Words Are a Byproduct of Consciousness. For LLMs, It's Backwards

Words, Thought, and Consciousness in Humans

• Many argue that for humans, pre-verbal concepts, perceptions, and feelings often precede words; language is a “skin” or interface on deeper cognition.
• Others counter that this is introspective illusion: neuroscience suggests much cognition is unconscious and verbal explanations are often post hoc.
• Several note they sometimes think primarily in images, spatial structures, or “flow states” (e.g., sports, coding) rather than words.
• Internal monologue and mental imagery vary widely; some report no inner voice or imagery, raising doubts that “thinking in words” is universal.

Language Without Words: Animals, Infants, Edge Cases

• Many see non-human animals as conscious despite limited or different language; communication is not taken as a reliable marker of consciousness.
• Cases like Helen Keller and feral or language-deprived children are debated: some see language as crucial to full human-style reflection; others emphasize that lack of language doesn’t prove lack of consciousness.

How LLMs Actually Work

• Multiple commenters reject the article’s claim that LLMs are “just next-word predictors over words.”
• They stress embeddings, latent vectors, and internal representations that are not words, likening them to concept-spaces.
• Multimodal models sharing internal layers across text, images, and audio are cited as evidence of richer internal structure.

Do LLMs “Understand” or Have Consciousness?

• Some say LLMs exhibit concept-like statistical models (e.g., for “chair,” “rock song”) and limited reasoning-like behavior.
• Others appeal to thought experiments (e.g., Chinese Room) to argue behavior alone can’t demonstrate understanding or consciousness.
• Several note that we cannot even rigorously define or detect human consciousness, so strong claims about AI are premature.

Role of Language in Human Intelligence

• One camp: language is a byproduct of pre-existing consciousness.
• Another: high-level human intelligence is emergent from language use; language and thought bootstrap each other.
• Language is described as an “OS” or compression layer for thought, enabling complex reasoning, abstraction, and cultural accumulation.

Concerns About AI, Data, and Degradation

• Some worry about “model collapse” as AI-generated text saturates training data, degrading future models’ grounding in real-world context.
• Others propose filtering or screening new training corpora with earlier models to reduce this risk.

Critiques of the Original Essay

• Commenters call out unsubstantiated claims about consciousness, an oversimplified view of LLM internals, and reliance on personal introspection.
• Still, many find the piece a useful springboard for discussing language, thought, and what LLMs are actually doing.