In defence of conscious matter

“The computational theories of consciousness express a certain technological will to power in that if we are able to create AI simply by designing computer programs, we will have achieved the final technological mastery of humans over nature.”

2008

Objective: Consciousness is often thought to be that aspect of mind that is least amenable to being understood or replicated by artificial intelligence (AI). The first-personal, subjective, what-it-is-like-to-be-something nature of consciousness is thought to be untouchable by the computations, algorithms, processing and functions of AI method. Since AI is the most promising avenue toward artificial consciousness (AC), the conclusion many draw is that AC is even more doomed than AI supposedly is. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the soundness of this inference. Methods: The results are achieved by means of conceptual analysis and argumentation. Results and conclusions: It is shown that pessimism concerning the theoretical possibility of artificial consciousness is unfounded, based as it is on misunderstandings of AI, and a lack of awareness of the possible roles AI might play in accounting for or reproducing consciousness. This is done by making some foundational distinctions relevant to AC, and using them to show that some common reasons given for AC scepticism do not touch some of the (usually neglected) possibilities for AC, such as prosthetic, discriminative, practically necessary, and lagom (necessary-but-not-sufficient) AC. Along the way three strands of the author’s work in AC — interactive empiricism, synthetic phenomenology, and ontologically conservative heteropheno- menology — are used to illustrate and motivate the distinctions and the defences of AC they make possible.

New Version

The consciousness which opens us to a representation of a world otherwise closed on itself, is a fundamental attribute of nature, an essential operator in the genesis of living structures and the cognitive processes associated with them. Consciousness is the key to life. In its absence no life would have appeared on Earth or on any exoplanet. The 'computational theory of the mind' where the human mind would function as a computer machine is totally unfounded. A robot built only on the basis of the relationship between technical components managed by physical laws cannot be fundamentally autonomous, self-organized, like human beings are. It is only a more or less efficient automaton operating in an environment that has been specifically defined by his manufacturer who is naturally endowed with a consciousness which is formally irreducible to any physical interaction.

Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, 2009

Artificial Intelligence, the big promise of the last millennium, has apparently made its way into our daily lives. Cell phones with speech control, evolutionary computing in data mining or power grids, optimized via neural network, show its applicability in industrial environments. The original expectation of true intelligence and thinking machines lies still ahead of us. Researchers are, however, optimistic as never before. This paper tries to compare the views, challenges and approaches of several disciplines: engineering, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy. It gives a short introduction to Psychoanalysis, discusses the term consciousness, social implications of intelligent machines, related theories, and expectations and shall serve as a starting point for first attempts of combining these diverse thoughts.

Recent Research Advances in Arts and Social Studies, 2024

This bookchapter critically questions the claim that there would be possibility of emulating human consciousness and consciousness-dependent activity by Artificial Intelligence to create conscious artificial systems. The analysis is based on neurophysiological research and theory. In-depth scrutiny of the field and the prospects for converting neuroscience research into the type of algorithmic programs utilized in computer-based AI systems to create artificially conscious machines leads to conclude that such a conversion is unlikely to ever be possible because of the complexity of unconscious and conscious brain processing and their interaction. It is through the latter that the brain opens the doors to consciousness, a property of the human mind that no other living species has developed for reasons that are made clear in this chapter. As a consequence, many of the projected goals of AI will remain forever unrealizable. Although this work does not directly examine the question within a philosophy of mind framework by, for example, discussing why identifying consciousness with the activity of electronic circuits is first and foremost a category mistake in terms of scientific reasoning, the approach offered in the chapter is complementary to this standpoint, and illustrates various aspects of the problem under a monist from-brain-to-mind premise.

Kínesis - Revista de Estudos dos Pós-Graduandos em Filosofia

The men admired a way to swim the fish, but today they sail faster than anyone. They'd like flying like the birds, but have been a lot higher. They searched for wisdom, now they have all the knowledge accumulated in the story available in a few clicks. Human evolution is about to meet its peak through the Technological Singularity, which can be understood as the future milestone reached at the moment that a computer program can think like a human, yet with quick access to all information already registered by society. It will not be like a man, but more intelligent than all mankind in history. So we have a big question: will this new entity has consciousness? Through a study of the levels of intelligent agents autonomy and in a timeless dialogue with Alan Turing, René Descartes, Ludwic Wittgenstein, John Searle and Vernor Vinge, we show the possibility of an artificial consciousness and thatthe quest for intentionality, promoted by sophisticated algorithms of learning and machin...

International Journal of Philosophy, 2020

The study of consciousness has become the "most precious trophy" of neuroscience, artificial intelligence (AI) and psychology alike. Because consciousness is part to the primary dimension of the mind, indeed, the only one we can access directly, and because consciousness is what gives us our knowledge of the world and of ourselves, its scientific study will bring us closer to understanding the very nature of what we are as individuals. The study of consciousness engages the thorny issue of whether we are free beings, individuals who exercise free will and are responsible for our actions. Since today, the concept most widely held in the sciences that elucidate the functioning of the human mind is that, basically, human beings are a complex physiological computational mechanism; it is easy to understand how deciphering the nature of consciousness can constitute a "threat" to the principle of the individual's moral responsibility. The mechanistic theory warns that freedom, understood as the ability to make decisions that are not circumscribed by any type of rule or pre-established process, may be a mere illusion based on a false sense of "control". This may seem to be the case, just as for centuries it seemed that the sun rotated around the earth, as that was the impression conveyed to the senses. Along these lines, when we think consciously, we consider the advantages and disadvantages of different options, and make decisions on the basis of an evaluation of the best alternative. However, under the mechanistic premise, all of life's experiences would be reduced to the culmination of unconscious processes that are beyond our control, and the experience of consciousness would exert no causal function over our actions or our internal states of mind. The main aim in this article is to discuss some of the weaknesses of a strictly mechanistic explanation of how the human works. To do this, it presents a critical review of some of the different approaches to the study of consciousness advanced to date and concludes with the submission of an own proposal.

2008

We have always been interested in the notion of consciousness fact, which is, for us, the fact that an individual endowed with a brain can think of something related to his position in the world right here right now. It is not about the continuity, or the performance, nor the profoundness of the thought, but it is about thinking of something in a knowable manner and which can be specified from a linguistic or mathematical angle, without it being an automatic and predefined response to a given situation. By analogy to the notion lengthily investigated by philosophers, psychologists, neurobiologists, we will pose the question of artificial consciousness: how can one transpose the fact of "thinking of something" into the computable field, so that an artificial system, founded on computer processes, would be able to generate consciousness facts, in a viewable manner. The system will have intentions, emotions and ideas about things and events related to it-self. The system woul...

Computer und Kultur, 1987

Note: This is an historical paper from the early days of hypertext. It may be more interesting for its historical value than for current theory. ABSTRACT There are at present two diverging views regarding the future shape of the computer and computing in human life. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) approach, and the functional approach. The AI approach regards the computer as a device which will eventually imitate human cognitive operations, to eventually substitute for human work process. The functional approach sees the computer as a tool to be used by humans much like a hammer, or a screwdriver. My tendency in this discussion is to reject both approaches. The AI approach is far from realization at this point. Computers are a long way from being able to imitate human cognitive processes, especially realization and utilization of the cultural and environmental knowledge which underlies most everyday actions and thought processes, which have been constant for at least 25,000 years.