Westworld - Consciousness does not exist, Anthony Hopkins

Dozenal Tauist · 1.7M views · 2016 · 1:57

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Why Hacker News recommends it

HN uses it in AI and consciousness debates as a memorable take on why general intelligence is hard to define.

What it is

A two-minute Westworld scene in which Robert Ford and Bernard Lowe discuss whether consciousness exists. Ford argues that the self is a fiction for hosts and humans alike.

Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2017 to 2023.

What Hacker News said

Recommends ecmascript · 2019-06 · on “The BS-Industrial Complex of Phony A.I.”

I think honestly think westworld (yes the tv-series) has the best explanation of why general intelligence is a hard problem to solve. They mention consciousness but I think the same apply to intelligence in general. Humans in my mind aren't different from say a program you write except that we have a lot more input and possible outputs depending on a much larger variant of external variables. If we could build machines that have eyesight just as we do, muscles just as we do etc I'm sure we could reverse-engineer the human being. [this video]

Cites firasd · 2017-10 · on “Q&A: Douglas Hofstadter on why AI is far from intelligent”

"The self is a kind of fiction, for hosts and humans alike. It's a story we tell ourselves... there is no threshold that makes us greater than the sum of our parts, no inflection point at which we become fully alive." -- Dr. Ford, Westworld (video contains spoilers) [this video]

Cites gowings97 · 2023-04 · on “How can we be afraid of AGI if we can't define consciousness?”

The Westworld TV show from a few years ago gave an interesting perspective - [this video] Bernard: “Life like, but not alive? Pain only exists in the mind. It’s always imagined. So what’s the difference between my pain and yours, between you and me?” Ford: “This was the very question that consumed Arnold. Filled him with guilt. Eventually drove him mad. The answer always seemed obvious to me. There is no threshold that makes us greater than the sum of our parts. No inflection point in which we become fully alive. We can’t define consciousness because consciousness does not exist. Humans fancy that there’s something special about the way we perceive the world, and yet we live in loops as tight and