In 'Being You: A New Science of Consciousness,' Anil Seth presents a radical new theory of consciousness, arguing that we are 'prediction machines' constantly inventing and correcting our perception of the world. The book delves into the biological mechanisms of the brain, exploring how billions of neurons create our conscious experience. Seth discusses the 'controlled hallucination' viewpoint, active inference, and the 'beast machine' theory, which views consciousness as a process of regulating the body's essential variables through interoceptive signals. The book is a synthesis of philosophy, science, literature, and personal experience, making complex science accessible and engaging[1][3][5].
In "Embodiment and the Inner Life," Murray Shanahan explores the intricate relationship between embodiment, cognition, and consciousness. He argues that our physical bodies play a crucial role in shaping our mental experiences and cognitive abilities. Shanahan examines various perspectives on consciousness, drawing on insights from cognitive science, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. He proposes a framework for understanding consciousness that integrates both physical and informational aspects of the mind. The book challenges traditional views of the mind as a purely abstract entity, emphasizing the importance of the body-mind connection. Shanahan's work offers a compelling and insightful perspective on the nature of consciousness and its relationship to our physical existence.
Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, is a comprehensive textbook covering various aspects of artificial intelligence. It provides a broad overview of the field, encompassing search algorithms, knowledge representation, reasoning, machine learning, and natural language processing. The book is known for its clear explanations, numerous examples, and extensive coverage of both classical and modern AI techniques. It serves as a valuable resource for students and researchers alike, offering a solid foundation in the principles and applications of AI. Its wide adoption makes it a standard reference in the field.
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Professor Murray Shanahan is a renowned researcher on sophisticated cognition and its implications for artificial intelligence. His 2016 article ‘Conscious Exotica’ explores the Space of Possible Minds, a concept first proposed by philosopher Aaron Sloman in 1984, which includes all the different forms of minds from those of other animals to those of artificial intelligence. Shanahan rejects the idea of an impenetrable realm of subjective experience and argues that the majority of the space of possible minds may be occupied by non-natural variants, such as the ‘conscious exotica’ of which he speaks. In his paper ‘Talking About Large Language Models’, Shanahan discusses the capabilities and limitations of large language models (LLMs). He argues that prompt engineering is a key element for advanced AI systems, as it involves exploiting prompt prefixes to adjust LLMs to various tasks. However, Shanahan cautions against ascribing human-like characteristics to these systems, as they are fundamentally different and lack a shared comprehension with humans. Even though LLMs can be integrated into embodied systems, it does not mean that they possess human-like language abilities. Ultimately, Shanahan concludes that although LLMs are formidable and versatile, we must be wary of over-simplifying their capacities and limitations.
YT version: https://youtu.be/BqkWpP3uMMU
Full references on the YT description.
[00:00:00] Introduction
[00:08:51] Consciousness and Consciousness Exotica
[00:34:59] Slightly Consciousness LLMs
[00:38:05] Embodiment
[00:51:32] Symbol Grounding
[00:54:13] Emergence
[00:57:09] Reasoning
[01:03:16] Intentional Stance
[01:07:06] Digression on Chomsky show and Andrew Lampinen
[01:10:31] Prompt Engineering
Find Murray online:
https://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~mpsha/
https://twitter.com/mpshanahan?lang=en
https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=00bnGpAAAAAJ&hl=en
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