Towards a theory of consciousness: Proposal for the resolution of the homunculus fallacy with predictions
arXiv Preprint Archive March 21, 2003 preprint
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Nlin.ao |
| Key points | Argues that reflexive architectures can produce testable predictions about the biological substrate of consciousness that agree with recent experimental observations. |
Abstract
In this paper we argue that no forms of Turing test are either necessary or sufficient to establish if a machine is conscious or not. Furthermore, from a modeling point of view, the problem is that the Turing test does not really provide testable predictions. We believe that the model structure should explain the function (of consciousness). We argue that the cornerstone of any model on consciousness is to (partly) overcome the obstacle of the homunculus fallacy about the use of representations. In this contribution a possible solution is suggested, which makes use of reflexive architectures. The emerging computational constraints on the proposed architecture have lead to testable predictions on the dynamical behavior of the biological substrate. Interestingly, these predictions are in good agreement with recent experimental observations.