You're wrong about this: "People need to let go of this strange and erroneous idea that humans somehow have this privileged access to the 'real world'. You don't."
People do have a privileged access to the 'real world' compared to, for example, LLMs and any future AI. It's called: Consciousness and it is how we experience and come to know and understand the world. Consciousness is the privileged access that AI will never have.
Ok, explain its mechanism and why it gives privileged access. Furthermore I'd go for the Nobel prize and describe the elementary mechanics of consciousness and where the state change from non-conscious versus conscious occurs. It would be enlightening to read your paper.
Actually consciousness has been well studied and many papers already exist describing the elementary mechanics of consciousness. Look up neuroscience papers on qualia, for example and you’ll find your answers as to why consciousness is a privileged access not available to AI or any machine. Eg humans have qualia, which are fundamentally irreducible, while AI does not and cannot.
Just no, please stop making things up because you feel like it. Trying to say one of the most hotly debated ideals in neuroscience has been decided or even well understood is absolutely insane.
Even then you get into, animals have qualia right? But they are not expressive as human qualia, which means it is reducible.
It's literally part of the definition. Qualia is a well recognized term in neuroscience.
I suspect maybe you haven't done much research into this area? Qualia is pretty well established and has been for a long time.
Animals may have qualia, that's true. Though we can only be sure of our own qualia, because that's all we have access to. Qualia is the constituent parts that make up our subjective conscious experience, the atomized subjective experience, like the color red or the taste of sour.
People do have a privileged access to the 'real world' compared to, for example, LLMs and any future AI. It's called: Consciousness and it is how we experience and come to know and understand the world. Consciousness is the privileged access that AI will never have.