"But I think you mean the 'architectural' or connectome complexity of the brain compared to GPT, and I agree it's surprising that such a simple model as GPT is so capable."
No, I'm referring to things like Roger Penrose's conjecture that subatomic interactions in the brain might be a key component of consciousness.[1]
Even a single neuron is incredibly complex, and humans just don't completely understand it (or any other physical structure) yet because physics' understanding of the world is not complete and may never be, due to measurement limitations and possibly just limitations of the human mind to grasp the world.
At this point we just don't know what aspects of the brain, the rest of the body, or mind are necessary for intelligence or consciousness (or even what intelligence and consciousness are), so to see hints of them in incredibly simple (by comparison to the braian) machines is surprising.
That's not to mention possibilities that consciousness may not be bound to or determined by the brain/body at all, beliefs in the soul or that there is something uniquely special about the mental capacities of human beings, etc.. many of these views are starting to be challenged by AI, and the challenge is likely to increase to crisis levels for some people as AI improves.
Ah OK, I've read nearly all his books, and I'm not convinced by the 'quantum microtubules' argument or whatever it's called these days, let alone any arguments about souls and so on.
I agree these models are surprisingly capable for their complexity, and that's going to be a challenge for mystics (even physicist mystics) and spiritualists, etc.
Perhaps intelligence isn't all that difficult after all.
I suppose one counter idea is that complexity, or scale, itself taps into some other dimensional consciousness or intelligence, but that starts to sound circular.
And there's always the fallback of why our universe supports such amazing complexity in the first place, it does all seem a bit magical.
No, I'm referring to things like Roger Penrose's conjecture that subatomic interactions in the brain might be a key component of consciousness.[1]
Even a single neuron is incredibly complex, and humans just don't completely understand it (or any other physical structure) yet because physics' understanding of the world is not complete and may never be, due to measurement limitations and possibly just limitations of the human mind to grasp the world.
At this point we just don't know what aspects of the brain, the rest of the body, or mind are necessary for intelligence or consciousness (or even what intelligence and consciousness are), so to see hints of them in incredibly simple (by comparison to the braian) machines is surprising.
That's not to mention possibilities that consciousness may not be bound to or determined by the brain/body at all, beliefs in the soul or that there is something uniquely special about the mental capacities of human beings, etc.. many of these views are starting to be challenged by AI, and the challenge is likely to increase to crisis levels for some people as AI improves.
[1] - https://phys.org/news/2014-01-discovery-quantum-vibrations-m...