The reason people are concerned with the concept of consciousness, is that they have terms in their utility functions for the welfare of conscious beings.
If you have some idea how to write out a reasonable utility function without invoking consciousness I’d love to hear it. (Adjust this challenge appropriately if your ethical theory isn’t consequentialist.)
I think it is largely because consciousness is so important to people that it is hard to think straight about it, and about anything tied to it. Similarly, the typical person loves Mom, and if you say bad things about Mom then they’ll have a hard time thinking straight, and so it will be hard for them to dispassionately evaluate statements about Mom. But what this means is that if someone wants to think straight about something, then it’s dangerous to tie it to Mom. Or to consciousness.
The reason people are concerned with the concept of consciousness, is that they have terms in their utility functions for the welfare of conscious beings.
If you have some idea how to write out a reasonable utility function without invoking consciousness I’d love to hear it. (Adjust this challenge appropriately if your ethical theory isn’t consequentialist.)
I think it is largely because consciousness is so important to people that it is hard to think straight about it, and about anything tied to it. Similarly, the typical person loves Mom, and if you say bad things about Mom then they’ll have a hard time thinking straight, and so it will be hard for them to dispassionately evaluate statements about Mom. But what this means is that if someone wants to think straight about something, then it’s dangerous to tie it to Mom. Or to consciousness.