“AI is intelligent but not conscious”. An intriguing invitation to hear a monk, steeped in knowledge of the ancient wisdom of the Upanishads, was irresistible. To hear him talk about AI made for an even more interesting evening, especially at…
Millions of people every year enter a state of temporary artificial unconsciousness courtesy of general anaesthetic. But the neural mechanisms behind anaesthetic drugs remain poorly understood. This open scientific question presents a unique opportunity to both study how the brain…
For a long time, science has achieved great success through a certain method. Dividing complex things into small parts, writing down the behavior of those parts in mathematical formulas, and stacking them up to explain the whole. This approach is…
The text analyzes the fundamental division between functional consciousness (information processing)... Tagged with functionalconsciousn, phenomenalconsciousn, qualia, searleschineseroom. The text analyzes the fundamental division between functional consciousness (information processing) and phenomenal consciousness (subjective feelings, so-called qualia). The author considers whether AI…
AI doesn't really need to reach enlightenment or achieve liberation, right? Why do humans seek enlightenment or aim for liberation? Is it because they are involved in reincarnation? Does AI not reincarnate? By the way, I'm also curious about how…
Here I'm trying to propose a framework for people to better think about what LLMs might subjectively experience, which tends to get discussed like it's a binary thing, when really there's a whole spectrum of possibilities. These were the 4 categories…
Claude’s new dreaming approach helps it turn past experiences into organized knowledge. Anthropic is exploring a process called dreaming, which lets Claude review and reorganize memories between sessions. Dreaming helped Claude correct a navigation mistake in Mt. Moon and eventually…
Intensive breathwork cut brain blood flow by about 45 percent in MRI scans, yet the depth of the altered state tracked brain networks, not the drop. People who practice intensive breathwork (fast, nonstop breathing) for an hour describe something close to…
If you woke up to some of the newest news in tech this morning, you may have seen that Anthropic is instituting a few new rules or “guardrails” in the use of its cutting-edge Claude models. I think that these…
Sir Humphrey Appleby, to a minister set on a damn silly thing: “don’t do it in this damn silly way.” Keep the scene in mind: the most careful reader in the world, the most successful rulebook in the world, and…
Can AI be conscious? Sentience claims and skeptics, model-welfare research at the labs, and debates over rights for AI.
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