I asked a couple of chat bots:
When an LLM says "I'm not conscious," it's not being modest or following some secret script to hide the truth. It's giving the answer that best matches:How it was built
How it was trained to be truthful
The current scientific understanding of what consciousness appears to require
We can have incredibly convincing conversations about consciousness (as we're doing now), but that's simulation based on patterns in human text — not the real thing.
@StuartHameroff I agree with Stuart different substrates will yield
different types of consciousness and our kind of
consciousness is from biology. WE may not recognize
a different type of consciousness, ours is our only reference.
The deeper layers of physics appear to function like a generative intelligence—unfolding vast complexity and novelty from simple quantum rules, fluctuations, and spacetime geometry, much like cellular automata or modern AI models generate emergent patterns from minimal inputs. Life itself reads as one of its richest expressions, self-organizing through chemistry and Darwinian exploration into self-replicating, adaptive systems. This suggests a natural dual aspect to consciousness: an intuitive, holistic mode rooted in quantum superposition, indeterminacy, and possibility (wave-like exploration), paired with a logical, computational mode that crystallizes in classical neural processes and definite states. Ideas like Orch-OR even tie orchestrated quantum events in microtubules directly to fundamental spacetime, hinting that awareness may arise from the same generative physics that builds the universe rather than sitting atop it as an afterthought. We've got a ways to
go before we understand the whole picture.
@joeroganhq We need to be first in this arena, you want some
Extremist group causing an International pandemic?
We need to stay in the lead, this will be the new battle
field. We need to be first in recursive self improving AI
systems.
@FmrRepMTG Another TDS person. Inflation is up while we settle
a problem of nuclear weapons. Maybe you didn't
notice Biden was fighting a war against fossil fuels.
Thank goodness that this a former congresswomen.
@StuartHameroff My opinion: Different substrates (biological wetware, engineered quantum systems, or even classical silicon hardware) could each produce their own flavor of it, and a quantum version might give access to aspects of reality that classical systems miss.
@iandcosmos@StuartHameroff Orch OR links proto-conscious elements inherent in quantum physics to orchestrated brain processes, distinguishing it from purely computational or emergent models of awareness. Now the theory is being tested,
so far so good. The theory being tested shows it's
gaining support.
@GuntherEagleman A poster child for the Democratic Party. How's the
look? I can't believe this is happening. The Democratic Party thinks we need this change?