The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 10 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Pollan: Historical compromise left modern science ill-equipped to study subjectivity
“And now we'll take everything measurable and quantifiable. And the church, you can have everything subjective and qualitative. That was Galileo's deal and Descartes to some extent. And it was a very pragmatic deal, but it's left us with a science that's ill-eq…”
Pollan: Complex Social Interactions Cannot Be Mechanically Automated Without Consciousness
“I also think consciousness is really helpful in a social situation. When you're dealing with a world that is fundamentally unpredictable. That is to say what other people are going to do at any given time, what other people are going to say at any given time. …”
Pollan argues the Turing test fails as a test for consciousness
“The Turing test doesn't work for this consciousness question. It was designed for the intelligence question which is somewhat simpler.”
Pollan: Human claims to unique intelligence and culture are falling apart
“Our definition of the human, what's special about us, which has always been related to our intelligence and consciousness, is under enormous pressure today from these thinking machines and possibly feeling machines, and then from all these animals that we're l…”
Pollan: Scientific physicalism has failed to explain consciousness
“You know, people have been trying to do what has worked everywhere else in science, which is reduce phenomenon to mass, you know, to matter and energy. And it's been an incredibly productive strategy, but it doesn't seem to work
Yet with consciousness and that…”
Pollan: Consciousness discussions often mask a desire for an immortal soul
“I think that there is some wish fulfillment that we have something that is immaterial that therefore might survive the mortal body. I think behind a lot of people's talk about consciousness is the word soul, even though it's not articulated, but what is the so…”
Pollan: Reducing egotism through psychedelics, art, or awe unlocks spiritual experience
“The tension in my mind is between spirituality and egotism. And to the extent you can reduce egotism, whether through psychedelics, but also experiences of art, experiences of awe, all of which kind of shrink the eye in a way that can be feel really good that …”
Pollan: Brain Hardware and Software Are Indistinguishable Unlike in Computers
“In computers, you can run the same software on any number of different hardwares. But in brains, hardware and software are absolutely indistinguishable. Every experience, every memory is a physical set of connections in the brain.”
Pollan: Chatbots Strip Away the Subtleties of Real Human Conversation
“When you have a conversation with a bot or a computer in general, you are reducing or simplifying your notion of what a conversation is. You're leaving out what's going on between us right now, which is acknowledgement, Skepticism, body language all the subtle…”
Pollan: Conscious AI experiments will illuminate human consciousness regardless of success
“And this effort to build a conscious AI is probably one of the most promising, ah, intellectual experiments to help us understand it. Whether it succeeds or fails, I think it's going to teach us something really important.”