The presence of “another”
Two days ago I wrote about the limitations of LLM when it comes to emulating human interactions. And my conviction that these limitations will persist.
Today, I tried Apple’s Vision Pro for the first time and the incredibly realistic nature of the VR experience made me question my hypothesis. Does AI just need a sufficiently mature interface to complete the illusion? Will a VR supported AI therapist prove me wrong?
The answer has to still be no.
What we seek out in human interaction, and what is ultimately its healing element, is the presence of “another”. Existentially, I would define “another” as someone who shares with us the experience of “life” and whose existence constitutes one face of the multifaceted prism that is consciousness.
If you’ve been in the presence of a horse, you know what I’m talking about. Here is an animal that is certainly intelligent, but incapable of language or any of the other feats we expect from general artificial intelligence. And yet, its presence appears to prove extremely effective as a healing modality.
AI is undoubtedly intelligent in the domain of rationality, but it can never be conscious or participate in what we experience as life.
