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mapontoseventhstoday at 10:07 AM1 replyview on HN

The question has two parts.

1: Can we define consciousness in a way that includes humans, does not include emachines, and does not accidently exclude the disabled or or nerudivergent without just restating the idea that being human is equivalent to being conscious?

2: If you can't manage that definition then you must ask whether the risk of accidently giving rights to a non-conscious thing or the risk of taking away rights from a truly conscious (but different) thing will be worse.

Given the high cost of what happened to the Jews and others throughout history, and the low cost of simply not torturing machines, I think we have to air on the side of caution and just treat anything which claims to be conscious as conscious.


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serbuvladtoday at 10:16 AM

> just treat anything which claims to be conscious as conscious.

Doesn't seem like a very good metric.

A piece of paper with the words "I am conscious" claims to be conscious. A dog does not claim to be conscious.

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