Thanks for clarifying—sorry it might sound like I was twisting your words—I was trying to think through multiple versions of the experiment you propose.
The amount to which we attribute/misattribute consciousness to different entities depends on the correct theory, so it is very uncertain at this point. But I would endorse this broader research program of systematically decoding which of our intuitions about consciousness are biases and which are valid measurements of brain data.
One reason why I thought about Trolley problems was that they show not only % of people who have an abstract belief about consciousness but also the degree / intensity of its perceived experiences. I’m surprised to see a significant fraction of people (1, 2) say current AI is conscious, although a poll about a personal sacrifice like this one (in a less narrow Twitter bubble) might be more relevant to assess how serious they are—and might better model the kind of moral error that we’re more likely to make during the AGI transformation.
Regarding “biochemical processes”—the phrasing matters a lot here. Searle, who came up with The Chinese Room, concludes this thought experiment by suggesting thinking requires the specific biochemistry that brains use just like lactation or photosynthesis are defined by specific molecules, rather than algorithms. This formulation is specifically chosen in contrast to functionalist/computationalist views which are mainstream nowadays.
Thanks for clarifying—sorry it might sound like I was twisting your words—I was trying to think through multiple versions of the experiment you propose.
The amount to which we attribute/misattribute consciousness to different entities depends on the correct theory, so it is very uncertain at this point. But I would endorse this broader research program of systematically decoding which of our intuitions about consciousness are biases and which are valid measurements of brain data.
One reason why I thought about Trolley problems was that they show not only % of people who have an abstract belief about consciousness but also the degree / intensity of its perceived experiences. I’m surprised to see a significant fraction of people (1, 2) say current AI is conscious, although a poll about a personal sacrifice like this one (in a less narrow Twitter bubble) might be more relevant to assess how serious they are—and might better model the kind of moral error that we’re more likely to make during the AGI transformation.
Regarding “biochemical processes”—the phrasing matters a lot here. Searle, who came up with The Chinese Room, concludes this thought experiment by suggesting thinking requires the specific biochemistry that brains use just like lactation or photosynthesis are defined by specific molecules, rather than algorithms. This formulation is specifically chosen in contrast to functionalist/computationalist views which are mainstream nowadays.