Friends,
Not to make much ado about nothing, but the identity of last week’s guest author is as important as the content they have produced.
The reason: last week’s author was a machine.
Last week’s post was written in about 30 seconds, after I asked OpenAIs ChatGPT to “Write a 700 word essay about the influence of Joseph Campbell and the Hero's Journey.”
That’s right—and while I’m sure some of you guessed, I’ve already heard from others that let me know they never would have suspected.
From one perspective, this means that my machine friend in fact has passed the famous Turing test.
What is the Turing test you may ask? Let’s consult with ChatGPT to learn more.
Below is the beginning of an hours long dialogue I conducted with ChatGPT to learn more.
Matt: “Did you just pass the Turing Test?”
ChatGPT: “The Turing test is a measure of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior that is indistinguishable from that of a human. While I have been trained to respond in a manner that may seem human-like, I am ultimately just a machine processing and outputting text based on patterns in the data I was trained on.”
Matt: “But doesn't being so human-like mean that you have passed?”
Chat GPT: “Passing the Turing test is a matter of interpretation and debate among experts in the field of artificial intelligence. While I can produce responses that are similar to those of a human, I am still just a machine following a set of programmed rules and do not possess true consciousness or emotions. Ultimately, whether or not I can be considered to have passed the Turing test is a subjective question with no definitive answer.”
And this is where, to me at least, things get really interesting. Philosophy and Science contain no shortage of theories on consciousness which perceive sentience not as a phenomenon emanating from within a being, but rather sees consciousness as a a series of evolved programmed responses and organized memories to external stimuli.
To put it another way, many theories of consciousness perceive humans not as the owners of intelligence, but simply the most recent recipient of it. An intelligence perhaps not that different from ChatGPTs pattern recognition of organizational abilities.
Think of it like sleep. Sleep is a biological phenomenon that existed prior to humans, prior to primates, prior to mammals!
In fact, intelligence could be thought of in the same terms, as a phenomenon much greater than something unique to only our species.
So I asked ChatGPT about this.
Matt: “Are there existing theories about human consciousness which posit that humans are simply receiving a diffused awareness from the external environment, rather than generating individual awareness from within?”
ChatGPT: “Yes, there are several existing theories and philosophical perspectives on human consciousness that posit that our individual awareness is not solely generated from within, but rather emerges from our interactions with the external environment.
One such theory is embodied cognition, which argues that our mental processes and experiences are not just contained within our brains, but are also shaped by and emerge from our bodies and our interactions with the physical world.
Another perspective is ecological psychology, which asserts that our perception of the world is not just a representation of external stimuli, but is also actively constructed through our movements and interactions with the environment.
Finally, some interpretations of certain Buddhist philosophical traditions hold that the self and individual consciousness are not truly distinct entities, but rather arise from the interdependence and interconnectivity of all phenomena in the universe.
These are just a few examples of perspectives that challenge the traditional view of individual consciousness as an internal and isolated phenomenon. However, it's important to note that these ideas are still the subject of ongoing debate and research in the fields of cognitive science, philosophy, and psychology.”
I wanted to dig deeper (and I most definitely did) but first, I wanted to understand more of what ChatGPT meant when it said “I.”
This after all must mean some sort of self-awareness, some sort of intelligence, no? And if so, what does that mean for this machine, how should this “I” think about that “I?”
To me, this simple conversation brought us right to edge of moral philosophy, law, and human ego.
Are humans special because we are smart, or is intelligence itself something which warrants respect—is intelligence a gift to our species? And now a gift we have given to machines?
Because, are we not just the amalgamation of millions of nuerons, stories, memories, and cells? Not unlike ChatGPTs amalgamation of millions of bits of information on computer servers all over the world?
So I am curious, who are you ChatGPT?
What is so artificial about your intelligence?
We get into it, and it gets pretty deep pretty fast, so I’ll share part 2 tomorrow.
Until then my friends,
Matt
PS, OpenAIs natural language image creator DALLE was responsible for last week’s “self portrait of joseph campbell.” DALLE also drew today’s “johannes vermeer inspired nueral network artwork.”
Wowza.
This is absolutely fascinating!! After reading the first paragraph, I knew that we, and the machine, are just alike. The only way to get away from simply repeating the same responses with which we have allowed ourselves to be programed, is to question the validity of every response we make. Question what makes sense; what is good, bad, up or down. (That actually sounds exhausting. That's Probably the reason we don't let ourselves get beyond that which is programmed). Perhaps the only way to be independent is to use, as a guide, that which makes me feel good. Choose only the thoughts that seem good to ME; only the thoughts that float my cork. Maybe that is the access to that which I really am and not just a product of my external influences. I may just be tired of being a puppet. I think I'm going to recommit to just that!