Due Wednesday, Sept 3. But try to post by Monday. (~250 words is fine).
On p. 8, Dennett says this about how we know that we have minds:
It is beyond serious dispute , however, that you and I each have a mind. How do I know you have a mind? Because anybody who can understand my words is automatically addressed by my pronoun “you,” and only things with minds can understand. There are computer-driven devices that can read books for the blind: they convert a page of visible text into a stream of audible words , but they don’t understand the words they read and hence are not addressed by any “you” they encounter; it passes right through them and addresses whoever listens to-and understands-the stream of spoken words . That’s how I know that you, gentle reader/listener, have a mind. So do I. Take my word for it.
He is clearly distinguishing between things with minds (us) and a thing that merely processes text. I think the assumption among many is that LLMs like ChatGPT are just like the screen readers he’s describing. Is that right? Using the other piece I assigned (the explainer by Lazano), spell out one interesting difference between the screen reader as described here and the LLMs we use. Then say something about whether that difference matters in determining if the LLMs have minds.