I used to think I was conscious, but then I realized I was mistaken.
Dennett actually believes somehting like that about phenomenal consciousness.
[Dennett:] These additions are perfectly real, but they are … not
made of figment, but made of judgment. There is nothing more to
phenomenology than that
[Otto:] But there seems to be!
[Dennett:] Exactly! There seems to be phenomenology. That’s a
fact that the heterophenomenologist enthusiastically concedes. But
it does not follow from this undeniable, universally attested fact thatth ere
really is phenomenology. This is the crux. (Dennett, 1991, p.
366)
(nods) There’s an amusing bit in a John Varley novel along these lines, where our hero asks a cutting-edge supercomputer AI whether it’s genuinely conscious, and it replies something like “I’ve been exploring that question for a long time, and I’m still not certain. My current working theory is that no, I’m not—nor are you, incidentally—but I am not yet confident of that.” Our hero thinks about that answer for a while and then takes a nap, IIRC.
Dennett actually believes somehting like that about phenomenal consciousness.
[Dennett:] These additions are perfectly real, but they are … not made of figment, but made of judgment. There is nothing more to phenomenology than that [Otto:] But there seems to be! [Dennett:] Exactly! There seems to be phenomenology. That’s a fact that the heterophenomenologist enthusiastically concedes. But it does not follow from this undeniable, universally attested fact thatth ere really is phenomenology. This is the crux. (Dennett, 1991, p. 366)
Er… can I get the cliff’s notes on the jargon here?
(nods) There’s an amusing bit in a John Varley novel along these lines, where our hero asks a cutting-edge supercomputer AI whether it’s genuinely conscious, and it replies something like “I’ve been exploring that question for a long time, and I’m still not certain. My current working theory is that no, I’m not—nor are you, incidentally—but I am not yet confident of that.” Our hero thinks about that answer for a while and then takes a nap, IIRC.