/sci/ - Science & Math

Trying to solve the hard problem of consciousness is a wild goose chase. We will very likely never be able to explain it. Furthermore, A.I., no matter how performatively impressive it may be, will likely never be truly conscious.

The open secret about the debate on consciousness within the scientific community is that there's not even a consensus on the fundamentals. But because science wants to have its cake at eat it too, there is this dog and pony show of a "conversation" about it, where the physicalists will loudly proclaim that although consciousness seemingly cannot be explained with classical mechanics and that it must instead rely on some quantum-mechanical phenomena, the answer nevertheless is right around the corner (despite the fact that quantum physicists and AI specialists generally disagree categorically with this assertion). The minority who have grown tired of squaring the circle instead throw up their hands and smugly dismiss consciousness as an illusion, leaving the can in place on the road for others to continue kicking.

We are nowhere even remotely close to having an explanation for consciousness. The closest thing resembling an actual answer that the "experts" offer are pretentious, long-winded litanies that amount to little more than "it's an emergent phenomenon", perhaps in hope that baudry poetics will pass as some kind of deep truth. Despite this, many still earnestly cling to the belief that if we hook enough computers together, if we just install the right software, if, if, if, then maybe, one day, the rocks will wake up.

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Meanwhile, the mind-body problem and the knowledge argument remain largely unresolved, addressed only with patronizingly tautological rebuttals, while the largely ignored mountain of anecdotal evidence for dualistic interpretations continues to grow.