[whytaka]

Even if one were to deny humans the will to "act", to think - as a verb, as some action being committed by a willing being or an automaton - by my definition, requires some weighing or surveying of possible answers.

If I were to ask you a question and you were to blurt out an answer by reflex or by unguided stream of consciousness, I can accuse you of not thinking. The kind of thinking I'm referring to you here is one where you take pause to let go of prejudices and consider alternatives before answering.

I'd say that LLMs are at best simulating reflexive streams of consciousness. Even with chain-of-thought, it never pauses to actually "think".

But maybe even our own pauses are just internal chains of thought. Look at me be a reflexive stream of consciousness.