The Bayesian Conspiracy Bayes Blast 35 – Disproving The Blindsight Thesis
Oct 13, 2024
Dive into a thought-provoking examination of Peter Watts' 'Blindsight' and its implications on consciousness. Discover the costs associated with consciousness and how it might be seen as an unnecessary burden in a world leaning towards AI. The conversation explores the intersection of AI and self-reflection, posing challenging questions about the essence of intelligent behavior. Finally, ponder deep philosophical concepts of identity, qualia, and the tantalizing idea of consciousness-uploading, pushing the boundaries of what it means to exist.
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Blindsight Thesis
- The "blindsight thesis" proposes that consciousness is computationally expensive and unnecessary for survival.
- Peter Watts explored this idea, suggesting consciousness might be a parasite that could be evicted in resource-scarce situations.
GPT-o1 and Blindsight Thesis
- GPT-o1, an iteration on GPT-4 with recursive thinking, challenges the blindsight thesis.
- Its enhanced abilities, despite higher energy consumption, suggest consciousness may be advantageous.
Qualia and Recursive Attention
- Qualia, or subjective experience, remains distinct from the recursive attention observed in GPT-o1.
- It's unclear whether GPT-o1 possesses consciousness in the same way humans do.