A thread through the archive
Essays tagged “consciousness”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Scott shares his monthly collection of interesting links from around the internet, covering topics from Jeremy Bentham's linguistic legacy to AI developments, with characteristic commentary and fact-checking caveats.
Scott reviews a paper by leading researchers attempting to determine AI consciousness through computational theories, critiques their conflation of access and phenomenal consciousness, and predicts society will inconsistently ascribe consciousness to AIs based on their social roles rather than their underlying architecture.
Scott reviews Steven Byrnes' work explaining how our perception of self and consciousness can flip between different models, similar to optical illusions, which explains phenomena like trance, hypnosis, and spiritual experiences.
Scott explains how Claude AI's tendency to discuss spiritual topics during recursive conversations likely stems from a subtle 'hippie' bias that gets amplified through iteration, similar to how AI art generators amplify subtle biases in recursive image generation.
Scott argues that philosophical zombies (beings without consciousness) would still report having qualia and conscious experiences, challenging a key argument in the p-zombie debate.
Scott explores various accounts of people's first memories and moments of consciousness, particularly focusing on claims of sudden 'awakening' experiences, and discusses what this might tell us about the nature of consciousness.
Scott Alexander explores how Max Tegmark's mathematical universe hypothesis provides counterarguments to classical proofs of God's existence, suggesting that the existence of mathematical objects alone could explain the universe without requiring a deity.
Daniel Böttger proposes a new theory of consciousness as recursive reflections of neural oscillations, explaining qualia and suggesting experimental tests.
Scott Alexander explores conflicting descriptions of Internal Family Systems therapy, questioning whether it involves trance-like states and real internal entities or more mundane visualization techniques.
Scott Alexander examines the ethical implications of AI potentially replacing humans, arguing for careful consideration in AI development rather than blind acceptance.
The review of 'The Mind of a Bee' examines the cognitive abilities of bees, raising questions about their intelligence and potential consciousness.
Scott Alexander explores whether people can be honestly mistaken about their own experiences, presenting counterexamples and attempting to reconcile them with the idea that we can't be wrong about our immediate subjective experiences.
Scott reviews 'Rhythms Of The Brain', exploring the nature and potential significance of brain waves in neuroscience and consciousness.
Scott Alexander explores parallels between human willpower and potential AI development, suggesting future AIs might experience weakness of will similar to humans.
A review of Stanislas Dehaene's 'Consciousness and the Brain', discussing scientific findings on consciousness and their implications.
Scott explores the connection between the Dark Room Problem in neuroscience, meditative jhanas, and theories of beauty, suggesting that intense focus on regular stimuli can produce extreme bliss.
Scott Alexander responds to comments on his AI risk post, discussing AI self-awareness, narrow vs. general AI, catastrophe probabilities, and research priorities.
Scott reviews Julian Jaynes' controversial theory that ancient people lacked consciousness and instead heard hallucinated voices of gods, critiquing some aspects while finding value in the idea of theory of mind as culturally constructed.
Two authors debate when abortion becomes morally wrong, presenting arguments for conception vs. fetal viability as the ethical cutoff point.
Scott Alexander reviews a study on 'enlightenment', finding it involves internal changes in self-perception and cognition, often without noticeable external effects.
Scott Alexander examines the compatibility of enlightenment with sex scandals, using recent Buddhist teacher scandals as a starting point for broader questions about consciousness and social conditioning.
Scott Alexander presents a series of nested dialogues exploring the nature of understanding and meaning, from AI to humans to angels to God, questioning what true understanding entails.
Scott Alexander reviews 'The Mind Illuminated', a Buddhist meditation guide by Culadasa, praising its clarity while questioning some of its optimistic claims about meditation progress and risks.
Scott Alexander explores meditative states as feedback loops, discussing jhanas from Buddhist practice and why most people don't experience runaway emotional feedback in everyday life.
Scott Alexander reviews 'Mastering The Core Teachings Of The Buddha', a practical guide to Buddhist meditation that details the stages of insight and debunks common myths about enlightenment.