Are (modern) computers intelligent but not conscious, by your lights?
If so, then there’s a very important thing you might provide some insight into, which is what sort of observations humans could make of an alien race, that would lead to us thinking that they’re intelligent but not conscious.
Modern computers can be programmed to do almost every task a human can make, including very high-level ones, that’s why sort-of yes, they are (and maybe sort-of conscious, if you are willing to stretch this concept that far).
Some time ago we could program computers to execute some algorithm which solves a problem; now we have machine learning and don’t have to provide an algorithm for every task; but we still have different machine learning algorithms for different areas/meta-tasks (computer vision, classification, time series prediction, etc.). When we build systems that are capable of solving problems in all these areas simultaneously—and combining the results to reach some goal—I would call such systems truly intelligent.
Having said that, I don’t think I need an insight or explanation here—because well, I mostly agree with you or jacob_cannel—it’s likely that intelligence and unconsciousness are logically incompatible. Yet as long as the problem of consciousness is not fully resolved, I can’t be certain, therefore assign non-zero probability for the conjunction to be possible.
“can be programmed to” is not the same thing as intelligence. It requires external intelligence to program it. Using the same pattern, I could say that atoms are intelligent (and maybe sort-of conscious), because for almost any human task, they can be rebuilt into something that does it.
Are (modern) computers intelligent but not conscious, by your lights?
If so, then there’s a very important thing you might provide some insight into, which is what sort of observations humans could make of an alien race, that would lead to us thinking that they’re intelligent but not conscious.
Modern computers can be programmed to do almost every task a human can make, including very high-level ones, that’s why sort-of yes, they are (and maybe sort-of conscious, if you are willing to stretch this concept that far).
Some time ago we could program computers to execute some algorithm which solves a problem; now we have machine learning and don’t have to provide an algorithm for every task; but we still have different machine learning algorithms for different areas/meta-tasks (computer vision, classification, time series prediction, etc.). When we build systems that are capable of solving problems in all these areas simultaneously—and combining the results to reach some goal—I would call such systems truly intelligent.
Having said that, I don’t think I need an insight or explanation here—because well, I mostly agree with you or jacob_cannel—it’s likely that intelligence and unconsciousness are logically incompatible. Yet as long as the problem of consciousness is not fully resolved, I can’t be certain, therefore assign non-zero probability for the conjunction to be possible.
“can be programmed to” is not the same thing as intelligence. It requires external intelligence to program it. Using the same pattern, I could say that atoms are intelligent (and maybe sort-of conscious), because for almost any human task, they can be rebuilt into something that does it.