We’ll be talking about minds, machines, consciousness, and human identity through the lens of LLMs. A few questions to get you thinking:

• If meaning comes from use, what does an LLM’s language mean?
• When a model says “I,” what would have to be true for it to mean what it means when you say it?
• Is the self a thing, or a pattern that refers back to itself?
• If we reproduced that pattern perfectly, what would be missing?

No required reading, but if you have ~15 min here are some short pieces to get your gears turning:

1. Searle’s Chinese Room: Does producing the right answers mean understanding?
2. Parfit on identity [pages 4–6]: If a machine perfectly copies you, did you survive?