Not GP but given we have no idea what conciousness is it seems foolhardy to go too low or too high for any of those numbers
replyI think the problem with this argument is that it's too inclusive. Is the bacteria that's adapted to an antibiotic conscious? It's showing intelligence right? I think if you're going to say something is potentially conscious, for me to take the argument seriously at least, there needs to be some plausible mechanism. I just don't see one for LLMs.
replymaybe the bacteria are conscious. How sure are we that they're not?
replyThe only strong argument I have against it is the anthropic principle -- there are billions of times more bacteria than humans, so it's overwhelmingly unlikely that I'd be a human rather than a bacteria.
Not a very good argument of course.
Yeah I get what you are saying but I don't see much of a plausible mechanism for humans either and yet clearly there is one.
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