
Do Robots Deserve Rights? What If Machines Become Conscious? - saycheese
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DHyUYg8X31c
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theprotocol
Upon reflection, I find that I don't believe machines can truly become
conscious, but I can't fully articulate why.

I seem to intuitively think of machines as "bottom-up" constructs consisting
only of smaller parts, whereas I view creatures as "top-down," that is to say
that I consider the whole as the only significant part. I have a lot of
preconceptions on this matter. Maybe it's because I know that all machines are
deliberately constructed, whereas biological organisms develop organically.

To me, the ship of Theseus is a machine, which renders Theseus' paradox moot
and purely semantical in the canonical thought experiment. But when Theseus'
paradox is applied in the context of, say, brain cell replacement, I find it
much more challenging and risky (and I'm afraid of the potential loss of
life).

~~~
saycheese
Opposite is likely true, AI will like reach the point at which it questions if
humans are really conscious.

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theprotocol
When you say that the AI questions if we are conscious, are you not
anthropomorphizing it? If I write a pattern matcher that can distinguish me
from a cat, is that consciousness?

Expressed in a more useful way: is there something that makes our
consciousness different from a deterministic, systematic logical process? Is
that all we are?

I'm conflicted about this, the main reason being that as the creators of AI,
we start with a nearly full and certain understanding of it and all of its
possibilities. The same cannot truly be said for humans, since the study of
humanity, consciousness and the brain happens from the other side: we start
with nothing, and must experiment on the black box that is the brain in order
to understand it.

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saycheese
Simply saying that AI will be able to observe, understand, etc. more than
humans and at some point the gap will be so wide that to AI the degree of
consciousness that humans are able in experience will likely seem trivial to
AI.

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mailslot
People still oppress and harm others, based upon the color of their skin. Does
anyone honestly think we'll treat robots better than our own species? Better
make sure the robots aren't perceived as "tan."

~~~
saycheese
Problem is AI will not be human, which makes comparing how humans treat human,
since humans need other humans, AI will not.

