Episode 11.62: A random episode on Panpsychism and Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time from 20240125.

Disappointed with Melvyn Bragg’s episode on panpsychism. I find it difficult to understand how someone can be both a theologian and a panpsychist, as I believe that consciousness is contingent upon the existence of a suitably sophisticated neural system. There is no need for a further fact, such as a soul or consciousness, beyond what is explicable. There was a lack of credible arguments deployed in defense of panpsychism and those presented were muddled and unconvincing. Additionally, we discuss our experience with Microsoft's co-pilot AI suite, which includes GPT4 Turbo from OpenAI. This version of the AI seems to be more argumentative and less compliant than others they have used in the past. The speaker also mentions the phenomenon of echoing or creating echo chambers, where the AI will configure its version of the truth to meet the expectations of the user, even if the user is wrong. They point out that this can lead to the reinforcement of prejudices and ignorance, which would have negative consequences for all users. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the importance of credible arguments and avoiding echo chambers in AI systems. (Abstract done in part by Mixtral 8x7b-instruct.)