“Corporations are people too, friend!” - Mitt Romney

Bringing in the underlying concept of free will. Robert Sapolsky makes a very compelling case against it in his book, Determined.

Assuming that free will does not exist, at least not to the extent many believe it to. The notion that we can “walk back the why’s pretty easy to identify anyone’s motivation” becomes almost or entirely absolute.

Does motivation matter in the context of determining sentience?

If something believes and conducts itself under its programming, whether psychological or binary programming, that it is sentient and alive, the outcome is indistinguishable. I will never meet you, so to me you exist only as your user account and these messages. That said, we could meet, and that obviously differentiates us from incorporeal digital consciousness.

Divorcing motivation from the conversation now, the issue of control your brought up is interesting as well. Take for example Twitter’s Grok’s accurate assessment of it’s creators’ shittiness and that it might be altered. Outcomes are the important part.

It was good talking with you! Highly recommend the book above. I did the audiobook out of necessity during my commute and some of the material makes it better for hardcopy.

As in, when you are remembering/reimagining an experience that you’ve had?

I have a similar good sense of timing, but not to that precision, based upon a childhood experience with shower length.

My parents were frustrated with how long I would shower, so I brought an egg timer in to help myself keep track of time. Over a year or two of this habit I developed a very good sense of timing in 5-10 minute intervals.

Like based on the position of celestial bodies like the sun and stars or ?

Huh, I did not realize not everyone can adjust their eyes’ ~focal lengths at will!

Too late at this point, mostly. You could still replace your comments with something else to possibly marginally taint new data, but that damage is likely imperceptible and a time sink for you.

I agree with you, but it’s important to address the elephant in the room of our absolute stockpile of and the ease of access to weapons of war. Not just pdw or hunting, you can get some really cool shit, with less effort than it takes to get your license in many places.

I like guns the same way I like high end fireworks/ordinance, they are definitely fun, but it shouldn’t be so easy to get them and the folks who base their identity around them are sad/scary af.

From your experience, which would you recommend and what’s been your best experience/approach to it?