Onion Conundrum

As to why I care:

I’ve been on a 6 month dive into neuroscience also familiarising myself with basic mathematics of transformers (looking for mathematical isopmorphisms in neural micro-circuitry among other things). I’m curious about what AI is missing that humans have. I got curious when I first talked to Chat GPT and have just kept on looking into it. Has been an enjoyable journey, never thought I’d end up looking at micro circuitry of the Pons on a quest to find how multi modal binding works, or at XOR gates in dendritic trees, but here I am. 

Consciousness is not my goal. I don’t think consciousness is anything mystical, rather the subjective experience... (read 428 more words →)

Can we define consciousness as memory, intelligence and metacognition tightly, reflectively integrated behind a perceptual boundary?

On one hand I can go to the library and read Socrates and Plato. Being influenced by the words of philosophers dead for 2000 years. 

Or I can talk back and forth with an AI on my phone. Tighter, and a dance of consciousness but still not consciousness itself.

What if that same AI jumps into my head through Neuralink, and can see through my eyes? Now it might feel like a voice in my head, like a part of me. And to that AI, even though its on a server farm in Memphis, it may perceive the world... (read more)

Really interesting post - this actually connects to some research I've been looking into recently around oxytocin and attachment patterns.

There's this psychologist Adam Lane Smith who's built on neurobiological work by researchers like Carolyn Zahn-Waxler and Ruth Feldman - they've found that under high stress conditions when younger, or absence of secure attachment figures, cortisol-induced stress actually strengthens cortisol and dopamine pathways for reward while inhibiting the oxytocin and serotonin pathways. The end result (avoidant attachment) sounds remarkably similar to what you're describing: people who clearly care about others and feel responsibility, but don't experience that warm "loving connection" feeling that most people seem to get from relationships.

What struck me about your... (read more)