Consciousness: can it be created artificially? (Humans)

by David Turell , Saturday, May 14, 2016, 17:55 (3113 days ago) @ David Turell
edited by David Turell, Saturday, May 14, 2016, 18:34

The author of this article who works in the field of AI thinks it is possible in the future following his theory: - https://aeon.co/essays/can-we-make-consciousness-into-an-engineering-problem?utm_source... - "The brain is a machine: a device that processes information. That's according to the last 100 years of neuroscience. And yet, somehow, it also has a subjective experience of at least some of that information. Whether we're talking about the thoughts and memories swirling around on the inside, or awareness of the stuff entering through the senses, somehow the brain experiences its own data. It has consciousness. - *** - "I've made my own entry into that race, a framework for understanding consciousness called the Attention Schema theory. The theory suggests that consciousness is no bizarre byproduct - it's a tool for regulating information in the brain. And it's not as mysterious as most people think. As ambitious as it sounds, I believe we're close to understanding consciousness well enough to build it. - *** - "We could give our robot an internal model of a ball and an attentional focus on the ball. But is the robot conscious of the ball in the same subjective sense that you might be? Would it claim to have an inner feeling? Some scholars of consciousness would say yes. Visual awareness arises from visual processing. - I would say no. We've taken a first step, but we have more work to do. - ***
 Let's add another component, a second internal model. What we need now is a model of the self. - "A self-model, like any other internal model, is information put together in the brain. The information might include the physical shape and structure of the body, information about personhood, autobiographical memories. And one particularly important part of the human self-model is called the body schema. - *** - "But we've neglected the third obvious component of the scene: the complex relationship between the self and the ball. The robot is focusing its attention on the ball. That's a resource that needs to be controlled intelligently. Clearly it's an important part of the ongoing reality that the robot's brain needs to monitor. Let's add a model of that relationship and see what it gives us. - "Alas, we can no longer dip into standard neuroscience. Whereas we have decades of research on internal models of concrete things such as tennis balls, there's virtually nothing on internal models of attention. It hadn't occurred to scientists that such a thing might exist. - *** - "Consciousness research has been stuck because it assumes the existence of magic. I would say most scientific scholars of consciousness - ask the question: ‘How does the brain generate that seemingly impossible essence, an internal experience?' - *** - "To monitor and control its own attention, the brain builds an attention schema. This is like a map of attention. It contains simplified, slightly distorted information about what attention is and what it is doing at any particular moment. - *** - "As long as scholars think of consciousness as a magic essence floating inside the brain, it won't be very interesting to engineers. But if it's a crucial set of information, a kind of map that allows the brain to function correctly, then engineers may want to know about it. And that brings us back to artificial intelligence. Gone are the days of waiting for computers to get so complicated that they spontaneously become conscious. - *** - "Building a functioning attention schema is within the range of current technology. It would require a group effort but it is possible. We could build an artificial brain that knows what consciousness is, believes that it has it, attributes it to others, and can engage in complex social interaction with people. This has never been done because nobody knew what path to follow. Now maybe we have a glimpse of the way forward." - Comment: it might look and act conscious, but solipsism says do we really know? Very long fascinating essay.