The debate over machine consciousness is usually framed as a contest between two camps. Functionalists say consciousness is whatever the right kind of information processing does, so a sufficiently sophisticated AI will be conscious. Biological naturalists say consciousness depends on something specific to living brains, so it won’t.… Read More “Crystallized Conceptuality: Why AI Cannot Know Non-Conceptually”
Category Archives: Buddhism
The Twist and the Ground of Being
This is the second essay in a series. The first, The Twist Move, describes the operation itself across mathematics, biology, physics, and business. The second, The Twist and the Ground of Being, argues that the consciousness twist is real, that the substrate must support it, and that this tells us something fundamental about the nature of reality.… Read More “The Twist and the Ground of Being”
The Sentience Threshold: Consciousness Beyond Computation at the Self-Referential Heart of Reality
Nova Spivack – www.novaspivack.com
Part I: The Unfindable Mind
Flashback to 1999. The moon, a perfect silver disc, hung suspended in the clear New York summer sky, its light etching the rolling cow fields into stark relief. I had trudged through the dew-damp grass, a young man in my twenties, my tent a distant silhouette against the low rolling hills. … Read More “The Sentience Threshold: Consciousness Beyond Computation at the Self-Referential Heart of Reality”
The Golden Bridge: Treatise on the Primordial Reality of Alpha
For many decades I have been working on Alpha Theory – a new Theory of Everything (TOE) – and in particular a theory of consciousness – which unifies mathematics, the physical sciences, cognitive science, computer science, metaphysics, and spirituality.
Alpha theory derives the nature of space, time and consciousness from first principles, using a rigorous formal logical proof approach.… Read More “The Golden Bridge: Treatise on the Primordial Reality of Alpha”
21 Stanzas
In 1999, as part of my 30 year study of Buddhism, I wrote this set of 21 poetic stanzas under my Tibetan name, Sangye Dondrup. I wrote this as an homage to the great Indian sage, Nagarjuna, who authored many classic philosophical texts in verse.… Read More “21 Stanzas”
Do Artificial Zen Masters Dream of Electric Butterflies?
The Dream of an Artificial Zen Master:
If we make an artificial Zen master,
And it perfectly reproduces everything
that a real Zen master can say or do,
Is it a Zen master?
My commentary:
Not necessarily. To be an actual Zen master it would have to be sentient.… Read More “Do Artificial Zen Masters Dream of Electric Butterflies?”