The mirror test is frequently cited as a means of testing sentience.
OP I think you hit the nail on the head.
this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
495 points (94.3% liked)
Showerthoughts
40943 readers
645 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Based on the fact that most people don't see their interaction with the LLM as gazing into the mirror, am I being led to believe that most people are not sentient???
Based entirely on the opinions of people on niche social media platforms, yes.
Mmm, I mean, sentience is a gradient, right? The mirror test is where we decided to draw the line, but there are more places to do so. My toddler thinks his favorite toy has some level of agency, just as by all accounts his older sister thinks Bluey has an identity. Depending on the test, there are developmental markers where we statistically transition from failing to succeeding. Another way to look at it is that for each developmental range, we can develop tests that challenge how we perceive autonomy, which some people succeed at and others fail. We may have just inadvertently developed a test that a significant amount of adults are just going to fail as human beings.
Except it's not my reflection, it's a reflection of millions if not billions of humans.
Except it’s not their reflection, it’s a string of phrases presented to you based partly on the commonality of similar phrases appearing next to one another in the training data, and partly on mysterious black box modifications! Fun!
load more comments
(1 replies)
Just think about the fact llms are basically trying to simulate reddit posts and then think again about using them.
Related: is there a name for "question bias"?
Like asking ChatGPT if "is x good?", and it would reply "Yes, x is good." but if you ask "is x bad?" it would reply "Yes, x is bad, you're right."
It's just a leading question.
It is not a leading question. The answer just happens to be meaningless.
Asking whether something is good is the vast majority of human concern. Most of our rational activity is fundamentally evaluative.
I checked with that other gorilla who lives in the bathroom and he says you're wrong
lol, Is that the same gorilla that you see in other bathrooms? Or (like me) you meet a new gorilla every time you wash your hands?
I think he's the same guy. I used to try to bust him up but he just kept multiplying into more pieces and then coming back whole every time I saw a new mirror, so I eventually gave up
This is a great one - although I never see animals worshipping the mirror.
I've got a duck that prefers to dance in front of a chrome bumper or glass door where he can see his reflection than to go after any potential mates. Possibly he's worshipping the mirror. Possibly he's just really vain.
Nothing wrong with a handsome duck taking a little self affirmation time - he knows his value, he can't look away.
Sounds like he’s ducking handsome
He is actually. When he washes himself he's blinding white. And when he dances he gets a little feather pompadour on the top of his head.
Your duck:
I love the idea of a bunch of woodland creatures (completely unaware of what mirrors are) investing heavily—and aggressively—in mirrors and mirror-related technology.
Squirrels (lemmings) pooling all of their nuts at the alter, lol.
Investor Squirrel 1: “All you have to do is gather your acorns right here, and they will instantly double in value!”
Investor Squirrel 2: “Bro’, we’re so sentient!!!”
Or forming romantic attachments to the mirror
Uhmm ... you never had a pet bird Im guessing?
Seeing all bird masturbate up against a mirror is just par for the course when you have bird pets. Its gonna be either a mirror, a favorite toy ... or you.
Animals aren't cursed with the human ability to think our way into harmful and unproductive behavior due to conscious re-interpretation of information around us. Except for occasional zoo-animals in captivity that fall in love with inanimate objects.
Something something about our species basically being in captivity.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Not nearly enough people understand this about our current models of AI. Even people who think they understand AI don't understand this, usually because they have been talking to themselves a lot without realizing it.
from page 7 of Joseph Weizenbaum's Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgement to Calculation (1976):
a pdf of the whole book is available here
Huh.....so what you're saying is that mirrors are actually AI.
THAT MAKES A LOT OF SENSE!!! EVERYBODY COVER YOUR MIRRORS!!!
Unironically in certain cultures there is a superstition that you should cover your mirrors at night
load more comments
(1 replies)
My dog used to stare at me through mirrors, so what does that mean for her intelligence? Hyper intelligent. Red heelers will take over the world.
My dog doesn't pay any attention to mirrors, or llms.
And here I am practising my smile in the mirror (like that golden retriever)
False. My reflection can't tell me that pressing the Steam button and X will bring up the keyboard on Steam Deck's desktop mode.
pressing and holding the steam button tells u every steam shortcut
If I understand your statement correctly, only the most intelligent creatures would understand that LLM's are themselves?
load more comments
(1 replies)
view more: next ›