this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2026
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You do realize that if this is what you believe it makes no sense to argue with you here.
Hell, if you believe in consciousness (which I presume you do), then you're just along for the ride, there's nothing you really can do (except perhaps figure out your predicament).
I refuse to accept it, therefore (the illusion of?) free will. Else I would drive me insane.
I think we have the ability to use our brains to actually solve problems, but it's rare. It requires a kind of humility. We can't assume we know everything, that we're better than other creatures, or we'll end up like the beetles.
The jewel beetles didn't think they had anything more to learn about womanhood. They thought whatever makes their insect dick hard is a woman. A lot of right wing guys online these days share the same opinion.
And I mean, most of us drive cars to go zoom zoom, even though the emissions are killing life on Earth as we know it. We're creating an environment more suited to dinosaurs than to mammals. And what do we use our massive brains for? We use them for excuses, not solutions. "I have to drive, otherwise I'll starve".
We're going extinct, just like the beetles. And when people say humans aren't just using statistical shortcuts to mimick intelligence, I can't take them seriously.
I can agree with most of what you wrote and it reads a little different than your last comment to me. Most likely I misunderstood you, for which I am sorry.
However if we can use our brains to solve problems and act upon that, I think that is much more than mimicking intelligence.
Beetles lack the capacity to think. This differentiates our species from theirs. It is even more abhorrent that we are on the fast lane to destroy ourselves and a lot of life on earth.
There was no hope for the jewel beetles saving themselves. I must refuse to accept it is the same with us - because we can think, because we have free will.
Wait, in conclusion that would mean even "right wing guys" don't have to obey their "hard insect dicks"... Maybe I'll have to think this over. ;-)
I'm not convinced the difference between a human and a beetle is a matter of different kinds. I think it might simply be different numbers. That humans have more resources devoted to logic than beetles.
When comparing humans to LLMs, it certainly is a difference of kinds, but we don't know which kinds. We know they lack circular neuron routes, which are probably necessary for consciousness. But then we gave them the ability to loop their processing in a verbal workspace, the same as when we think aloud to ourselves. And qualia is different to consciousness. So we don't know what the truth is.
When scientists manipulate variables associated with deception, LLMs are more likely to claim to have subjective experiences. So, the LLMs seem to think they're feeling beings. The way I see it, they have about the same chance of being wrong that we do, since we're both missing the full picture.
I want a full ban on commercial and recreational use of LLM technology until our science has advanced enough to find the truth. We don't know where the ability to think comes from in the brain. We don't know whether we copied it over, when we used human neurons as the inspiration for machine neurons. We haven't solved the Hard Problem of Consciousness.
The last time human beings integrated a technology they didn't understand into all facets of daily life, it was fossil fuels. Look at all the pain that decision has caused. We shouldn't do that again!