Artificial Consciousness

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Artificial Consciousness

• Karolina Olszewska
• Florian Klumb

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Vote

• Do you think that Artificial Consciousness (AC)
  is possible?

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Outline

• Introduction
• Arguments against AC
• Arguments in favour of AC
• Questions and discussion

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Introduction

• Dennet Human consciousness is just about the
  last surviving mystery
• Chalmers There is nothing that we know more
  intimately than conscious experience, but there
  is nothing that is harder to explain
• Easy problems perceptual discrimination,
  categorization, internal states, verbal report
  etc.
• The hard problem how do physical processes in
  the brain give raise to subjective experience?

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Challenges of AC

• What is consciousness?
• subjective experience, 'what it is like to be'
• There can't be an objective test
• consider a machine is conscious if it (a) laughs
  at jokes, (b) understands the plot of Hamlet and
  (c) makes you feel loved
• functionalist consciousness having certain
  functions
• sceptic zombies machines pretending to be
  conscious
• (Blackmore, 200314)

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Emotions and Consciousness

• emotions and consciousness depend upon each other
  (Tsuchiya et al., 2007)
• assumption maybe only the chemical
  neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin can give
  rise to the subtlety of emotional response
  (Blackmore, 200314)
• using those neurotransmitters for AC raises the
  questions is such a machine still purely
  artificial? To what extent is it biological?

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Computational Theory of Mind

• Computational Theory of Mind (CTM) the brain is
  essentially a digital computer, consciousness is
  computable
• Strong AI being conscious running the right
  programme

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The Chinese Room Argument (I)
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The Chinese Room Argument (II)

• Searle acts like a computer running a programme
  using inputs, his rule book and outputs
• But he still does not understand the Chinese
  stories - a computer running a program about
  Chinese stories (or indeed anything else)
  understands nothing of those stories (Blackmore,
  200314)
• purely formal symbol manipulation isn't
  sufficient for understanding, syntax doesn't
  entail semantics

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Mathematical Objection

• (P1) there are things machines can't
  do(P2) humans can do one of those
  things(C) humans have sth. extra consciousness
• Turing (and others) the limitations from P1
  apply to humans as well (we just cheat, e.g by
  using heuristics to tackle difficult problems)
• Penrose mathematical understanding goes beyond
  computation, mathematicians can intuitively see
  non-computable truths

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Dualism and Mysterianism

• dualistic assumption humans have a magical
  property X which causes real consciousness
• is X possible in inorganic materials?
• (modern) mysterianism even with the most
  detailed understanding of the brain we will never
  understand consciousness (the same way dogs will
  never get maths)
• McGinn we will never find out what X is,
• therefore we will never be able toconsciously
  build conscious machines
• (Blackmore, 200315,16)
  

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• Dennett accepting dualism is giving up

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Cognitive neuroscience

• Monism materialism/ physicalism
• Neural correlate of content of experience
  consciousness linked to specific brain areas and
  patterns of neuronal activation
• Minsky Minds are simply what brains do

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Technology

• Brooks The distinction between us and robots is
  going to disappear
• Kurzweil Reinstalling a persons brain should
  alter a persons mind no more than it changes
  from day to day

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Are YOU conscious?

• Dennett The problem with brains, it seems, is
  when you look in them, you discover that theres
  nobody home
• Brooks We, all of us, overanthropomorphize
  humans, who are after all mere machines
• Dennett There can be conscious machines - us

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Another vote

• What do you think now about the possibility of
  AC? Has your opinion changed? If so, why?

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Questions and Discussion

• Can machines achieve conscious states?
• To what extent are non-human animals conscious?
• At what point in fetal development does
  consciousness begin?
• Would a human clone be conscious the same way the
  original is?
• Are you conscious? If so, why?