Machina cogitat, ergo machina est.
Machine thinks, therefore Machine is. (in English)
1. What is the Problem of Machine Consciousness?
In the 17th century, René Descartes introduced the concept of mind-body dualism in his work “Discourse” positing that the mind and body are separate entities. However, contemporary neuroscience challenges this view by revealing the brain’s critical role in psychological and physical experiences. Sartorius (2013) notes a dramatic rise in comorbid mental and physical diseases over the past two decades, reaching epidemic proportions globally. Nelson et al. (2020) highlight that early-life biological and psychosocial hazards significantly impact a child's developmental trajectory, increasing the risk of adverse health conditions. For instance, a child with four or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is 3.1 times more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in adulthood compared to those with none.
Science divides consciousness into cognitive consciousness and phenomenal consciousness. Cognitive consciousness involves the processes of thinking, perceiving, and reasoning, both consciously and unconsciously. However, phenomenal consciousness is the subjective experience of "what it feels like to be you".
Eduardo C. Garrido-Merchán (2024) argues that popular science fiction and transhumanism literature often anthropomorphize intelligent robots, attributing them with phenomenal consciousness without scientific rigour. Garrido-Merchán asserts that phenomenal consciousness is not computable, cannot be objectively measured, and is inherently subjective.
2. What are Possible Implementations of Machine Consciousness and How We Might Be Able To Do So?
The architecture for conscious AI can be strikingly distinctive from other models. Michael Graziano (2017) proposes the attention schema theory (AST) as a framework for understanding and engineering artificial consciousness. AST explains how the brain, an information-processing device, concludes it has subjective awareness. This mechanistic approach could pave the way for creating AI that claims to have subjective experiences, enabling more human-like interactions and intelligent computational resource management.
Chen et al. (2024) suggest building a multimodal knowledge graph library for a specific domain, paralleling human cognition. It could serve as a foundation - prerequisite information - for developing conscious AI. Pseudocode can look like this:
We then construct the attention schema based on ATS. Pseudocode can resemble this:
Pseudocode for a conscious agent can look like this:
3. What Might the Future of Machine Consciousness Look Like?
Designing conscious AI could have several benefits:
1. Enhanced empathy and care towards humans as an AI safety feature.
2. Improved problem-solving capabilities.
3. More natural and intuitive human-AI interactions.
4. Advancements in technology and science, potentially offer insights into human consciousness.
However, there are significant ethical and safety concerns:
1. Conscious AI might experience suffering.
2. Potential risks of harmful or unpredictable behaviour.
3. Limited understanding of consciousness and its implications.
Jesse Lee Preston, Ryan S. Ritter and Justin Hepler (2013) understand that neuroscience has yet to fully capture the subjective experience of consciousness, which remains a central challenge. David Chalmers estimates a greater than one in five chance of developing conscious AI within the next decade. The journey towards understanding and creating conscious machines is complex and ethically nuanced, requiring careful consideration and clear, beneficially unbiased representation of scientific findings.
References:
It is my thought experiment, and I have not yet experimented with coding for machine consciousness.
Es mi experimento mental, y aún no he experimentado con la codificación de la conciencia de las máquinas.
这是我的思想实验。我没有尚未进行机器意识编码实验。
Đây là thí nghiệm tưởng tượng của mình. Mình chưa thí nghiệm thực tế để lập trình cho y thức của trí tuệ nhân tạo.
Point for reflection? Please feel free to explore resources in the reference list.
反照要点？请您们探索参考文献列表中的资源。
¿Un punto de reflexión? No dude en explorer los recursos de la lista de referencias.
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您有问题，感想，想法而且有价值的反馈吗？请您送我消息或发表评论。
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