Ned Block is Silver Professor at New York University in the Departments of Philosophy and Psychology, where he works on the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of neuroscience, and cognitive science. In this episode, Robinson and Ned discuss some of the titans he studied under, ChatGPT and the nature of artificial intelligence, the Turing Test, androids, consciousness, the connection between seeing and thinking, blindsight, change blindness, and more. Ned’s most recent book is The Border Between Seeing and Thinking (OUP, 2023).
Ned’s Website: https://www.nedblock.us
The Border Between Seeing and Thinking: https://a.co/d/fqVb7gj
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
10:57 Does Noam Chomsky Understand ChatGPT?
17:52 On Daniel Dennett
26:03 Are Animals Conscious?
30:51 Does ChatGPT Pass the Turing Test?
36:53 Mary in the White Room
45:53 How to Show that ChatGPT Is Dumb
51:48 How to Create an Android
55:10 What Is Thought?
1:05:10 On Psychoanalysis
1:06:08 What Are Blindsight and Change Blindness?
1:16:03 Was Helen Keller Conscious?
1:20:58 What Are the Dominant Theories of Consciousness?
1:27:35 Do We Know What Consciousness Is?
Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com
Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.