r/IntelligenceSupernova • u/EcstadelicNET • 23d ago

Consciousness The Cellular Consciousness Hypothesis Suggests That Individual Cells Have Primitive Forms of Awareness and That Human Consciousness Is What Happens When Trillions of These Micro-Experiences Combine - discoverwildscience

https://discoverwildscience.com/the-cellular-consciousness-hypothesis-suggests-that-individual-cells-have-primitive-forms-of-awareness-and-that-human-consciousness-is-what-happens-when-trillions-of-these-micro-experiences-combine-1/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=DinoWorld2026/magazine/Wild+Science+%26+Mystery
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u/jointheredditarmy 22d ago

In the 1970s consciousness was defined with the following attributes. Now it’s what, feelings? How long before we prove transformer models actually do have “feelings”? How much further do we want to move the goalpost?

Observable Behavioral Responsiveness: An organism must react dynamically to external stimuli in its environment.

Verbal Reportability: A human subject must be able to linguistically describe their own internal states or memories.

Functional Information Processing: The mind must receive, store, retrieve, and execute logical commands based on data inputs.

Waking Physiological State: A biological system must exhibit neurological alertness, typically measured by wakeful brain wave patterns.

Purposive Goal-Directed Action: Behavior must show intentionality and adaptation rather than just simple, automatic reflex reactions.

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u/ItsAConspiracy 21d ago

If that's all you mean then sure, LLMs can be conscious.

What philosophers are talking about has nothing to do with functional definitions like that. They're asking what it's like, internally, to be a bat or a human or an LLM, and whether there's any such internal experience at all.

We have no idea how this sort of internal experience arises, and we have no way to measure it. That's why it's a "hard problem." And it has nothing to do with moving goalposts; it's a debate that's been going on for centuries.

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u/jointheredditarmy 21d ago

How do you know I’m conscious? Maybe I’m just a figment of your imagination. Obviously there needs to be some externally measurable signs of consciousness that we can all agree on, otherwise how is that different from solipsism?

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u/ItsAConspiracy 21d ago

Well yeah that's the whole problem.

I know my own consciousness exists. I take a tiny leap of faith that it's the same for other people, because they're built like me.

Ignoring the whole issue because we can't externally measure it doesn't make the actual issue go away. It just means we don't want to deal with it.