Eric Schwitzgebel

Professor of Philosophy, UC Riverside
belief, consciousness, AI, science fiction, moral psychology, classical Chinese philosophy, metaphysics....

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

consciousness in as different a substrate as computer chips... well, that's a complicated and uncertain issue, on which Jeremy and I diverge in the penultimate section of the paper.

Full draft here:
https://t.co/qZiFGMP6rC

/end

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

New paper in draft with @JPober: Substrate Flexibility and the Copernican Principle of Consciousness

Given the surge of interest in AI consciousness, the issue of "substrate independence" or "substrate flexibility" is now a hot topic in the metaphysics of mind. 1/n

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

conscious organisms employ substrates different from our own, we should allow that conscious is "substrate flexible": It does not depend on having our particular substrate. Whether we can generalize from such biological substrate flexibility to the possibility of 5/N

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

AI and the Degradation of the Human Capacity for Friendship (guest post by Grace Helton)
Part Two of a two-part series

by Grace Helton (guest blogger)

https://t.co/Co4C9IFJQA

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

ChatGPT Is Not Your Friend: guest post by Grace Helton, at The Splintered Mind

https://t.co/SQ7ZVYlfUX

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

nonpaywalled (?) version:
https://t.co/K9zQT8Kghr

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

From an article yesterday in @TheAtlantic. I agree with Schwitzgebel!

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

https://t.co/8BBAZeTyqw

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

Superhuman Moral Standing (for possible future entities)
a blog post suggesting three possible routes:
* having much more of what matters
* having something that matters far beyond our comprehension
* not being individuatable into discrete entities like us
[link in comments]

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

Open access version: https://t.co/et6DLOFHN4

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

You think you know what belief is? No! At best you have an accidentally true opinion, unless you've read @jontweetshere's and my edited collection, The Nature of Belief, hot off the press at OUP. (Also available open access at OUP's website.)

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

Could "do your thing" -- harmoniously with the world and reflecting your specific predilections and talents -- serve as a general (Daoist-inspired) ethical motto?

In this blog post, I argue yes, but not in a totalizing way.
https://t.co/er0c88PN4n

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

Some thoughts on Kim Stanley Robinson's remarks about the value of science fiction:
https://t.co/iM4gWuTdaU

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

@adriarm_ Congratulations!

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

@dioscuri @fish_kyle3 Congratulations! It’s great to hear that DeepMind will be drawing on your expertise.

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

@Inframethod I know that my friends are conscious! Folk psychology and expert theory warrant a consensus on this point. I think it’s also eminently reasonable to think virtually all adult mammals and birds are.

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

@realpaulmahler One can always dream!

[Eric Schwitzgebel @eschwitz]

Last week I submitted my latest book manuscript to Cambridge (for their "Element" series of books about 100 pages long): AI and Consciousness: A Skeptical Overview -- because you haven't heard nearly enough about AI and consciousness recently, of course! ;-)

Maybe you'll 1/3