In Search For “The Other”
My first article made an ambitious case for the idea that we will never know with mathematical precision whether anything truly is conscious. When you are faced with a robot or even a fellow human being, you will never logically know if it really experiences the world or it is just an empty body. If you aren’t able to understand what I am talking about, I highly encourage you to read it now! However, be warned: it is not light read, and might change the idea you have about reality. Now, let’s accept the argument I wrote to be valid. There all kinds of consequences that have to be reckoned with. To me personally, the most profound consequence is that we will never know exactly what it is like to be someone else. No matter how much we speak, how much we share, or how much science and technology we throw at the problem, I will never know what it is like being “you”. Only you know! In another article, I reflected on the way this observation made me feel personally. However, right now, we will have to put some of our feelings aside, and think of methods how we can deal with this problem of “not knowing” in a more philosophical way.
About Heuristics And Intuition
Having introduced a few concepts of the field of artificial intelligence while analysing certain philosophical issues, I continue the habit by introducing another term. Heuristics in this interesting discipline refers to a broad set of techniques that are used to make a certain program reach its goal faster, while sacrificing some precision or “optimalism” in the process. Heuristics are a very important tool in developing any real-life artificial intelligent system. An artificial intelligent “agent” can almost never consider all possibilities at the same time. It will need to make choices based on limited information. A heuristic agent tries to make optimal use of time, resources and knowledge to reach a decision that it deems to have the best outcome. Whether it truly is the best outcome is not guaranteed, but as we all know: that’s how life works.
A better way of explaining the concept of heuristics might be to compare it to human intuition. Intuition is often described as a feeling you have that cannot be explained in detail to other people. You only know that you’re right, but when people ask you “why do you think that?”, the only answer you can give is “I just know.”. It is a matter of trust whether other people truly believe you. You might think it to be flawed, but surprisingly, intuition can accomplish a great deal! The “Miracle on the Hudson” is one example of when human intuition truly can accomplish miracles. Going in against all advice given to him, a pilot decides to land his crashing airplane on a river instead of on land. The result? Nobody died. Some might call it luck, but I believe that there’s more to it than meets the eye. I would even go as far as saying that our brains are one enormous “intuition machine”, able to solve incredibly complex problems at the blink of an eye. Though this description is not very poetic, it provides me with a bit of reason to argue that intuition is the key to solving the problem. In fact, I believe it is the only thing we can do.
I Think, Therefore I Am
The observation starts with yourself. Are you currently aware of your own thoughts? Are you feeling relaxed, nervous, or bored? If so, then I must congratulate you, because you are a conscious being. At this point, one of the only intuitive things you can do is to look for other beings that look like you! When they feel sad, do they speak about the same things you talk about when you feel sad? When they feel happy, do they start dancing and jumping like you do? When you are angry, does an argument quickly escalate to the point that noone has a clue to what it was the argument was going about? I define this behaviour as human, and you’re in luck, because according to the estimates there are more than seven billion beings experiencing the same things you are experiencing!
Being human and being conscious are in my opinion two words that essentially mean the same. When we ask somebody (or something) “Are you human?”, we are actually asking “Are you like me?”, as in “Do you also experience the same things I experience?”. The reason we put so much weight in the question it that we don’t like to be fooled. If we if we attach to someone (or something) by sharing our world, we want to be sure we’re not hurt in the process. If a “thing” really turns out to be empty, then it might as well insult us the next time we talk to it! It might not even know what we have said, or be so cold and indifferent that it makes us feel like we do not deserve to exist. So it is incredibly important to us that whatever “thing” we share something with, that it can feel and imagine what it is like to live in that body that is your own. I call it, in this context, empathy, and I believe that is something very difficult to fake. You cannot make a “program” understand what it is like being you, without requiring that that program is self-conscious and have it struggle with its own existence.
You cannot make a “program” understand what it is like being you, without requiring that that “program” is self-conscious and have it struggle with its own existence.
So what have we learned? It is that, even though we can never be completely sure that we are living in some kind of “Matrix” or a p-zombie world, there are plenty of reasons for believing that we aren’t, and that whatever the future may bring, it is important not to forget that being alive and being able to feel things is a true wonder. A wonder that cannot be explained, and can only be shared in the form of some kind of language. By writing, painting, singing, dancing, and being, we express what we feel, and we are able to get to know each other. This, in my opinion, is the essence of what it means to be alive.
Sam Vervaeck is a freelance writer living in Belgium, trying to find his way in life while exploring various philosophical questions. He loves programming, playing piano, and martial arts. He is in the process of writing a book about artificial intelligence and the future of society, which will be available on his website.
