Toward Consciousness
John Kevin O'Regan
Oxford University Press eBooks June 24, 2011 DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199775224.003.0049 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that explaining the cognitive and social aspects of the self requires no magical or unknown mechanism, and that machines with sufficient cognitive capacities, embedded in the real world and integrated into a social system, are likely to develop a notion similar to the human "I" that becomes "real" through its usefulness, though this may take years. |
Abstract
This chapter looks at the progress that scientists have made so far in making machines that think, perceive, learn, use language, and that have the notion of self. It discusses the development of artificial intelligence, the cognitive self, and the societal self. It argues that to give a scientific account of the self, at least as concerns the cognitive and social aspects, no magical, as yet unknown mechanism is likely to be needed. Making machines with cognitive and social selves is a task that may still take years to achieve, but it seems clear that once we have machines with sufficient cognitive capacities that are embedded in the real world and integrated into a social system, a notion similar to the “I” that humans use to refer to themselves is likely to become so useful that it is “real”.