Ned Block: Consciousness, Artificial Intelligence, and the Philosophy of Mind

Video Description

Ned Block is Silver Professor at New York University in the Departments of Philosophy and Psychology, where he works on the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of neuroscience, and cognitive science. In this episode, Robinson and Ned discuss some of the titans he studied under, ChatGPT and the nature of artificial intelligence, the Turing Test, androids, consciousness, the connection between seeing and thinking, blindsight, change blindness, and more. Ned’s most recent book is The Border Between Seeing and Thinking (OUP, 2023). Ned’s Website: https://www.nedblock.us The Border Between Seeing and Thinking: https://a.co/d/fqVb7gj OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 10:57 Does Noam Chomsky Understand ChatGPT? 17:52 On Daniel Dennett 26:03 Are Animals Conscious? 30:51 Does ChatGPT Pass the Turing Test? 36:53 Mary in the White Room 45:53 How to Show that ChatGPT Is Dumb 51:48 How to Create an Android 55:10 What Is Thought? 1:05:10 On Psychoanalysis 1:06:08 What Are Blindsight and Change Blindness? 1:16:03 Was Helen Keller Conscious? 1:20:58 What Are the Dominant Theories of Consciousness? 1:27:35 Do We Know What Consciousness Is? Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.