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No_one  1yr ago (rifters.com)   Edited 1yr ago   1611 thread views

The Pong Imperative: Driving Dishbrain to Suicide. ['post by Peter Watts on a recent experiment suggesting a consciousness / intelligence link ]

rifters.com

Ok, there was supposed to be text in the top near the link, there isn't, some I'm pasting the summary of the linked post here.

Peter Watts, the Canadian SF writer known for writing endearingly depressing SF books and promoting the idea consciousness is not essential to sentience has been forced to re-evaluate this position of his following a recent experiment by proponents of the Free Energy Model of consciousness.

Now it appears, at least to him, there may be an intrinsic link between subjective experience and problem solving by intelligent systems.

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I'm highly unimpressed with the evidence that this blob is conscious. It seems to be just equivocating about the word "sentience" where some people use it to mean something computational and others expect it to mean experiencing qualia

You're right- however, it's remarkable in itself that 'sentience' in the limited meaning arises seemingly spontaneously in a group of neurons just grown over a source of signals. You'd think you'd need some sort of brain-plan or organisation for that to happen. But maybe we should wait till they get a clearer signal.

Although, I do think he made kind of a leap over there with speculations about consciousness.

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