Creating Conscious Machines:
Masataka Watanabe
Kagaku tetsugaku March 31, 2025 DOI: 10.4216/jpssj.57.2_13 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that natural laws of consciousness can bridge the explanatory gap and that developing artificial consciousness is crucial for testing such laws. Proposes verifying artificial consciousness by connecting it to a human brain and 'seeing for ourselves', and suggests reconstructing postmortem human brain wiring via invasive connectome methods as an initial state for training to reproduce the neural dynamics likely underlying consciousness. |
Abstract
The Hard Problem of consciousness highlights the explanatory gap between subjective experience and objective neuroscience. Some philosophers argue that it is unsolvable, but since all science sits upon natural laws, such laws of consciousness can be used to bridge the gap. To test such natural laws, I argue that development of artificial consciousness is crucial, where it's consciousness is tested by connecting it to our own brain and “seeing for ourselves”. Finally, creating such machines with consciousness involves reconstruction of neural wiring of the postmortem human brain via invasive connectome methods and treating it as initial state for training to reproduce neural dynamics that likely resides consciousness.