Max Tegmark

We have this universe that goes on with great construction projects and stuff, but there's no one experiencing anything.

That would be like the ultimate depressing future.

So I actually think...

as we move forward with building more advanced AI, we should do more research on figuring out what kind of information processing actually has experience, because I think that's what it's all about.

And I completely don't buy

the dismissal that some people, some people will say, well, this is all bullshit because consciousness equals intelligence.

That's obviously not true.

You can have a lot of conscious experience when you're not really accomplishing any goals at all.

You're just reflecting on something.

And you can sometimes have things, doing things that are quite intelligent probably without being conscious.

Are you saying that we humans sometimes come up with self-serving arguments?

No, we would never do that, would we?

I was horrified as a kid when someone started boiling water

boiling lobsters.

I'm like, oh my God, that's so cruel.

And some grownup there back in Sweden said, oh, it doesn't feel pain.

I'm like, how do you know that?

Oh, scientists have shown that.

And then there was a recent study where they show that lobsters actually do feel pain when you boil them.

So they banned lobster boiling in Switzerland now.