This is an interesting interview, but Beck seems to be confusing “life” and “consciousness.” The appropriate answer to his question is something that self replicates using local resources, but that has nothing to do with AI, or uploading.
7 thoughts on “What Is Life?”
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The problem with your answer is that it would seem to cover “fire” as a life form……
I’ve heard firefighters describe fire as a living thing. They were serious.
Plants are alive. So are single celled organisms. Life begins well below the point of consciousness.
Agreed. But there is a caveat; sentience and sapience are (arguably) not the same thing at all. Single celled organisms and plants are sentient, in that they can and do detect and respond to information from outside. Sapient, or conscious, they are not. Which brings one to an interesting point; where on the scale does some dim version of consciousness arise? Insects? Nah. Is your pet cat conscious? Maybe.
There is no doubt in my mind that my cat is conscious (at least when she’s awake).
It was an oversimplification.
Refusal to classify fire as alive is yet another lamentable example of cellular chauvinism.
Sincerely,
Creutzfeldt Jakob
Beck’s value is not that he’s always right. It’s that he is sometimes right when nobody else puts it out there.
This is what a storm session is supposed to do.