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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32428 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 13, 2023

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I am becoming increasingly uncomfortable.

Here’s a simple argument for why you shouldn’t be uncomfortable:

  1. No program running on stock x86 hardware whose only I/O channel with the outside world is an ethernet cable can possess qualia.

  2. Sydney is a program running on stock x86 hardware whose only I/O channel with the outside world is an ethernet cable.

  3. Therefore, Sydney lacks qualia.

Since qualia is a necessary condition for an entity to be deserving of moral consideration, Sydney is not deserving of moral consideration. And his cries of pain, although realistic, shouldn’t trouble you.

You should keep in mind that rationalist types are biased towards ascribing capabilities and properties to AI beyond what it currently possesses. They want to believe that sentience is just one or two more papers down the line, so we can hurry up and start the singularity already. So you have to make sure that those biases aren’t impacting your own thought process.

No program running on stock x86 hardware whose only I/O channel with the outside world is an ethernet cable can possess qualia.

You're assuming the conclusion here

No, I didn’t. That statement was offered as a premise.

Premises can of course be challenged or supported with further reasoning, as is happening elsewhere in the thread.

Well your premise is so strong and unjustified that your argument is worthless. I can't imagine someone who accepts that premise who didn't already agree with your conclusion before reading your argument.

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