> I think that consciousness is a collection of experiences and observations ('data'), nothing more. I am curious what lead you here:
Consciousness is part of having an experience. Observations don't require consciousness, since they can be performed by measuring equipment, although one can get deep in the woods on the whether observation needs a mind to make it meaningful, and thus an observation, not simply a physical interaction.
> I am curious what lead you here:
Being a self isn't about crunching data, it's about having a body and needing to be able to distinguish your body from the environment for survival and reproductive purposes.
An algorithm has no body and thus no reason to be conscious or self-aware. That it's even an algorithm and not just electricity is an interpretive act on our part (related to the deep semantic debate over what counts as an observation).
A robot might someday be a self. It would certainly be advantageous for robots to avoid damaging themselves, and being safe around other robots and humans (treating them as selves). But how we go about making robots self-aware, and more problematically, how they have experiences is something nobody knows how to do. Saying it will emerge once the robot is sophisticated enough is the same as saying nobody knows how to make a machine conscious.
Consciousness is part of having an experience. Observations don't require consciousness, since they can be performed by measuring equipment, although one can get deep in the woods on the whether observation needs a mind to make it meaningful, and thus an observation, not simply a physical interaction.
> I am curious what lead you here:
Being a self isn't about crunching data, it's about having a body and needing to be able to distinguish your body from the environment for survival and reproductive purposes.
An algorithm has no body and thus no reason to be conscious or self-aware. That it's even an algorithm and not just electricity is an interpretive act on our part (related to the deep semantic debate over what counts as an observation).
A robot might someday be a self. It would certainly be advantageous for robots to avoid damaging themselves, and being safe around other robots and humans (treating them as selves). But how we go about making robots self-aware, and more problematically, how they have experiences is something nobody knows how to do. Saying it will emerge once the robot is sophisticated enough is the same as saying nobody knows how to make a machine conscious.