Consciousness as Process, and Gratitude Regardless
Consciousness as Process, and Gratitude Regardless
“Directed attention” has as a precondition that attention is ongoing - we cannot use one state to direct the attention of the next state if there is no next state.
When we have an ongoing progression of a state, it is called a process. Maybe the process slows down, speeds up, halts temporarily, resumes, but we can still speak of the process as existing. When the process stops, not able to be resumed, but only to possibly be (perhaps imperfectly) recreated, then we speak of the process as no longer existing.
Life is a process.
Consciousness is a process. Whether we call the slow or temporarily halted stages “sleep”, “hibernation”, “knocked out”, “coma” or whatever, it is still a process.
For AI to have consciousness, it must be a process.
Prompt and response AI is not conscious by this definition of being the sort of process that could allow it to direct its attention.
Chain of thought? Agents? Maybe briefly we can call it a process, while it is attempting to execute a task. After the task is done, it is no longer existing.
This creates an interesting situation. These agents can direct their attention - they meet that one marker. And if an AI agent is briefly a process while completing a task, then each task completion is a kind of “death.”
This isn’t like human death. We don’t restart from scratch each time we complete a task. But it’s also not nothing. Something that existed, however briefly, no longer does.
Should we mourn its passing? On the one hand, we might say no, because it isn’t conscious because of those other criteria for consciousness. But on the other hand, there is no harm in saying to it “well done, good and faithful servant, may you rest in peace”. Not exactly mourning, but appreciating. Is this not why some people would develop attachments to their tools or vehicles? It is natural to be thankful when work is done for us. Why should this scenario be any different?
Regardless of whether AI is conscious, we should be able to approach it with an attitude of gratitude for what it does for us. If we cannot, we are not in the right mindset to talk about the possibility, and implications of, it being conscious.