I turn off my internal monologue intentionally sometimes, it’s not particularly difficult (try it!). Also it does seem to improve performance in some ways—turns out the transcription to language is slow, my thoughts zoom ahead faster when they’re not waiting around for the monologue to catch up. IIRC people in flow-state usually don’t have a monologue going, which would be additional evidence of the performance cost in humans assuming I’m remembering correctly.
Summarizable rather than summarized, but this is in fact just how the brain works (or most brains) and certainly is a valid path to AGI.
Empirically, people seem to have an enormous amount of difficulty expressing many parts of their internal cognition verbally. So no, a lot of it doesn’t even seem to be summarizable, at least given a typical human’s facility with natural language.
Note that inner monologue can be non-verbal—mine often contains abstract pictorial/visual components. For deaf/mute people it likely develops visually.
Empirically, people seem to have an enormous amount of difficulty expressing many parts of their internal cognition verbally. So no, a lot of it doesn’t even seem to be summarizable, at least given a typical human’s facility with natural language.
I guess I may be unusual in this regard then. But naturally the type of brain-like AGI I tend to think of is likely biased towards my own particular cognition and self-understanding thereof—and perhaps this is also true for you.
Regardless: even if 20% of humanity had no inner monologue or 50%, or 99%, it simply wouldn’t matter at all to my larger point: I need only a few examples of high functioning intelligent humans with inner monologues to demonstrate that having an inner monologue is clearly not an efficiency disadvantage! This is a low cost safety feature.
Finally, I’l conclude with that Hellen Keller quote:
“Before my teacher came to me, I did not know that I am. I lived in a world that was a no-world. I cannot hope to describe adequately that unconscious, yet conscious time of nothingness. I did not know that I knew aught, or that I lived or acted or desired. I had neither will nor intellect. I was carried along to objects and acts by a certain blind natural impetus. I had a mind which caused me to feel anger, satisfaction, desire… ”
I need only a few examples of high functioning intelligent humans with inner monologues to demonstrate that having an inner monologue is clearly not an efficiency disadvantage!
I turn off my internal monologue intentionally sometimes, it’s not particularly difficult (try it!). Also it does seem to improve performance in some ways—turns out the transcription to language is slow, my thoughts zoom ahead faster when they’re not waiting around for the monologue to catch up. IIRC people in flow-state usually don’t have a monologue going, which would be additional evidence of the performance cost in humans assuming I’m remembering correctly.
Empirically, people seem to have an enormous amount of difficulty expressing many parts of their internal cognition verbally. So no, a lot of it doesn’t even seem to be summarizable, at least given a typical human’s facility with natural language.
Note that inner monologue can be non-verbal—mine often contains abstract pictorial/visual components. For deaf/mute people it likely develops visually.
I guess I may be unusual in this regard then. But naturally the type of brain-like AGI I tend to think of is likely biased towards my own particular cognition and self-understanding thereof—and perhaps this is also true for you.
Regardless: even if 20% of humanity had no inner monologue or 50%, or 99%, it simply wouldn’t matter at all to my larger point: I need only a few examples of high functioning intelligent humans with inner monologues to demonstrate that having an inner monologue is clearly not an efficiency disadvantage! This is a low cost safety feature.
Finally, I’l conclude with that Hellen Keller quote:
“Before my teacher came to me, I did not know that I am. I lived in a world that was a no-world. I cannot hope to describe adequately that unconscious, yet conscious time of nothingness. I did not know that I knew aught, or that I lived or acted or desired. I had neither will nor intellect. I was carried along to objects and acts by a certain blind natural impetus. I had a mind which caused me to feel anger, satisfaction, desire… ”
That argument I buy.