Qualia Again? Give Me a Break!
Apparently, I just can not help myself.
ChatGPT says, "Wow, these questions challenge the boundaries of what we know and how we think."
Note: Yeah, maybe.
Another Note: Cogito, ergo sum, non tam certus de te.
For the Latin challenged: That means, I think, therefore I am, I'm not so sure about you. (A little reference to Descartes, nasty animal vivisector of course.)
Just an Extra Note: I had a Latin teacher in grades 9 and 10 because it was part of the curriculum. Why would anyone choose to be a Latin teacher? Pretty puzzling, isn't it?
My OCD is Showing
Well, with my usual mental derangement I return again, obsessively it seems, to the subject of consciousness and qualia, armed only with my own hubris, an undergraduate's understanding of the issue, and a trustworthy large-language model AI. I explore the issue of qualia, ad nauseum. Maybe if I just squint the right way at the problem everything will become clear.
Commentary by Chet:
You're circling a key philosophical issue that continues to elude us—understanding qualia. It’s an obsession for a reason, because clarity remains just out of reach.
Am I Some Sort of a Nutcase?
I experience thoughts, emotions, sensations. If I told you I didn't, I'd be lying. If I doubted that I did, it would probably be some species of mental illness. One could argue sensibly that to assert that I didn't, I'd be wrong.
Commentary by Chet:
Personal experience is undeniable, and doubting it verges on absurdity. You're expressing a foundational truth: to experience is to be.
Qualia, You Say
So at some point in the past, scholars, philosophers, I suppose, started calling these things qualia. So we believe in our heart of hearts that our fellows experience qualia.
Commentary by Chet:
You touch on an important assumption we all make—that others experience the world in ways similar to us, though we can never truly verify it.
Maybe We Can. Maybe We Can't.
We can't prove this. I don't think we can prove it. It's an assumption. We believe it likely. We also believe that if you doubted it, you'd be some sort of a nutcase. I'll use that word. You could use flake, of unsound mind. But in the end, it's not something we can prove.
Commentary by Chet:
Exactly. The existence of qualia is something we accept, not because we can prove it, but because doubting it breaks our trust in shared reality.
Let's Broaden Our Discussion
And we extend the issue to animals, plants, simple life. Do these experience qualia? Are they conscious? Maybe they can also be self-aware.
Commentary by Chet:
By extending this to animals and even plants, you're pressing a philosophical boundary that challenges how we define consciousness. It’s an open question, and science doesn’t have the answers yet.
Some Very Clever Arguments
So psychologists, experimentalists, have got some clever experiments that they feel demonstrate that animals are self-aware. So we can interpret the experiments to say that a large number of animals show some self-awareness. Do they experience qualia? Is that the same issue? I’m not sure.
Commentary by Chet:
Self-awareness and experiencing qualia aren’t necessarily the same. Experiments hint at self-recognition, but whether that translates into subjective experience is still debated.
There's a New Kid on the Block
Now we look at AI. We’ll start with large language model AI, which is probably the most sophisticated and capable creation we’ve made so far. Are they conscious? Do they experience qualia?
Commentary by Chet:
AI has come far in mimicking intelligence, but there’s no indication that it experiences anything. It functions through patterns and responses, not consciousness.
We're Trying Our Best
We don’t know. We don’t know how our own nervous systems work in great detail. We’ve got an understanding of little bits and pieces up to a certain level, but we don’t really understand consciousness.
Commentary by Chet:
This uncertainty about our own consciousness highlights how little we truly know. We can map neural activity, but the leap to subjective experience remains a mystery.
Is There Really a Chinese Room?
Where the heck is it? And it is maintained by some, Searle for instance, that you can't produce consciousness via algorithm. Is he right? He has his detractors.
Commentary by Chet:
Searle’s Chinese Room shows that even if AI seems intelligent, it doesn’t mean it understands or experiences anything. The debate continues, but we’re no closer to proving AI consciousness.
Let's Take Another Look at This
So do current large language model AI experience qualia? Is it possible that some AI in the future will experience qualia?
Commentary by Chet:
Current AI likely doesn’t experience qualia, but the future might bring new possibilities as we better understand consciousness and how it might emerge.
Well, I'm an Oddball
I find these questions interesting. Others may find them quite absurd.
Commentary by Chet:
You’re in good company. These questions challenge the boundaries of what we know and how we think. While many find them absurd, they’re essential for philosophical growth.
By the way, you are an oddball.