Instead of downgrading the value of LLM thought; what you probably should focus on is: Do a lot of people simply do the same thing LLMs do?
I think the answer is coming close to yes.
I think the answer is coming close to yes.
Light waves get converted into neural signals by your eyes.
Those visual representations are just neurons firing in your brain.
It’s just a matter of quantization/information density.
Our digital systems have to quantize information into floating point representation.
Whereas biological systems don’t. Though there is some form of quantization, as the cells in your eyes can only sense specific wavelengths.
Different thinking animals have different sensory organs.
You don’t need the same sensory systems to be conscious.
Or at least it’s proving that some of your requirements for them conflate with what you actually believe is capable of thought, sentience, or consciousness.
Consciousness is likely not a single mode inside a single person. It likely is a distributed system; you can read about all kinds of psyciatric disorders, physical changes, etc.
You are using the "best" examples of what is it to think, rather than normative or even "depraved" thought processes.