davidad takes the 'weird implications of consciousness' list: he bites every bullet except China Brain
davidad · x · 2026-10-04
Anthropic alignment researcher davidad responded to johnmarktaylor's list of unavoidable weird implications of any theory of consciousness (consciousness is an illusion, an immaterial soul, panpsychist electrons, China Brain, etc.).
- He found he bites none of the bullets — except the last one: China Brain, which he accepts "modulo a factor of 30 or so"
- The original post argues that formulating a theory of qualia without at least one crazy-sounding implication is nearly impossible, so mocking others' views of consciousness without offering your own is not respectable
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