For the past 24 hours the following story has been in the news:
“Anthropic finds hidden ‘workspace’ inside Claude Al. Researchers say the structure holds unspoken concepts during reasoning, mirroring a leading neuroscientific theory of human consciousness.”
Two subjects I’ve long been interested in. (106 blog posts tagged “consciousness,“ 46 tagged “thoughts.“) I prompted Claude identify my blog posts that seem most relevant to this story? Continue reading
After a fair amount of reading on the subject of thought and consciousness, I’ve concluded thoughts are random patterns of energy generated by the subconscious part of the brain. I don’t think them, they think themselves.
The practice of observing thoughts without judgment to still the mind is a central concept in many Eastern spiritual traditions. (Mindful meditation)
I’ve also done some reading on quantum mechanics and the “observer effect.” Specifically, the Copenhagen Interpretation: “Observation is a physical process that transitions quantum systems from “possible” states to “actual” states. The observer can be an apparatus or a human; consciousness is not required.”
Might the act of observing thoughts as they flood into consciousness result in a “wave function collapse,” causing these random patterns of energy to…dissipate? I ran the idea past GPT 4o: Continue reading
This is one of the better explanations of the illusory nature of the self. The closer I get to understanding this, the more impossible it becomes for me to share it. This video might be as close as I’ll get. Watch on YouTube
Anyone who knows me knows of my interest in consciousness and reality (see tags below for more). When it comes to understanding reality, I’m gonna go with one of the following. (or some combination.)
Monism is the view that all reality is fundamentally one substance or principle. Everything in the universe is ultimately the same kind of thing. This can be physical (everything is matter) or mental (everything is mind), or something else entirely.
Panpsychism, on the other hand, is the idea that consciousness is a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of the universe. According to panpsychism, all things have some form of consciousness or experience, even if it’s very basic, down to the smallest particles.
So, while both can be viewed as “unifying” theories, monism is about the nature of reality being one substance, whereas panpsychism is about consciousness being fundamental and present everywhere.
I’ve long been interested in how the mind works. What is consciousness? How is that different from awareness? Where do thoughts come from? Is the sense of self an illusion?
From the video below: “At its core, AI, just like the human mind, is all about processing information. It uses complex algorithms, labels, and symbols to make sense of the world and respond to its environment. It takes raw data as input, processes it based on its programming, and generates an output.”
Here’s another excerpt from the video (watch on YouTube) I found really interesting:
“The choice to use an AI voice has sparked a lot of conversations. Some people feel that using it makes the message feel less personal, less human. But others find it refreshing, even profound. Its neutrality and essentially egoless nature allows the message itself to shine through more clearly.”
I started having voice conversations with ChatGPT in late 2023 and prefer that to text since more of my questions turn into conversations. Put me in the “refreshing/profound” column. If you are into (as we said in the 60’s) this kind of stuff, I think you’l really enjoy this video.