if a machine can ascribe intent to the events and experiences befalling it, this raises the question of identity and what it means to be aware of oneself and others
How do you define “consciousness”? What does it mean to be conscious?
In my mind, acknowledging that something is “aware” of its own thoughts (as opposed to it simply happening mechanically without self-awareness) already implies detachment from the deterministic nature of its own behavior. It means it identifies itself as a thinking being that experiences the illusion of having “free will”, believing itself to be the driving force of its own behavior. That already has deep philosophical and ethical implications.
The issue, however, is the same as with the Chinese Room thought-experiment… you cannot really know if something is really self-aware or whether it just gives the appearance of being self aware instead. In fact, I don’t think we even can prove with absolute certainty whether other human beings outside your own self are actually self-aware either. We are just assuming by association, which isn’t really proof.
Personally, for lack of a better method, I think the pragmatic approach is the duck test: if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.
How do you define “consciousness”? What does it mean to be conscious?
In my mind, acknowledging that something is “aware” of its own thoughts (as opposed to it simply happening mechanically without self-awareness) already implies detachment from the deterministic nature of its own behavior. It means it identifies itself as a thinking being that experiences the illusion of having “free will”, believing itself to be the driving force of its own behavior. That already has deep philosophical and ethical implications.
The issue, however, is the same as with the Chinese Room thought-experiment… you cannot really know if something is really self-aware or whether it just gives the appearance of being self aware instead. In fact, I don’t think we even can prove with absolute certainty whether other human beings outside your own self are actually self-aware either. We are just assuming by association, which isn’t really proof.
Personally, for lack of a better method, I think the pragmatic approach is the duck test: if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.