This podcast explores the question of whether AI can be conscious, discussing how training models without mentioning consciousness can impact their behavior and examining the difference between pretending to be conscious and being conscious.
The exploration of our own mind and consciousness is crucial as we are our own experiment and will be altered by whatever we're doing, whether it's a contemplative practice or a psychoactive. Understanding both first and third-person aspects of our world plays a crucial role in rational investigations of science.
The idea of inner consciousness remains a hard problem for neuroscience, but acting as if there is an agent has proven to work. Understanding extraterrestrial intelligence and theoretical physics may be aided with the help of psychedelics as they heavily shift one's sense of self.
Philosopher Philip Goff discusses the growing interest among scientists in exploring a panpsychist approach to consciousness and the idea that consciousness could be a fundamental property of the universe. He hopes to create an interdisciplinary network of scientists, philosophers, and engineers to pursue active research on this topic.
The panpsychist view of consciousness, which is held by a small minority of philosophers and scientists, suggests that consciousness is present in everything in the universe, even inanimate objects. This concept challenges the orthodox idea that only humans, some non-human animals, and possibly future artificial intelligence can possess consciousness.