Human and Machine Consciousness
March 7, 2018
David Gamez
Consciousness research faces three hard problems: the impossibility of imagining the link between consciousness and the physical world, the difficulty of connecting conscious experiences of brain activity with other conscious experiences, and brute regularities between consciousness and the physical world that cannot be further explained. These problems are not unique to consciousness research; they also appear in physics and do not hinder scientific study. Consciousness can be measured, the physical world can be measured, and mathematical relationships between these measurements can be sought.
Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness
September 1, 2021
David Gamez
Measuring intelligence and consciousness accurately is essential for understanding their relationship. While human intelligence can be measured reasonably well, existing methods only partly apply to non-human animals and not at all to artificial systems. Universal measures that depend on goals and rewards have serious limitations. This paper presents a new universal algorithm for measuring intelligence based on a system's ability to make accurate predictions, applicable to humans, non-human animals, and artificial systems. Preliminary experiments show it can measure the changing intelligence of an agent in a maze environment. This measure could improve understanding of intelligence and consciousness and has practical applications, especially in AI safety.
Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness
March 1, 2020
David Gamez
Intelligence and consciousness, whether natural or artificial, may be linked but are distinct properties. Intelligence is a functional property measurable through behavior, but standard human tests fail for radically different animals and AI systems; new algorithms aim to measure intelligence universally. Consciousness, by contrast, appears tied to specific spatiotemporal patterns in particular physical materials, and scientific study has advanced by identifying neural correlates and developing mathematical theories to map between physical and conscious states. The paper outlines weak inferences about their relationship and argues that real progress requires practical universal measures of intelligence and reliable mathematical theories of consciousness.
Human and Machine Consciousness
March 7, 2018
David Gamez
Measuring consciousness via first-person reports raises concerns about their reliability, the possibility of non-reportable consciousness, and the causal closure of the physical world. The chapter addresses these by outlining assumptions that enable consciousness measurement: first, identifying systems believed to be conscious, then making further assumptions to ensure accurate measurement in those systems.
Human and Machine Consciousness
March 7, 2018
David Gamez
Physical theories of consciousness tie conscious experience to specific patterns in particular materials, such as neuron firing patterns in the brain. Unlike functional or computational theories, these approaches hold that the material substrate matters: the same pattern occurring in a different substance would not be considered conscious. Such theories resemble standard scientific explanations in physics, chemistry, and biology by grounding consciousness in the physical properties of the system.
Human and Machine Consciousness
March 7, 2018
David Gamez
Some people think consciousness arises from computations, whether in a brain or a computer. This chapter argues that computations alone cannot produce consciousness because computing is a subjective way we interpret the world. Instead, theories linking consciousness to computation should be seen as physical theories of consciousness.
Human and Machine Consciousness
March 7, 2018
David Gamez
Theories of consciousness can be experimentally tested only on systems assumed to be conscious, such as normally functioning adult human brains. While these theories allow deductions about consciousness in brain-damaged individuals, animals, and robots, such deductions cannot be verified because consciousness in those systems cannot be measured.
Human and Machine Consciousness
March 7, 2018
David Gamez
A mathematical approach to understanding the relationship between consciousness and the physical world is emerging. Pilot studies have searched for correlations between consciousness and brain activity. Compact mathematical theories are now being developed to map between physical and conscious states, potentially using computational methods to automate theory development.
Human and Machine Consciousness
March 7, 2018
David Gamez
The text argues that the modern concept of consciousness was invented to account for sensory properties—color, sound, smell—that science removed from the physical world. Over three centuries, scientific descriptions stripped objects of their sensory qualities, leaving a colorless, invisible physical reality. To explain the sensory experiences people continue to have in daily life, the concept of consciousness was created as a repository for those properties. The author contends that 'consciousness' is simply a name for the sensory attributes that were eliminated from the physical world by science.
March 7, 2018
David Gamez
A new framework for the scientific study of consciousness is proposed that neutralizes longstanding philosophical problems. The framework allows for making scientific predictions about consciousness in animals, brain-damaged patients, and machines.
Human and Machine Consciousness
March 7, 2018
David Gamez
Once a reliable theory of consciousness is developed, it could be used to modify and enhance conscious experience, such as altering the shape of the conscious body or increasing the level of consciousness. The chapter outlines how such a theory could identify the physical brain state corresponding to a desired conscious state; realizing that physical state would produce the experience. This technological possibility remains many years away.
Human and Machine Consciousness
March 7, 2018
David Gamez
The chapter distinguishes four types of machine consciousness and explains how a reliable theory of consciousness could guide the creation of conscious machines and allow credible inferences about the consciousness of artificial systems. It examines brain implants and consciousness uploading as forms of machine consciousness and discusses whether conscious machines could endanger human existence and how they ought to be treated ethically.
Human and Machine Consciousness
March 7, 2018
David Gamez
Some theorists argue that any information pattern—whether in a brain, computer, or sand—could be linked to consciousness. This chapter argues that such an approach fails because information is not a property of the physical world, and the same information pattern can be extracted from both conscious and unconscious brains. Information theories of consciousness should therefore be reinterpreted as physical theories of consciousness.
Consciousness and Cognition
September 1, 2008
David Gamez
This review organizes the field of machine consciousness into four areas to clarify its goals, connections to other disciplines, and prior research. It addresses criticisms, potential benefits, and methods for evaluating whether systems exhibit signs of consciousness. The paper also considers social and ethical implications of machine consciousness.