Ep. 234 - We Are All Just Conscious Turing Machines w/Dr. Lenore Blum

Jun 9, 2023

Dr. Lenore Blum, mathematician, discusses the recent petition for AI researchers to study consciousness. They explore the Conscious Turing Machine model, pain and empathy in robots, information processing in the theater of consciousness, tacit knowledge in infants, and the limitations of AI and computational theories of mind.

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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

Introducing the Guest: Background and Love for Mathematics

02:29 • 25min

Consciousness and the Gap Between Brain and Mind

27:09 • 6min

Exploring Pain, Empathy, and the Conscious Turing Machine Model

33:25 • 4min

Information Processing in the Theater of Consciousness

37:04 • 12min

Tacit Knowledge and Infant Consciousness

48:55 • 11min

Conscious Turing Machine and the Global Workspace

01:00:11 • 25min

Incompleteness of AI and Computational Theories of Mind

01:25:33 • 9min

In episode 234 of the Parker's Pensées Podcast, I'm joined by Dr. Lenore Blum to discuss a recent petition from the Association for Mathematical Consciousness Studies calling for AI researchers to study consciousness. The petition is called "The responsible development of AI agenda needs to include consciousness research" and can be found here: https://amcs-community.org/open-letters/ We also discuss Dr. Blum's work on developing a model of consciousness, which her and her husband call the "Conscious Turing Machine" model. If you like this podcast, then support it on Patreon for $3, $5 or more a month. Any amount helps, and for $5 you get a Parker's Pensées sticker and instant access to all the episode as I record them instead of waiting for their release date. Check it out here: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/parkers_pensees If you want to give a one-time gift, you can give at my Paypal: https://paypal.me/ParkersPensees?locale.x=en_US Check out my merchandise at my Teespring store: https://teespring.com/stores/parkers-penses-merch Come talk with the Pensées community on Discord: dsc.gg/parkerspensees Sub to my Substack to read my thoughts on my episodes: https://parknotes.substack.com/ Check out my blog posts: https://parkersettecase.com/ Check out my Parker's Pensées YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYbTRurpFP5q4TpDD_P2JDA Check out my other YouTube channel on my frogs and turtles: https://www.youtube.com/c/ParkerSettecase Check me out on Twitter: https://twitter.com/trendsettercase Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parkers_pensees/0:00 - Who is Dr. Lenore Blum? 15:34 - Why AI Engineers Gotta Study Consciousness! 27:16 - What is Consciousness? 33:59 - Global Workspace and Conscious Turing Machines 48:55 - Infants are MORE conscious than adults!? 1:08:30 - Unity problems for Large Language Models and Machine Consciousness? 1:16:53 - Can you hypnotize a Turing machine? 1:19:07 - The Chinese Room and Chinese Nation Objections to Machine Functionalism 1:25:49 - Lucas/Penrose's use of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems Against AI Doesn't Work?