AI ML
Post #7466, on Nov 22, 2025 in TG
Uncle Iroh Asks the Big Questions: Do LLMs Actually Think?
Description
A two-panel meme using scenes from Avatar: The Last Airbender featuring Uncle Iroh and Zuko. In the top panel, Iroh tells Zuko 'It's time for you to look inward, and begin asking yourself the big questions.' In the bottom panel, the 'big questions' are revealed as 'WHAT IS THINKING? DO LLMS REALLY THINK? DO THEY UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY ARE DOING?' -- replacing typical existential questions with the current AI philosophy debate about consciousness and understanding in large language models. The meme has an imgflip.com watermark in the bottom left
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Comments
21Comment deleted
The answer is simple: LLMs don't think, they just predict the next token -- exactly like senior engineers in sprint planning predicting which story points will slip
This has to be irony Comment deleted
No. Answer is no, LLMs don't think. They're just digital parrots Comment deleted
i remember a Japanese woman married with multiple matrices [000] [000] [0∆0] x [000]. = Chatgpt [000] [0∆0] Comment deleted
ok. matrix multiplication is not a consciousness. but what if we could recreate all the circuits of a brain inside a computer (or a real biological vessel like cockroach). will this machine possess consciousness? or it has just simulation of consciousness? if it is just a simulation, so what is the difference between genuine and simulated consciousness if from the outer point of view they both are basically the same? how can we distinguish this kind of simulated consciousness (philosophical zombie) from real consciousness? or even more. let's formulate slightly opposite idea: could I be a simulation of platonic idea of myself? i'm llm hater btw. but this kind of questions about humanity's boundaries and consciousness triggers me. Comment deleted
why? Comment deleted
Consciousness is a made up term without non-magical definition that means just about nothing Comment deleted
doubt. how could then a doctor declare someone to be unconscious or regaining consciousness? Comment deleted
If joke, then you got me if not, then terms you’ve mentioned are basically homonyms Comment deleted
how come? un- is a negation Comment deleted
A ≠ B —> Neg(A) ≠ Neg(B) Comment deleted
yes, how is this applicable here? we are speaking about existence of the terms, homonym is a word with similar sound, but different meaning. here we have an antonym built with un- it's A = Neg(B) Comment deleted
What you asked about it medical condition, post is about philosophical term For example gravity is a fundamental force, but also „seriousness“. They are homonyms, but semantical operations would have different results Comment deleted
I don't think consciousness in medicine is so much different from consciousness in philosophy. they may use different terms to describe it based on different axiomatics and pointing out different aspects, but here it is the same term. like in mathematics one and the same operation can have different equivalent definitions depending on the field they are defined in. Comment deleted
I don't see where you're going with this, by the medical definition the p-zombie is conscious Comment deleted
okay. legit point Comment deleted
you can't even prove other humans have consciousness lmao Comment deleted
indeed, that's a point. if one can't prove existence of consciousness in a such "obvious" and "natural" thing as a human, then how can you prove that machine doesn't have one? the phenomenon of consciousness is obvious but we can't reliably put a finger on it it reminds me an old buddhist philosophical debate about what is I/self Comment deleted
Are they supposed to? Comment deleted
I don't get it Comment deleted
"What is thinking, do LLMs think?/understand what they are doing ... do I think/understand what I am doing???" Comment deleted