Is my computer (my real computer, not an imaginary one programmed with an imaginary AI) "behaviourally aware"? It even runs tests on itself and reports the results.
Yes, actually? To the extent that a worm is aware.
Is a worm aware? I don't know. Is my computer aware? I see no reason to think so, not in the sense of "aware" that we're discussing. Is a thermostat aware? That too has input and output. Is a rock aware? If the answer to all of these is "yes", then that is not a useful sense of "aware". It's just another route for the mercury blob of thought to escape the finger of logic.
In other contexts, I have no problem with talking about a robot (a real robot really existing in the real world right now, such as Google's driverless cars) as being "aware" of something, or for that matter my computer running self-tests, but I would also know that I was not imputing consciousness to the devices. If we're going to talk about consciousness, that is what we must talk about, instead of broadening the word beyond what we are talking about and using the same word to talk about some other thing instead.
The Hard Problem of Consciousness as popularly understood is that even if we understand all the mechanisms of thought to the point that we can construct brains ourselves, it won't explain the subjective experience we have.
I would say that's one particular position, or class of positions, on the Hard Problem. The other class of positions are those that hold that if we understood all etc. etc. then it would explain the subjective experience we have.
The Hard Problem, to me, is that both of these positions are both ineluctable and untenable.
That's why they call it subjective experience.
That we have subjective experience is an objective fact.
Is X aware
Is there no middle ground between "aware" and "not aware" then? This is like asking "Is a boulder a chair?", "is a tree stump a chair?" "Is a stool a chair?" Words are fuzzy like that.
That we have subjective experience is an objective fact.
Rather, that you have it is an objective fact to you. The empirical questions involved here are applied to other minds, not your own.
I've read a fair amount on Less Wrong and can't recall much said about the plausibility of some sort of afterlife. What do you guys think about it? Is there some sort of consensus?
Here's my take:
Edit: People in the comments have just taken it as a given that consciousness resides solely in the brain without explaining why they think this. My point in this post is that I don't see why we have reason to reject the 3 possibilities above. If you reject the idea that consciousness could reside outside of the brain, please explain why.