Ep 11: Self Awareness and AI; Do Cylons dream of electric sheep?

The guys start with definitions and a little talk about privacy of thought and asolipsism

Bruce asks about the granting of intelligence for argumentative purposes

Sean gives his definitions of the difference between virtual and artificial intelligence

Ryver asks how we might know the difference

Sean talks about the Turing test its strengths and weaknesses

Bruce asks if the god's eye view might not break the vision of intelligence

the guys toss around the notion of an AI having a virtual world to be compared to and whether or not it would know there was anything else outside its artificial world

Bruce likens the theoretical AI to a child learning about the world

Sean asks if the AI's reality would extend beyond the machine to the external world

Ryver asks how anonymity effects the ability to believe in the outside world

Bruce suggests that the AI may extrapolate a model of the outside world

Sean argues that it would not know this as another greater reality but more as if it were a game

Bruce suggests that it may view our world as a conspiracy theory

Sean suggests that to an AI the notion of our biological/physical world would seem so alien as to be absurd

Ryver suggests that the inability to directly observe is the problem

Bruce suggests that the AI might be atheistic in regard to humans

Sean likens the AI's understanding of physical reality to our experience of dinosaurs if we had no evidence

Bruce points out that the topic has shifted to would an AI believe in us

Sean counters that this is a crucial piece because for an AI to know it is an AI it must understand that there are different intelligence

Bruce wonders if the AI's inability to believe in our intelligence isn't telling of our ability to believe in AI

Ryver brings us back to Cylon's

Sean talks a little BSG lore

Bruce points out that in order to question the AI's experience we first have to have granted that it has a Cartesian theater

Sean points out that arguing about whether or not a strong AI could exist is a bit of dead horse beating

Ryver brings up Moore's law and the kind of futurism that leads to asking questions about AI

Bruce talks about semantics and syntax as seen in John Searle's work and David Chalmers philosophical zombies

Sean talks about Cylon's levels of self awareness and the awareness of humans about the presence of Cylon's

Ryver talks about Cylon's and emotions

Sean brings up replicants and Blade Runner

The guys talk about the Voight-Kampff test and what it tells us about our ideas of humanity

Ryver relates this back to existentialism

Bruce talks about the desire for humanity

Sean relates the inability to differentiate to a kind of creeping nihilism

Ryver points out that Philip K Dick had always intended for the story to leave us unsure if Deckard the main character was himself a replicant

Sean talks about the 4 stages of nihilism in Nietzsche's work and the relationship between human and replicant

Bruce asks if a Cylon that doesn't know what it is becomes aware does that destroy part of who that “person” was before?

 

The guys kick around that it means to have your world view drastically changed suddenly

Ryver brings in the concept of dreaming and what we mean by it in the title

Sean breaks down sleep dreams and aspirational dreams

Sean takes the last word to puzzle a bit about why we find the topic of sci-fi, artificial intelligence, and what it means to be human so fascinating

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