Why Build a Robot With Artificial Consciousness? How to Begin? A Cross-Disciplinary Dialogue on the Design and Implementation of a Synthetic Model of Consciousness.
David Harris Smith, Guido Schillaci
Frontiers in Psychology January 1, 2021 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.530560 (opens in new tab) via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractCreativity in the arts and in engineering both aim to bring something new into the world through counterfactual thinking, but they differ in motivations and constraints: engineers solve practical problems, while artists enrich the world aesthetically and conceptually. An artist and a roboticist analyze the creative problem of building artificial consciousness in a robot, exploring disciplinary differences, the reasons for pursuing such a project, and how an illusionist theory of consciousness shifts ethical debates. They discuss theories of consciousness, practical implementation approaches, and the role of creativity in developing artificial consciousness.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Artificial consciousness Interdisciplinary dialogue Robotics Synthetic consciousness Synthetic phenomenology |
| Key finding | Argues that creativity in engineering and art, though both rooted in counterfactual thinking, are distinguished by different motivations and constraints, and that an illusionist theory of consciousness alters prominent ethical debates on synthetic consciousness. |
Abstract
Creativity is intrinsic to Humanities and STEM disciplines. In the activities of artists and engineers, for example, an attempt is made to bring something new into the world through counterfactual thinking. However, creativity in these disciplines is distinguished by differences in motivations and constraints. For example, engineers typically direct their creativity toward building solutions to practical problems, whereas the outcomes of artistic creativity, which are largely useless to practical purposes, aspire to enrich the world aesthetically and conceptually. In this essay, an artist (DHS) and a roboticist (GS) engage in a cross-disciplinary conceptual analysis of the creative problem of artificial consciousness in a robot, expressing the counterfactual thinking necessitated by the problem, as well as disciplinary differences in motivations, constraints, and applications. We especially deal with the question of why one would build an artificial consciousness and we consider how an illusionist theory of consciousness alters prominent ethical debates on synthetic consciousness. We discuss theories of consciousness and their applicability to synthetic consciousness. We discuss practical approaches to implementing artificial consciousness in a robot and conclude by considering the role of creativity in the project of developing an artificial consciousness.