(((nataluna)))

“Am I a cat?”

YOU MUST WATCH THIS

That first existential crisis

self aware sweetie

okay but cats aren’t supposed to be able to pass the MSR test… They’re not supposed to be capable of self awareness and therefore aren’t supposed to be sentient by animal behavior science definitions… I’m confused

I mean, anyone who has owned cats can tell you they’re incredibly emotionally complex beings and are definitely self-aware but a lot of science is still heavily invested in the idea that humans are unique.

With behavior, trust owners above experiments that say animals aren'tsmart or sentient. I’ve spent more “lab time” with my cats, and with a greater variety of cat personalities, than most studies ever could.

One of the ideas put forth in this video is that the entire concept of “Rights,” for any being – from human to bot to botfly – only has meaning in the context of pain (i.e. the right to be protected from pain).

Therefore, as long as we keep A.I. from acquiring the ability to feel pain, we have nothing to worry about. And then, the video asks: “But what if A.I. advances far enough to be able to give itself that ability?

(Assuming that advanced intelligence would come first, and pain comes later)

I think it’s the other way around:

Congratulations! Self-awareness!

Furthermore, I think we will soon want to give our A.I. the ability to feel pain… Most of us won’t recognize that’s what we’re doing, though.

We’ll just be teaching our bots to recognize when there’s a fault in their hardware, or when they are under attack from a malicious hacker.

Listen, every time you say to yourself, “Wow, I have a sore throat, watery eyes, and I keep sneezing. Must be allergies!” or “Wow, my head hurts, my throat hurts, my sinuses hurt, I’m struggling to breathe and I keep coughing; I must have a cold.”

You know what that is?

Self diagnosis.

And damn near everyone does this. And then they take medicine based on the symptoms they have and maybe check WebMD for information about possible explanations for their symptoms if they aren’t totally sure.

Mental illness? It lasts way longer than a cold, okay? The people who have them live with them for years. I was already depressed as early as 3rd grade, maybe 2nd, and just didn’t know there was a word for it yet.

You know what symptoms you have when you have a cold. Why is it so hard for you to believe that we know what symptoms we as mentally ill people have?

Like, I don’t know what you think self diagnosis is, but it’s really just looking at your symptoms, figuring out potential causes, finding a label that sounds like it describes what you have, and then going to seek treatment if possible. Which is what you do every time you get a cold or have allergies.

“It’s different, though! If I take the wrong cold medicine it’s no big deal, but if you take the wrong mood stablizer or SSRI or-”

Stop. That’s not how this works.

You know how it really works? People learn healthy coping mechanisms. They learn skills like deep breathing or meditation or whatever to help ease their symptoms. They see a psychologist for an official diagnosis and work with a psychiatrist to take the appropriate medication for them if that’s an option. Like, these meds aren’t something you can just get just because and a psychiatrist isn’t going to give you random shit without talking to you first. Your concern is over nothing.

Listen to mentally ill people. Please. Self diagnosis isn’t some evil thing that only ignorant people do to look cool or whatever the fuck you think it is. It’s something real people with real mental illnesses do in order to understand their symptoms and themselves. And true, not all mentally ill people do it, and true, there is a risk of being wrong. But in the end its not much different from what you do every time you have a cold; it just involves more time and research.