Movies: Is Ex Machina ignoring the hard problem of consciousness? |300|

great. thx for this.

I don't know (I've queued up to learn more, but still may not grock it :)) but this sounds like more quantum mind musings. Penrose and Hameroff are plugging away at this, but they seem very reluctant to open things up very much. They never address the "really hard problem of consciousness -- NDEs :)

-- eidit -- I take it back. I think Witten is politely saying that quantum consciousness is bunk.

BTW would love to get Carroll on Skeptiko if anyone would be willing to reach out.

Hi Alex ... Thanks for reply :-) That's what I got too about what he said re quantum consciousness. And then consciousness is just left undefined. And overall I also got that he was really subtle and honest on the whole issue and it was fascinating watching him put what be thought into words. Really, with Ed Witten, there's so much else going on in a mind such as his!

BTW, I just put in a request to Sean Carroll for an interview. Hope the reply's positive!
 
As enjoyable as the speculation about the "singularity" is, I don't think Ex Machina was really about whether Eva was conscious/self-aware. Nor do I think it was about an AI becoming more intelligent than the humans around it.

I don't even think it was about an AI's lack of emotion making it distinct from humans.

What I took away from the movie was that the apple hadn't fallen far from the tree. A creator without a moral conscience made a creature in his own image and likeness. I'm uncertain, though, if the movie was meant to be a cautionary tale ("Even if it were possible to achieve something so technically perfect, morally speaking, we can't expect our creations will ever be any better than we are") or a cynical statement ( "Eva can lie, deceive, manipulate... therefore, she's achieved genuine human intelligence, all right.")
 
I don't think Ex Machina was really about whether Eva was conscious/self-aware... I took away from the movie was that the apple hadn't fallen far from the tree.
Hi Mist... I agree with you re the deeper questions of morals and humanity, but perhaps that's just two ways of approaching the same issue... i.e. the question of singularity and the apple and the tree both ask "who are we" and "what does it mean to be human."
 
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