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Comment by SuperV1234 | Hacker News Reader

We are not fundamentally different. Chemical reactions are just math.

Well, (in our current understanding) yes, but there may be underlying aspects of physics and the universe that we do not understand that could be the reason consciousness kicks in. It could turn out that LLMs do work similarly to how humans think, but as an abstracted system it does not have the low level requirements for consciousness.

> it does not have the low level requirements for consciousness.

What is the evidence for this?

I didn’t mean it as fact. “Could turn out that …”

We do not know what the "low level requirements for consciousness" are.

We do not know how to measure whether consciousness is present in an entity - even other humans - or whether it is just mimicry, nor whether there is a distinction between the two.

I think we know enough that consciousness acts at the neuron/brain level new physics isn’t going to provide any more insights

Amusing statement since we are far from being able to understand chemical reactions in depth. Most of our knowledge in chemistry is empirical. Nothing like math.

We have a very good idea of all math behind chemistry. But the equations are very difficult to solve.

We are not talking about the same thing. Not all chemical reactions are predictable like math is. Organic chemistry is full of lucky findings. Just look at how catalysts are discovered.

> Chemical reactions are just math.

No, it is quantum mechanics. Physical world is not reducible to math, it has been long proven since early 20th century.

Qm is described by maths. You have fully deterministic qm interpretations, which are fully determined by maths

No, math is a tool that we can use to describe something more fundamental. Don't mistake the map for the territory!

"The universe is fundamentally just a complicated clockwork"

Unknown Ptolemy disciple

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