousness, because our tools at interfacing with the brain are crude. Advanced neurotechnologies could change that—they could allow us to potentially test hypotheses about consciousness. Again, developing these technologies would be a technical problem.
I think that’s right. Specifically, I would advocate consciousness research as a foundation for principled moral circle expansion. I.e., if we do consciousness research correctly, the equations themselves will tell us how conscious insects are, whether algorithms can suffer, how much moral weight we should give animals, and so on.
On the other hand, if there is no fact of the matter as to what is conscious, we’re headed toward a very weird, very contentious future of conflicting/incompatible moral circles, with no ‘ground truth’ or shared principles to arbitrate disputes.
Edit: I’d also like to thank Jacy for posting this- I find it a notable contribution to the space, and clearly a product of a lot of hard work and deep thought.
I think that’s right. Specifically, I would advocate consciousness research as a foundation for principled moral circle expansion. I.e., if we do consciousness research correctly, the equations themselves will tell us how conscious insects are, whether algorithms can suffer, how much moral weight we should give animals, and so on.
On the other hand, if there is no fact of the matter as to what is conscious, we’re headed toward a very weird, very contentious future of conflicting/incompatible moral circles, with no ‘ground truth’ or shared principles to arbitrate disputes.
Edit: I’d also like to thank Jacy for posting this- I find it a notable contribution to the space, and clearly a product of a lot of hard work and deep thought.