Donald Hoffman

to things that other systems do, whether they're artificial intelligence systems or plant systems or insect systems, it's easy for us to see how other systems, or we intuit that other systems may not have a felt experience associated with processing. And it seems natural that human beings and maybe mammals do. But when you look more closely at

what that entails and what differences there are or that there really are a lack of to point to why some systems or some processing would not entail an experience from the inside and others would. It's actually very hard. to come up with a reason for it. It's also in terms of the sciences, science studies everything from the outside. And this isn't true beyond science.

what that entails and what differences there are or that there really are a lack of to point to why some systems or some processing would not entail an experience from the inside and others would. It's actually very hard. to come up with a reason for it. It's also in terms of the sciences, science studies everything from the outside. And this isn't true beyond science.

what that entails and what differences there are or that there really are a lack of to point to why some systems or some processing would not entail an experience from the inside and others would. It's actually very hard. to come up with a reason for it. It's also in terms of the sciences, science studies everything from the outside. And this isn't true beyond science.

This is true in our daily lives, just our understanding of the world, of each other. We are only able to study, observe, try to understand, experience other things in the world from the outside, from their behavior, from their physical characteristics.

This is true in our daily lives, just our understanding of the world, of each other. We are only able to study, observe, try to understand, experience other things in the world from the outside, from their behavior, from their physical characteristics.

This is true in our daily lives, just our understanding of the world, of each other. We are only able to study, observe, try to understand, experience other things in the world from the outside, from their behavior, from their physical characteristics.

And so, you know, luckily human beings can communicate so well that we can get a pretty good sense of what we're each experiencing because we have this high level of communication and we're similar enough that we can talk about how we're feeling. But I can never have direct contact with your experience. I can't know your experience from the inside.

And so, you know, luckily human beings can communicate so well that we can get a pretty good sense of what we're each experiencing because we have this high level of communication and we're similar enough that we can talk about how we're feeling. But I can never have direct contact with your experience. I can't know your experience from the inside.

And so, you know, luckily human beings can communicate so well that we can get a pretty good sense of what we're each experiencing because we have this high level of communication and we're similar enough that we can talk about how we're feeling. But I can never have direct contact with your experience. I can't know your experience from the inside.

And so this is a real challenge for the sciences and for just us as curious creatures, how to better understand something that you can only know firsthand in terms of the experience itself. The experience itself exists for itself and can't be really received or penetrated from any other place.

And so this is a real challenge for the sciences and for just us as curious creatures, how to better understand something that you can only know firsthand in terms of the experience itself. The experience itself exists for itself and can't be really received or penetrated from any other place.

And so this is a real challenge for the sciences and for just us as curious creatures, how to better understand something that you can only know firsthand in terms of the experience itself. The experience itself exists for itself and can't be really received or penetrated from any other place.

Yes. So there are two questions that I raise in my book, and this is one of them. And I pose it that way because I think it gets at our deepest intuitions about what consciousness is. And it shows us how counterintuitive a lot of the answers to these two questions are. And the first one is essentially how you phrased it.

Yes. So there are two questions that I raise in my book, and this is one of them. And I pose it that way because I think it gets at our deepest intuitions about what consciousness is. And it shows us how counterintuitive a lot of the answers to these two questions are. And the first one is essentially how you phrased it.

Yes. So there are two questions that I raise in my book, and this is one of them. And I pose it that way because I think it gets at our deepest intuitions about what consciousness is. And it shows us how counterintuitive a lot of the answers to these two questions are. And the first one is essentially how you phrased it.

can we find conclusive evidence from the outside of any system that consciousness is present in that system? And while we feel that the answer is yes, and I think we're correct in our assumptions about other human beings and mammals, the truth is it's actually...

can we find conclusive evidence from the outside of any system that consciousness is present in that system? And while we feel that the answer is yes, and I think we're correct in our assumptions about other human beings and mammals, the truth is it's actually...

can we find conclusive evidence from the outside of any system that consciousness is present in that system? And while we feel that the answer is yes, and I think we're correct in our assumptions about other human beings and mammals, the truth is it's actually...

impossible at this point in neuroscience and in our path as human beings to actually be able to conclusively say because the only evidence we can get is through communication. As I said, I can't jump into another experience and have that experience myself. And this is actually very interesting.