I’ve been thinking about so many existential things the past months to the point where I don’t even know what to ask. Though I have one question. Can a robot have feelings? just know i am not that old (<15) so thats why i sound so unprofessional. Idk sorry. What are feelings even? How do you explain how it feels to experience things? Because from a third person view, they only see an input and an output. Someone tells me something and I react to it. And when does it count as feelings? I am so confused. Everything feels real, but I’m the only one experiencing what I experience. Yeah I can’t explain it better than that. But my questions are, can a robot have feelings? And how do you explain how it feels to experience? Thanks to all you super smart people :)
It can act like it does. Which is not really any different from everybody else that's not you - you don't experience their subjective reality. It basically comes down to how familiar it looks. A humanoid robot with convincing emotions will garner more human empathy.
This is more of a philosophy and computer science sort of question. Physics doesn't have an answer.
yeah i know. I just keep thinking that physics can answer every question, and it probably can, but not when choosing a subreddit…
The real answer is we don't know. We dont have a solid, well defined answer for what intelligence/consciousness/self-awareness/sapience is, and how does it come about in humans. Neuroscience is making progress but no solid answers so far. Right now the answer is no, robots can't have feelings. No one has created a machine which is conscious. Some people have claimed LLMs (e.g chatGPT) are conscious/intelligent but there is little evidence for this.
Yeah but it can’t be impossible right? Do you think a simulated brain can have feelings?
This is not the right subreddit for this question. A lot of physicist do have thoughts about this even though it is a philosophy question, but questions like this belong on r/AskPhysics or r/askphilosophy instead. I imagine r/askphilosophy has info about it in the sidebar, and likely a rule against asking the question because it is asked *constantly* otherwise.
Yeah sorry I just assumed it was the right subreddit because I believe that physics can answer every question but not when choosing a subreddit.
ChatGPT is not a real person, does not have feelings, and will agree with anything you say to the point that it hypes you up if you let it. I’m just guessing that that’s what this is about but no, there is no ghost in the machine, it’s an algorithm designed to make you think it’s close to a person but it isn’t.
Nonono that isn’t what I’m asking. I’m asking if it’s POSSIBLE. And assuming every human has a “soul” doesn’t answer anything
I personally believe consciousness is a bi-product of complexity, and with that might feelings come as well. So yes, I believe artificial intelligence (robots) has the capability to become conscious and develop feelings. We have way of knowing when this happens, or if it has happened.
I think there are many ways we *could* tell if an artificial intelligence becomes conscious. The behaviour of a conscious AI would be obviously very different from any of the LLMs / AI we have right now, if it is even remotely similar to human consciousness. As far as I have seen, there is no evidence that any existing AI has any sort of consciousness. Despite massive and consistent effort to check.
It depends on what you conceptualize feelings as and then modeling a system that accomplishes the same. So, how are you defining feelings? And if you have multiple definitions, you may need multiple systems to model that. Then you might need to determine how to arbitrate between systems and priorities. This might be better served in a philosophy, computer science, psychology and/or maybe a biology sub.
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No. Does my air fryer know what food tastes like?
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For sure we can make robots that can convince you that they have feelings even if they don’t
You have asked some really important and current questions, but there are no answers. People are asking if AI can develop consciousness. And some people say yes, it can happen, it will happen. I doubt it myself. But what do I know? Consciousness is not understood by current science. What exactly is it and how can it be tested for? And what are the mechanisms in the brain or body that give rise to it? How does it work? I read a book titled Consciousness Explained, and I thought it was just pure speculation. I'm sure there are philosophy boards on reddit where people discuss this kind of thing. Just don't expect any real answers.