I tried asking a dog whether a Human is conscious and he continued to lick at my feet. He didn't mention much of anything on topic. Maybe I just picked a boring, unopinionated dog.
I asked Chatgpt-3.5 if humans are conscious and it said in part: 'Yes, humans are considered conscious beings. Consciousness is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon, and there is ongoing debate among scientists, philosophers, and scholars about its nature and the mechanisms that give rise to it. However, in general terms, consciousness refers to the state of being aware of one's thoughts, feelings, sensations, and the external world."
I tried asking a dog whether a Human is conscious and he continued to lick at my feet. He didn't mention much of anything on topic. Maybe I just picked a boring, unopinionated dog.
Yes, this is a common issue as the phrases for "human consciousness" and "lick my feet please" in dog sound very similar. Though, recent advancements in Human animal communications should soon be able to help you with this conversation?
E.g.
https://phys.org/news/2023-08-hacking-animal-communication-ai.html
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-scientists-are-using-ai...
With their sharper senses I'd imagine that dogs experience the world in a much richer way than humans. Then, depending on your definition, you could say it makes dogs more 'conscious'. This opens the door for many other animals with bigger brains and more complex sensory organs than humans. Are they also more conscious?
Yes, agreed. Given the vast variety of intelligence, social interaction, and sensory perception among many animals (e.g. dogs, octopi, birds, mantis shrimp, elephants, whales, etc.), consciousness could be seen as a spectrum with entities possessing varying degrees of it. But, it could also be viewed as a much more multi-dimensional concept, including dimensions for self-awareness and multi-sensory perception, as well as dimensions for:
Would your thoughts on this issue be different if the question "Is X conscious?" turns out to be malformed malformed due to the way it collapses consciousness to a binary?
If you asked a dog whether Humans were conscious, would he say yes? I think probably not. When a dog is asked whether a Human is "conscious", he might mention things like:
In this same way many (perhaps most?) AI experts might never agree that LLMs or AGI systems have achieved "consciousness"? As, "consciousness" is just a word used to describe how a specific being thinks, observes, prioritizes and takes action in the world, be it Human, other animals, AI, etc.
"Consciousness" operates so differently in different types of beings. Depending on the being's ability to truly expand their understanding about intelligence, awareness, and perception, they may never truly agree on the consciousness of other types of beings or entities, beyond their own?