What is Real? How do you define Real?
Zhuangzi dreams he is a butterfly, and I pine for immortality.
Fitting, I thought, to match a modern-day philosopher, Morpheus of The Matrix, with an ancient philosopher, Zhuangzi. How better to make the point that humans have always and universally wondered at the conundrum of consciousness? “Have you ever had a dream, a dream that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?” Is there a difference? I take some comfort knowing that everyone who has lived, and ever will live, considers this question.
Once upon a time, I, Zhuangzi, dreamt that I was a butterfly, flitting around and enjoying myself. I had no idea I was Zhuangzi. Then suddenly I woke up and was Zhuangzi again. But I could not tell, had I been Zhuangzi dreaming I was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming I was now Zhuangzi? However, there must be some sort of difference between Zhuangzi and a butterfly!
I don’t know what consciousness is, but I think some inferences are possible. If consciousness is like most other things that have been mysterious and unfathomable to humanity, then likely consciousness will turn out not to be very rare or special at all. Part of nature’s momentum, a useful adaptation that caught on in this region of time and space, and perhaps in many others too.
What if people in the real world could communicate with those of the dream world? How long do you think it would take for the dreamers to make people forget that they aren’t real? This was the outcome of a conversation I had with my son while we were taking the metro to hike on Yinhushan. He asked me if I knew there were people who froze their bodies so they could take advantage of future technologies and live forever. I said, yeah, people have been looking for immortality as long as we’ve been around. We want to preserve and add to our thoughts and experiences.
Which got me thinking about writing. I write because I want my thoughts and experience to be available for future generations. I want my grand- and great-grandkids to come to this material and get a perspective that goes beyond their view of life. If I write enough, really enough, would they feel like they really knew me? Am I not trying to upload my knowledge in written form? To exist beyond my physical time, extending my existence in the memories of those who knew me or come into contact with my work?
Large Language Models (LLM) apply data to solving problems. Apply LLM to service manuals and company policies and out pops a convincing customer service experience. A texting bot can at times almost convince me it is a person. Apply maps, rules, and laws to driving, and the result is a convincing stand-in for a human driver. We have fooled our consciousness in these narrow examples. Now what about the other senses? And wider examples?
Let’s assume I continue to write; about my memories, feelings, and opinions, and I do so honestly. How many words would an LLM need to create a reasonably convincing facsimile of me? One million? Ten million?
Laozi left 5000 or so characters and many people act as if they know him.
If we set consciousness aside, and I think we can, because we assume consciousness in others without proof, who could say with certainty that this dream person who has my knowledge, and speaks as I would, isn’t me? The only way to know what he, or I, would be is to ask “us”. Perhaps the Daoist search for immortality has always been closer than we thought, and we are as much caught up in the search as they were.
Happy Year of the Snake 🐍. May the New Year bring all you dream of.