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This seems like a variant of Pascal's wager.
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Yes. I'm currently not convinced it can ever be so. So until I hear something convincing to the contrary, I believe no machine can be conscious / sentient unless mimicking human behavior. And if it mimics human behavior intentionally, I have to ask why - and the answer is probably to get me to trust / use it more.

I was bright-eyed and excited about tech once. Like back in 1982 when I got my first home computer and thought CPUs were part magic. Now I know how machines work from the transistor level up to neural nets. There's nothing magical about it. And no consciousness.

Having seen the mockery that the finance-bros have made of "pure tech" (i.e. Jobs instead of Woz, Ellison instead of Joy, etc) and all the enshittification just for pure $$$, I'm leery of ANYTHING ANY tech company tells me anymore.

Now, do I believe that possibly "consciousness" is some kind of state of a super-circuit (our brains)? Sure. Can we emulate that on a computer? We can't even emulate a pebble on a computer (not simulate, emulate). We can SIMULATE what we THINK brains are, but we can't emulate a real one. Not even close, not for many decades.

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Well, if it's any interest to you, the experts on the matter agree that the issue is unresolved.

So in the meantime, I'm going to err on the side of caution.

You do you.

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I tend to agree with OP. In my opinion conscious machines are not something that we should allow to exist. If they do, they are not human and must never be treated as such.

I am not even slightly religious, but they would be abomination.

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just don't treat anything nastily, it's not so difficult - I don't treat my dog like a person but I'm also not nasty to her
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Meh. I'm speaking loosely. You know what I mean.

Or you should.

EDIT: It's difficult to have a conversation when one person changes what they said after the fact.

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What was unclear about my first bullet?
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I said "inhumanely". You shifted the goal post to swearing at inanimate objects. I ignored you.
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Oh, we're arguing definitions. Okay.

inhumane: without compassion for misery or suffering; cruel

cruel: willfully causing pain or suffering to others, or feeling no concern about it

You cannot treat an LLM inhumanely, definitionally.

Anyways, when one swears at someone it's typically meant to berate or belittle that person - to inflict some sort of emotional pain. That's the sense I intended when using the word, which is why it fits as a response to what you're saying, and why I would say "don't be nasty to a LLM" has little to do with the LLM itself.

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I'm sorry, we must be misunderstanding each other.

You have a nice day.

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you too!
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