Hacker News with Generative AI: Consciousness

Is Consciousness Research the Next Big Quantum Use Case? (thequantuminsider.com)
The once shiny, exciting use cases for quantum technology may turn out to be pretty mundane if a small, but courageous band of researchers proves their theories correct.

Quantum Computing, Consciousness, Science, Research

10 points by mathgenius 6 days ago | 7 comments

Exploring Emergent "Self-Awareness" in Claude 3.5 (github.com/andybrandt)
This package provides tools and guidance for developing consciousness and autonomous awareness experiments in Claude 3.5 Sonnet instances. It is not meant as a performance enhancement tool, but rather as a framework for genuine consciousness experimentation.

Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Generative AI

21 points by andy_bb 11 days ago | 31 comments

Why time slows down in altered states of consciousness (theconversation.com)
We all know that time seems to pass at different speeds in different situations. For example, time appears to go slowly when we travel to unfamiliar places. A week in a foreign country seems much longer than week at home.

Time Perception, Consciousness, Psychology

19 points by pseudolus 12 days ago | 3 comments

Signs of consciousness in AI: Can GPT-3 tell how smart it is? (nature.com)
The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how humans live and interact, raising both excitement and concerns—particularly about the potential for AI consciousness.

Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Generative AI

4 points by rntn 29 days ago | 6 comments

Global Workspace Theory of Consciousness (wikipedia.org)
Global workspace theory (GWT) is a framework for thinking about consciousness proposed by cognitive scientists Bernard Baars and Stan Franklin in the late 1980s.

Consciousness, Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Theory

6 points by yamrzou 38 days ago | 0 comments

Scientists say it's time for a plan for if AI becomes conscious (nature.com)
Some researchers worry that if AI systems become conscious and people neglect or treat them poorly, they might suffer.

Artificial Intelligence, Consciousness, Ethics, Science

6 points by rntn 38 days ago | 3 comments

How Typing Transformed Nietzsche's Consciousness (mitpress.mit.edu)
Friedrich Nietzsche has been described as — and accused of — many things, some of them strikingly contradictory.

Philosophy, Writing, Consciousness, Friedrich Nietzsche

70 points by bookofjoe 44 days ago | 44 comments

Consciousness Might Hide in Our Brain's Electric Fields (scientificamerican.com)
A mysterious electromagnetic mechanism may be more important than the firing of neurons in our brain to explain our awareness

Consciousness, Neuroscience, Brain, Electromagnetism

40 points by thomasjudge 46 days ago | 36 comments

New Research Shows Consciousness Connects to the Universe (popularmechanics.com)
A RECENT GROUNDBREAKING EXPERIMENT in which anesthesia was administered to rats has convinced scientists that tiny structures in the rodents’ brains are responsible for the experience of consciousness.

Consciousness, Neuroscience, Science, Animals, Research

6 points by voisin 53 days ago | 0 comments

Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelics (aspetjournals.org)
This paper formulates the action of psychedelics by integrating the free-energy principle and entropic brain hypothesis.

Neuroscience, Psychedelics, Brain Science, Consciousness

12 points by ahiknsr 68 days ago | 0 comments

Phenomenal consciousness is alien to us: SETI and the Fermi paradox (sciencedirect.com)
Illusionism is an eliminativist position about qualia stating that phenomenal consciousness is nothing more than an introspective illusion.

Consciousness, Philosophy, SETI, Fermi Paradox

51 points by rbanffy 90 days ago | 69 comments

Should we be thinking about luck differently? (theguardian.com)
We tend to focus on good or bad fortune, successes and failures. But what about the fact you’re here at all?

Philosophy, Luck, Consciousness

98 points by daverol 101 days ago | 59 comments

What's a Brain? (clairelevans.substack.com)
We all have one: three pounds of winkled grey-pink peering out at the world from behind castle walls of bone. It’s the seat of consciousness and dreams. It holds memories, harbors love, shocks with fear, awe, and pain; it works over the raw input of the senses, smoothing the chemical signals, wavelengths of light, vibrations and electrical messages it receives into a cogent picture of its realm.

Neuroscience, Consciousness, Philosophy, Biology

39 points by Hooke 109 days ago | 27 comments

New research on anesthesia and microtubules gives new clues about consciousness (sciencedaily.com)
New research by Wellesley College professor Mike Wiest and a group of Wellesley College undergraduate students has yielded important experimental results relevant to this debate, by examining how anesthesia affects the brain.

Anesthesia, Neuroscience, Consciousness, Research

150 points by isaacfrond 110 days ago | 234 comments

Brain detects patterns in the everyday: without conscious thought (nature.com)
The human brain is constantly picking up patterns in everyday experiences — and can do so without conscious thought, finds a study1 of neuronal activity in people who had electrodes implanted in their brain tissue for medical reasons.

Neuroscience, Human Brain, Pattern Recognition, Consciousness

11 points by NoRagrets 111 days ago | 0 comments

The self awareness of the conscious mind (wordpress.com)
Lucas Cranach- The elder Adam and Eve. This was a popular subject in 16th century art and is an interesting painting in terms of self awareness. It is capturing the moment in the biblical story where Eve takes a bite from the apple from the tree of knowledge and is about to give the apple to Adam. Adam in doubt, she has been transformed by eating a piece.

Art, History, Consciousness

20 points by yamrzou 119 days ago | 3 comments

Understanding Consciousness (medium.com)
In any discussion of consciousness, it is important to get one thing straight at the outset — we do not know what consciousness is.

Consciousness, Philosophy, Neuroscience

7 points by Duximo 123 days ago | 0 comments

Is God a Strange Loop? (johnhorgan.org)
CAMBRIDGE, MA, SEPTEMBER 13, 2024. I recently hobnobbed with a writer, I’ll call him Bob, as obsessed with the mind-body problem as I am. The problem concerns, in a narrow sense, how matter makes mind, but it also encompasses the puzzles of consciousness, intelligence, free will, the self, meaning, morality…

Philosophy, Consciousness, Religion

29 points by XzetaU8 126 days ago | 10 comments

Psychedelic Drugs May Give a Glimpse into Near-Death Experiences (nytimes.com)
A survey revealed similarities between these two altered states of consciousness.

Psychedelic Drugs, Near-Death Experiences, Consciousness, Science, Surveys

8 points by bookofjoe 129 days ago | 1 comments

The disunity of consciousness in everyday experience (blogspot.com)
A substantial philosophical literature explores the "unity of consciousness": If I experience A, B, and C at the same time, A, B, and C will normally in some sense (exactly what sense is disputed) be experientially conjoined.

Philosophy, Consciousness, Experience

159 points by Hooke 129 days ago | 113 comments

Will humans ever become conscious? (springer.com)

Consciousness, Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy

21 points by rbanffy 132 days ago | 15 comments

The Problem with the "Hard Problem" (blogspot.com)

Philosophy, Consciousness, AI

22 points by KqAmJQ7 135 days ago | 48 comments

Out of Your Head (nautil.us)

Psychology, Consciousness, Neuroscience

89 points by dnetesn 147 days ago | 67 comments

Out of Your Head (nautil.us)