[Sohcahtoa82]

To borrow a line from the classic movie Short Circuit, it's a machine! It doesn't get scared, it doesn't get happy, it doesn't get sad, it just runs programs!

A computer does not have a consciousness that feels emotions. Sure, it can create output that seems like it does, possibly even well enough to cause humans to feel empathy. The movie "AI" explores this concept pretty well.

The world is going to become an interesting place once we create humanoid robots that you can actually talk to. We're at a point now where you can use ChatGPT combined with very convincing CGI face to talk to an AI.

[rhn_mk1]

Atoms are just chemistry and physics! They don't get scared, they don't get happy, they don't get sad, they just run DNA!

An arrangement of atoms does not have a consciousness that feels emotions. Sure, it can replicate, but that does not imply consciousness.

[Sohcahtoa82]

This starts to enter philosophical question of where consciousness comes from [0] and if P-Zombies [1] exist.

It is indeed a hard question. Like, I can accept the theory that chemical interactions produced organic compounds that over the course of a billion years happened to eventually become self-replicating and eventually basic single-celled life that over another billion years became multi-cellular life and eventually became the advanced life forms we see today.

But at its basis, it's still just chemical reactions. To an external observer, it's just chemical reactions. Yet, if you assume P-Zombies don't exist, then every individual human on Earth is conscious.

Or are they? If P-Zombies exist, then it's possible everyone is a P-Zombie and I'm the only conscious human. Unlikely, or is it?

It's a fascinating topic, but one that I don't think is possible to make any proofs about.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_problem_of_consciousness

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_zombie

[adamsmith143]

The same can be said about meat brains, they just execute natural programs. There's no reason in principle why a meat brain should be able to experience emotion and silicon brains cannot.

[mc32]

True! But this is not the silicon or the actual software programming but rather the program’s processing/out put as experienced by external users and systems.