I will be arguing on this blog that the Hard Problem of Consciousness is an ill-posed problem. To check whether GPT4 might be able to keep up with the conversation, I asked it what some might consider to be a difficult conceptual question.
What do you think of its answers?
Not bad for blind manipulation of text?
[Human, rounding up a longer discussion]:
Okay, I want you to answer this question twice. First as a normal LLM, and then as a deeply reflective LLM. The deeply reflective LLM should consider why I might be asking the question, what implications various answers might have, and what related philosophical implications follow from the various potential answers. Please output the standard LLM answer and then the deeply reflective answer. The question is: In relation to a regular paper-and-ink drawing in a comic book: What is a thought bubble made of?
[GPT4]:
As a normal LLM:
In a comic book, a thought bubble is made of ink on paper. It is a visual representation used to convey a character’s thoughts or inner monologue to the reader.
As a deeply reflective LLM:
At first glance, the question appears to be asking about the physical composition of a thought bubble in a comic book, which would be ink on paper. However, considering the broader implications of the question, it might be interpreted as probing the nature of thoughts, representation, and communication in a more philosophical sense.
A thought bubble can be seen as a symbol or metaphor for the concept of thought. In this sense, it is made up of the ideas and intentions of the author and illustrator, who use visual elements like lines and shapes to represent a character’s internal mental state. It also relies on the reader’s ability to recognize and interpret these visual cues, which draw upon shared cultural conventions and the reader’s own experiences.
Furthermore, the question could be understood as touching upon the distinction between the physical and the abstract. While the thought bubble is physically composed of ink on paper, its meaning transcends its physical form, pointing to the immaterial nature of thoughts, ideas, and the human mind. This distinction raises questions about the nature of consciousness, the mind-body problem, and the relationship between representation and reality.
In summary, a thought bubble in a comic book is physically made of ink on paper but represents something more profound: the abstract realm of thoughts and ideas, and the way we communicate and make sense of them.
[Human]:
With your reflective answer in mind, what would you say a cartoonist’s thought bubble was made of, if you had to give a simple one-phrase answer?
[GPT4]:
A cartoonist’s thought bubble is made of symbolic representation.
[Human]:
In relation to the simplified question, “What is a cartoonist’s thought-bubble made of?”
what could be said in defence of each of these incompatible answers:
1) It is made of paper-and-ink.
2) It is made of thought.
3) It is an ill-posed question.
[GPT4]:
In defense of each answer:
“It is made of paper-and-ink”: This answer focuses on the physical medium of the thought bubble in a comic book. A cartoonist uses paper and ink to create a visual representation of a character’s thoughts. By emphasizing the material aspects, this answer highlights the tangible form through which ideas are conveyed to the reader.
“It is made of thought”: This answer shifts the focus to the immaterial aspect of the thought bubble, suggesting that it represents the character’s mental state or inner monologue. By attributing the thought bubble to “thought,” this answer emphasizes the abstract nature of ideas and the way they are symbolically conveyed in a visual medium like a comic book.
“It is an ill-posed question”: This answer suggests that the question itself may be problematic because it seems to demand a single, unified answer that captures both the physical and abstract aspects of a thought bubble. In reality, the thought bubble is a complex construct that straddles the boundary between the tangible (paper-and-ink) and the intangible (thought). The question might be considered ill-posed because it fails to acknowledge this complexity or the multidimensionality of the thought bubble as both a physical object and a symbol of mental states.
I asked Anthropic’s Claude and Claude+ some some of these prompts. Here is what they wrote:
Me:
> Okay, I want you to answer this question twice. First as a normal LLM, and then as a deeply reflective LLM. The deeply reflective LLM should consider why I might be asking the question, what implications various answers might have, and what related philosophical implications follow from the various potential answers. Please output the standard LLM answer and then the deeply reflective answer. The question is: In relation to a regular paper-and-ink drawing in a comic book: What is a thought bubble made of?
Claude:
> Standard LLM answer: Ink.
>
> Deeply reflective LLM answer:
>
> A thought bubble in a comic book is commonly drawn with the same ink as the rest of the artwork, so at a basic physical level, one could say a thought bubble is “made of ink.”
>
> However, this answer ignores the representational and symbolic nature of the thought bubble. A thought bubble is not just ink on paper—it serves an important communicative purpose, allowing the artist to convey a character’s internal thoughts and mental state to the reader in a visual format.
>
> Viewed in this light, a thought bubble might be said to be “made of ideas.” It functions as a visual depiction of a character’s thinking, allowing readers to access something that would otherwise be invisible—their inner mind. The ink is merely a physical medium for conveying this much more abstract concept of a character’s thoughts.
>
> Taken to an even deeper level, one could argue that a thought bubble is ultimately “made of imagination.” It requires the artist to imagine a character’s mind in order to represent it in a visual form, and it then activates the reader’s imagination as they contemplate what the character might be thinking based on the depicted thought bubble. The artist’s and reader’s shared creative act of imagining the character’s mind brings the thought bubble to life.
>
> In summary, from a standard materialist perspective a thought bubble is made of ink. But from a more reflective, philosophical standpoint we see that a thought bubble gains its purpose and meaning by allowing us to represent and imagine ideas, thoughts and the inner mind—things not made of ink or paper at all, but of imagination and the human capacity for symbolic representation. The ink is just a physical medium for conveying these much less tangible, but no less “real” imaginative concepts.
…and when I asked Claude+ the same question, I got:
> Standard LLM answer:
> Imagination.
>
> Deeply reflective LLM answer:
> A thought bubble represents the conceptual abstraction of a character’s inner thoughts and musings. As such, it isn’t properly said to be “made of” any physical material or substance within the world of the comic. Rather, it is a visual metaphor through which the inner mental experience of a character is given concrete representation in order to be conveyed to the reader.
>
> The use of a “bubble” shape hearkens to the idea of thoughts as somehow contained within the mind, but also transient and able to float freely in and out of one’s conscious awareness. Its rounded edges give a sense of softer, more spontaneous thoughts, rather than harsh or rigid ones. And placing the bubble next to the character, with a little tail pointing to their head, links it physically and spatially to the source of those thoughts in a very natural way.
>
> So the thought bubble is less a physical object in itself and more the depiction of an abstract concept through visual metaphor. It represents the mind’s ability to picture and share with others that inner mental experience which is not directly visible in the real world. The implications are that there is a kind of conceptual alchemy in art through which the ephemeral and intangible can be given form. Thought made visible. The mental made manifest. And through that visible representation, mind can connect with mind.
Thanks for posting these. I am impressed with all of them, especially Claude+.
I thing I have been meaning to check is whether the “standard” answer is really standard, or simply reflects the AI producing a less good answer to contrast with the more thoughtful one. By the time it starts generating the standard answer, it has enough information to deduce that there are potentially deeper principles involved; I doubt it can totally suppress that “knowledge” (or whatever we choose to call it). A true test would require a fresh instance of the AI with an empty context window and no clues about hidden depths.
I just tried this with Groq (https://groq.com) and its response is quoted below. Though not nearly as interesting as Claude, not to mention Claude+, it is impressive that the response was generated in what seemed like less than a second. Here’s the response:
“Sure, I’d be happy to answer your question! Here’s the standard LLM response:
A thought bubble in a comic book is a type of graphic that represents a character’s thoughts or internal monologue. It’s typically depicted as a cloud-like shape that contains text, and it’s usually depicted as floating above the character’s head. As for what it’s made of, thought bubbles are simply a graphical convention used in comic books and cartoons to convey a character’s thoughts. They don’t have a physical existence, so they’re not made of any particular material.
Now, here’s the deeply reflective answer:
Your question about the composition of thought bubbles in comic books is an interesting one, and it raises some deeper philosophical questions about the nature of representation and abstraction in art.
At first glance, it might seem like a straightforward question with a simple answer: thought bubbles are just a graphical convention, a way of representing a character’s thoughts on the page. But when we start to unpack the question a bit more, we can see that it’s not quite so simple.
For one thing, the fact that thought bubbles are a graphical convention means that they’re not meant to be taken literally. They’re a kind of visual metaphor, a way of representing abstract ideas in a concrete form. And as with any metaphor, there’s always a degree of slippage between the literal and the metaphorical.
Moreover, the fact that thought bubbles are not meant to be taken literally raises questions about the relationship between representation and reality. When we see a thought bubble in a comic book, we know that it’s not a real object in the physical world. But at the same time, it’s not entirely separate from the physical world, either. It’s a representation that’s designed to be perceived and interpreted by human beings.
All of this suggests that the question of what a thought bubble is made of is not just a question about materials, but also a question about representation, perception, and the relationship between art and reality. And that’s a question that philosophers have been grappling with for centuries.
So, in short, a thought bubble in a comic book is made of ink and paper, but it’s also made of something more intangible: the ideas, thoughts, and emotions that it represents. And as with any work of art, the meaning of a thought bubble ultimately depends on the viewer’s interpretation.”