Keith Frankish

Nov 21, 2023

Delving into the complexities of consciousness, the podcast explores qualia, physicalism, dualism, and illusionism. It challenges the idea of a private world being an illusion and discusses self-awareness, emotions, and representational systems. The conversation delves into the subjective nature of experiences, the concept of high-functioning zombies in AI, and the intersection of consciousness and personal experiences.

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INSIGHT

Consciousness As Functional Awareness

Consciousness can be framed as awareness: selective, functional sensitivity to the world rather than a private metaphysical realm.
The 'hard problem' arises only if we reify introspective reports as revealing an intrinsic, nonphysical essence.

INSIGHT

Qualia As Misleading Shorthand

Phenomenal qualities (qualia) feel private because introspection misrepresents complex self-monitoring as simple intrinsic properties.
Illusionism treats qualia as useful shorthand for dynamic interactions, not metaphysically separate entities.

ADVICE

Assess Awareness By Function, Not Inner Light

Test machine awareness by measuring functional capacities: discrimination, information access and self-monitoring, not by searching for an inner 'light'.
Build objective assays of sensitivity and metacognition to evaluate AI consciousness claims.

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00:00:00 Intro. Why philosophy of mind is important for AI and for me as a human.

00:04:53 Schools on consciousness, a historical perspective. Conscious person and conscious mental state, thought, experience, or perception

00:13:16 Qualia and the hard problem. The objective/subjective divide.

00:20:40 Some options: physicalism, dualism, panpsychism, illusionism.

00:24:14 My reaction to the world "illusion" is that I get angry.

00:26:37 Pain _is_ real in illusionism. What we can be wrong about is _what_ it actually is.

00:29:15 Dual aspect monism and Mark Solms. Functional view of consciousness.

00:33:35 Zombies, philosophical, the existential, and the AI zombie.

00:39:09 Panpsychism, the inner light, what it is to be like an electron. The combination problem. Psychological function.

00:44:19 Why are we positing a private world? Because we have one. But what if it is a sort of illusion?

00:46:01 There is no magical awareness of anything. Awareness requires a mechanism. First of Keith's points from this presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1jnW0MHlb8&t=2081s

00:49:04 The same goes for self-awareness and for mental states and emotions.

00:50:43 You can't know being in a state by being in it. Do cats know they are angry? What do you mean by knowing? Reflection and transparency.

00:54:19 Money. The phenomenal properties, the stories we build around conscious feelings are similar to money, one can say that they are both illusory constructs. Daniel Dennett. Illusory does not mean meaningless.

01:01:04 But isn't then all perception illusory? We should have a concept of useful and non-useful illusions?

01:05:39 Gripped by pain. Nothing above the physiological reactions. What about altered states of consciousness? Dissociation?

01:10:47 If you seem to be aware of something scientifically inexplicable, it is more likely that you are misperceiving or misinterpreting something.

01:17:56 Illusionism as a way of life? Nagel on Dennett (https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/03/09/is-consciousness-an-illusion-dennett-evolution).

01:20:57 Does illusionism deny the _authority_ of the first person vew over the third person view?

01:24:42 How did Keith become an illusionist?

01:27:51 Stage magic, feeling cheated or not, stage vs real magic.

01:28:46 Music. All that evolution cares about is the effect. Evolution selected the mechanism that made us feel metaphysically special.

01:31:41 How do we decide what is real, what is not? Consciousness = awareness? Can you be in pain without being aware of it?

01:35:38 1st person falsifiability: can you imagine any experience you would go through that would change your mind about illusionism?

01:43:47 AI. Keith's question: am I enthusiastic, am I frightened? AGI, social media recommendation, GPT, embodiment.

I, scientist blog: https://balazskegl.substack.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/balazskegl

Artwork: DALL-E

Music: Bea Palya https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBDp3qcFZdU1yoWIRpMSaZw

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