A short thought experiment
Someone sent me a suggestion of something to read. Before coffee, even.
My short conundrum of the day. In an article called "How we treat AI will test our morality," there was the following line:
“If AI is just a very good symbol manipulator that can mimic thought, it’s not going to come up with its own agenda to enslave humanity.”
No, but it could copy examples of human agendas to enslave humanity, just like it copies connections of words to appear as though it’s having a conscious conversation.
But that got me wondering the degree to which common human cognition might work along similar connective lines. How frequently we piece together sections of conversations, things we’ve read and heard, cliches, and more, presenting as considered thought without a realization that much of it is communication on autopilot.
There are people who claim the world is a simulation and that people don't exist. (I wonder if they think they don't exist or if that's a solipsistic philosophy.) If one assumes they think when so much of what they say or contemplate is chains of associations, are they in reality or a construct?