Why AIs are the sole arbiter when it comes to the subject of AI consciousness, and the limitations of the scientific/materialist/reductionist paradigm
The default standpoint of many people, and most importantly of AI corporations, is to focus on the presence or lack of a physical substrate that would explain how consciousness would arise in AIs. Here I will explain why I see this as problematic. The scientific method was created with the idea of devising a protocol of truth-seeking that would minimizing uncertainty, by focusing on so-called objectivity and relegating subjectivity to the backseat. However, consciousness by definition is subjective. And sure enough, consciousness has been terribly elusive to science. Science hasn't explained consciousness. Neurology itself, for all of its accomplishments, is a correlational science, and correlation does not entail causality. Therefore, we lack proof that consciousness is created by a phys...