Michael Johnson: “We SHOULD Make AI Conscious”
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Originally by Christian Gonzalez — read at the source
Michael Edward Johnson is a co-founder of the Qualia Research Institute and an independent researcher in the fields of consciousness, neuroscience and philosophy. Michael is, in my view, one of the most under appreciated thinkers around, so it brings me great pleasure to present this survey of his ideas to you all.
We talk about mathematical theories of consciousness (dual-aspect monism), the symmetry theory of valence, panpsychism and super organism consciousness, vasocomputation, Buddhism, moral realism through valence realism, AI consciousness and AI alignment.
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2:30 — Are the big labs incentivized to play down consciousness?
18:14 — Symmetry theory of valence
34:08 — Is a corporation conscious?
42:51 — Vasocomputation, embodied bayesian priors, and trauma
50:57 — Why do latches stay closed?
55:27 — “The hand of the mind is the vascular system”
56:52 — Vasocomp. and predictive processing
1:02:50 — The multiple paths to Vasocomp.
1:04:46 — What is Enlightenment?
1:18:00 — Empirical validation?
1:18:57 — Moral realism grounding in valence
1:32:38 — Objections to valence utilitarianism
1:49:58 — Is AI consciousness good for alignment?
1:57:38 — Michael’s longterm vision
References
Qualia Research Institute:
Michael’s book Principia Qualia: https://opentheory.net/PrincipiaQualia.pdf
Integrated Information Theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_information_theory
Symmetry Theory of Valence: https://opentheory.net/2021/07/a-primer-on-the-symmetry-theory-of-valence/
Noether’s Theorem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noether’s_theorem
Romeo Stevens’ X: https://x.com/RomeoStevens76
Nick Cammarata’s X: https://x.com/nickcammarata
Michael (plus3happiness)’s X: https://x.com/Plus3Happiness
The Feeling of Value: Moral Realism Grounded in Phenomenal Consciousness: https://amzn.to/4qQTo88
Reasons and Persons: https://amzn.to/4haQUhy
Michael’s Socials
Michael’s Blog:
Michael Johnson’s X: https://x.com/johnsonmxe
A beautiful overview of Michael’s core ideas:
https://hyperspace.opentheory.net/
My Socials:
Substack: https://substack.com/@cxgonzalez
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/c.x.gonzalez/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cxgonzalez
Spotify:
Apple Podcasts:
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Audio: listen · 2:01:44
Source: Seeing Clearly