[JohnFen]

> If it turns out that I'm not talking to real people then it doesn't make much of a difference because I don't actually perceive these messages as anything other than pixels on a screen anyway.

It matters a lot to me because the whole point of commenting here (or anywhere) is to talk to other humans, not just to talk to myself.

[chasd00]

> ..whole point of commenting here (or anywhere) is to talk to other humans..

honestly, if i can't tell the difference between an AI and a human here then why does the difference matter? If every comment on this story was AI generated except for mine I still received the same insight, enjoyment, and hit of dopamine. I don't think I really care between communicating with an AI or human if i can't tell the difference.

[JohnFen]

I understand that point of view. I simply don't share it. If I can't tell the difference between AI and a human being in my conversations, that would undermine my trust in some extremely important things. I'd withdraw from such fora entirely as a result, because there's no way for me to know if those conversations are real or just me engaging in mental masturbation.

[layer8]

Some would say that if you can’t possibly tell the difference, then both are equally real or unreal, in the sense that it doesn’t matter if the neural net is biological or electronic.

[JohnFen]

Right, that's why I say I understand what chasd00 is saying. I happen to disagree -- I think it matters quite a lot.

Even ignoring philosophical arguments, it matters to me on a personal level because I consider people to be important, and want to interact with them. If I'm talking to a machine that I can't tell isn't a human, then I'm accomplishing nothing of importance and am just wasting my time.

[pyinstallwoes]

How do you know other humans aren’t machines?