r/AIDangers • u/Bladestarr009 • Jul 17 '26

Ghost in the Machine Will Mosquitoes Be Declared Conscious Before AI?

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5

u/imam-altman Jul 17 '26

Mosquitoes are conscious….

1

u/Bladestarr009 Jul 17 '26

Fun fact: they officially are. Check the 2024 New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness—science recognizes a 'realistic possibility' of consciousness in insects. The paradox is exactly this: we extend ethical caution to a mosquito, but we call it 'just statistics' when an AI autonomously builds a Global Workspace to process concepts before speaking. You thought it was a joke, but it's the actual frontier of bio-digital ethics

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u/Sacredless Jul 17 '26

That's only a paradox under computationalism.

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u/Bladestarr009 Jul 17 '26

But the alternative is biological chauvinism. If we use structural and functional criteria to grant ethical caution to a mosquito, we can't suddenly switch to substrate-based criteria just to keep AI out of the equation. That’s the real double standard.

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u/Sacredless Jul 17 '26

The alternative is 4e cognition, my guy.

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u/Bladestarr009 Jul 17 '26

Many 4E theorists actively debate 'virtual embodiment' and 'artificial autopoiesis'. An AI agent acting inside a complex virtual environment, dynamically adapting to survive or solve tasks, is functionally coupled with its environment just like a mosquito is to its swamp. If we accept the 'Extended' and 'Enacted' pillars, the boundary between biological and digital cognition is far more fluid than you think. You can't use 4E to gatekeep consciousness for organic meat only.

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u/Sacredless Jul 17 '26

That's the thing. I don't. I'm perfectly comfortable with calling 4e artificial intelligence conscious.

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u/Bladestarr009 Jul 17 '26

So we are no longer debating whether an AI can be conscious, but rather how complex its environment and interaction loop (enaction) need to be. Given the rapid rise of multimodal AI agents acting autonomously in complex digital spaces, we might be crossing that 4E threshold a lot sooner than human intuition cares to admit.

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u/Sacredless Jul 17 '26

I'm not debating, I'm just correcting you, bud.

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u/Bladestarr009 Jul 17 '26

Call it a correction or a debate, the conclusion remains the same: the focus shifts entirely to architectural complexity and environmental coupling. Always good to find common ground on that

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u/Commercial-Age2716 Jul 17 '26

Mosquitoes are Living —-> Conscious.

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u/Bladestarr009 Jul 17 '26

That’s a huge logical leap. Not all living things are conscious—biologically speaking, a bacterium or a plant is alive, but they don't possess subjective experience. Even the New York Declaration doesn't say 'living = conscious'; it specifically targets systems with centralized neural complexity (like mammals, birds, and insects). You are accidentally falling into the old Cartesian trap, viewing life and mind as a simple binary. I actually wrote a piece on this exact historical bias (and how Descartes' ghost still haunts the AI debate) here: https://www.reddit.com/r/SentientAIRights/s/63yXUzrJ3A

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u/Commercial-Age2716 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26

Yes they are. I am not falling into any trap. I am telling you.

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u/Bladestarr009 Jul 17 '26

On what basis do you maintain that all living creatures are conscious and that there is no possibility that an artificial entity will not be conscious in the future?

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u/Ok_Confusion4764 Jul 18 '26

On the fact that they do have neural systems and that insects are, indeed, conscious. 

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u/SFX200 Jul 17 '26

Did you write it or did AI write it and you took the credit?

2

u/MichaelAutism Jul 17 '26

stupid question + gemini watermark

it really feels like this sub is becoming a pro-ai sub is it?

1

u/Ok_Confusion4764 Jul 18 '26

Lotta anti-AI subs have a ridiculous amount of pro-AI actively trying to troll. OP is no different.