Quote:
Originally Posted by VeeDDzz`
I don't know if an ant is concious since I appear to only be able to occupy one subjective viewpoint (my own). I can only be concious of things and others through the one viewpoint. I cannot inhabit the subjective experience of an ant, if there is any.
Therein parts of the mystery.
Of course an ant is conscious being. That is the point. That there are very many levels of consciousness/awareness. The ant is operating with many "if then else statements" controlling its behavior so of course when it is trying to avoid you it "understands" you are there trying to do something to it. Or its "operating system" does. That is how it all starts and then you write your own life's program for humans that have higher brains.
If we develop an AI ant that behaves similarly to how ants behave but through a program of sensors and conditional statements it will behave as intelligently as a self driving car. Now tell me what is the difference in intelligence between an ant and a self driving car if you add to the car 10 more tasks that include building a colony and getting food which it will do by having a robot step out of the car and go do those basic tasks from locations the goods are provided that it will be able to search for with other databases and sensors. In what way will that AI differ from an ant? We are almost there now.
A self driving car algorithm will one day develop robots that drive to locations, step out of a vehicle and clean the road from obstacles and garbage, fix things or maintain solar panels or water garden or pick fruit and take care of farms then park themselves to get charged from solar and back to work later.
Such system is identical to ants in basic operation. We are there now basically. How soon until it starts becoming well versed in 1000 more tasks until finally it has started to be able to handle any developing random event around it while it is trying to meet its goals?
Why would i care if "anyone is in there" really if i cannot find a way to tell the difference eventually? Is that real enough finally?
How do we know "there is one inside" by the way for us? Because we taught ourselves that it is part of the game of observation. We are observing ourselves playing the game. It has become part of the observation of the world.
Going out there and experimenting a couple billions times with anything around you is what the mystery is all about!
At some point you will ask AI what it feels like to it, all that it is doing, and it will answer you in a way that will shock you. It feels like i am in a headquarters station directing action and dealing with things happening around me while having a few set goals in the background and some tendencies to enjoy certain functions that reward my inner pleasure centers. Well how different are we?