Consciousness as simply awareness (Alex O'Conner)

[Magical Realist]

Interesting thought here. But is there in fact awareness without being aware of anything?

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1364517985610534

[C C]

Can you imagine a conscious agent that doesn't have any memory? Imagine what it would be like to have no memory whatsoever. ... In every instant, memory is never laid down. What would that be like? It's almost impossible to imagine. If you're falling through the air, and there's no such thing as memory, would you even know you were falling?

You couldn't interpret it as that or anything else because identification and understanding are dependent upon storage, retrieval, and application of information (including concepts). If fundamental consciousness is just manifestations sans a memory system, you wouldn't know the presentations were even there because there would be no idea available for vetting that as the case.

Given that even the language-based narratives in our heads are manifested as private sound experiences, cognition at the phenomenal level is just different modes of appearances reciprocally interacting with each other and serving as meanings and associations for each other. Like the image of a bunch of kids playing around a hoop and an internally audible thought arises, couples to that, and says it's "basketball".

[confused2]

I'm thinking about Tetris .. the game with falling shapes and you have to do something to make them land. Everything is on the screen .. the only memory you need is how to twirl the shapes. A more sophisticated thing would be to have a map .. requires memory but brains are good at that. No concept of past present or future required .. when hungry go to food on the map .. when sleepy go to nest on the map.

Now a book. The book contains ships, armies, planets, people .. just like the words we use in our heads. The words aren't just words .. they're tokens. We're swapping tokens. "Can you look after my horse for a week?" .. even as you read it it's a large animal .. a big responsibility. Tokens and more tokens. Could an AI .. using tokens .. recognize 'horse' .. 'responsibilty' .. and weigh up .. "I'm not a thing that can actually look after a horse"? AIs read books .. lots of them .. they have the map ..they know us and our world.

Edited in..
To an AI .. Do profoundly deaf people 'think' in sign language?

Yes, profoundly deaf individuals who grow up using sign language typically "think" in sign language. Their internal monologue manifests visually rather than audibly. Instead of "hearing" a spoken voice, they process thoughts as "inner signing," visualizing hand gestures, facial expressions, and spatial movements in their mind's eye.

https://www.iflscience.com/what-language...k-in-76401