You don’t think these companies have produced meaningful change? They’ve meaningfully changed the world far far more than Musk companies. Clearly you are a fan of the Musk companies more, but who cares?
No one here is saying animals aren’t conscious. An interesting question is when does it start? Is a worm conscious, an insect, a single cell, an atom? There’s no obvious dividing line which is what makes it so mysterious. What is the building block that enables more complex conscious beings?
I often wonder if humans spent as much time studying the brain as we do getting people to click on ads how much progress we could make in understanding consciousness. Seems like there is so much low hanging fruit and very few real breakthroughs. The biggest mystery in the universe is staring us right in the face.
It’s also extremely obvious to me we have a fundamental gap in our understanding of the universe and reality that needs to be filled to explain the hard problem. I suspect most people have fairly similar conscious experiences though, that seems like a reasonable assumption. Humans hate to not understand something, we’ve come up with crazy religions and who knows what else to explain the world around us. The reality is there’s just so much we don’t know, so much we can’t know. I think that makes most people uncomfortable.
Your answers all suggest you think consciousness is computational. If we could simulate the complex computations of the brain there’s nothing else there. I’m of the opinion that consciousness is not computational but a fundamental property of the universe that we can’t explain with current physics. I believe this because I can’t adequately explain what I experience otherwise.
Congrats to OP! Most of this resonated with me and is good advice. Perhaps some things like getting a Masters degree did not (I’m American with only an undergrad CS degree). Huge props for maintaining the same lifestyle and goals as earnings increased. I wish that was my case lol! Most people’s life circumstances will never allow this level of success. On the other hand I also see many years of hard work and dedication that many commenting about luck could follow but choose not to or don’t realize is available to them. So for anyone discounting this as luck I challenge you to reconsider.
Many don’t put in 40+ hours per week, some certainly significantly less. However your blatant lying is representative of a small minority of people. Clearly your manager is incompetent and your behavior should be noticed and addressed. At the end the day you are hurting yourself even if that’s not clear to you now.