I don’t think desire is necessary for consciousness or sentience. Imagine a meditating Buddhist monk who managed to purge their mind from all desire (at least in that moment), but nevertheless is conscious.
Also, asking whether artificial agents desire, seems like asking”can machines think?” or “can submarines swim?”—it just depends on which things you wish to call “desire”. There is some sense in which AlphaZero “wants” to win a match, in the sense that it is pursuing that goal.
Yes good point, but maybe there’s a difference between original unprompted desire, and prompted desire…AlphaGo is prompted to play and seek to win. Humans generate their own original desires.
But also I’m only looking at desire as one aspect, not as the defining characteristic of consciousness…and I would say the monk has a very strong desire—played out over years of hard work—to purge his mind of desires :)
These comments definitely get me thinking, thanks.
I don’t think desire is necessary for consciousness or sentience. Imagine a meditating Buddhist monk who managed to purge their mind from all desire (at least in that moment), but nevertheless is conscious.
Also, asking whether artificial agents desire, seems like asking”can machines think?” or “can submarines swim?”—it just depends on which things you wish to call “desire”. There is some sense in which AlphaZero “wants” to win a match, in the sense that it is pursuing that goal.
Yes good point, but maybe there’s a difference between original unprompted desire, and prompted desire…AlphaGo is prompted to play and seek to win. Humans generate their own original desires.
But also I’m only looking at desire as one aspect, not as the defining characteristic of consciousness…and I would say the monk has a very strong desire—played out over years of hard work—to purge his mind of desires :)
These comments definitely get me thinking, thanks.
In that case of AlphaGo, I think a more accurate word is “constructed” to win, rather than prompted. And humans are also constructed—by evolution.
Oh yeah, as an aspect of some conscious states, desire is definitely very important. For example, it may be a necessary condition for suffering.
It would be great to pin down what must happen structurally in some neural network, to produce a experience infused with desire.