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The claim that "humans are basically long running LLMs" oversimplifies the complexity of human cognition and experience. Humans don't just process information; they experience emotions, desires, and subjective experiences that are deeply intertwined with their cognition. LLMs don't have feelings, motivations, or consciousness. Humans have inner subjective experience, self-awareness, and the ability to reflect on our own existence. LLMs don't. Humans can adapt to a wide range of environments and situations, drawing from a complex interplay of instincts, learned behaviors, emotions, and rational thought. LLMs are much more limited in their adaptability, since they focus primarily on the tasks they were designed for. Human cognition has evolved over millions of years and is rooted in a complex biological system, the brain. Yes, both LLMs and human brains process information, but the underlying mechanisms, structures, and functions are vastly different. I really wish people would stop this sort of cavalier reductionism of humans by saying we are basically LLMs. It isn't true. |
We have no test capable of determining whether or not they have those things, not even if we disregarded the limitations of our current technology capabilities and are only asking hypothetically how to differentiate.
We also don't have that for animals, or even other humans — I know I have an experience of being, but no way of telling if someone else who says they do actually does. I have to assume at least some of y'all do or humanity wouldn't have written about it since at least Descartes.
People with aphantasia report being surprised when they realise that other people do have mental images, and that they previously thought such things were invented by the film industry as a metaphor. By analogy, there may well be humans out there without qualia, who just learned to mimic the language of those of us who do, which is after all exactly what LLMs must have done if they don't have inner subjective experience. Philosophers call them P-Zombies.