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AIList Digest Volume 8 Issue 098
AIList Digest Sunday, 9 Oct 1988 Volume 8 : Issue 98
Machine Consciousness (6 messages)
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Date: 5 Oct 88 17:47:57 GMT
From: mailrus!uflorida!usfvax2!mician@ames.arpa (Rudy Mician)
Subject: Intelligence / Consciousness Test for Machines
(Neural-Nets)???
I have a question that I know has been addressed in the past (and undoubtedly
continues to be addressed):
When can a machine be considered a conscious entity?
For instance, if a massive neural-net were to start from a stochastic state
and learn to interact with its environment in the same way that people do
(interact not think), how could one tell that such a machine thinks or exists
(in the same context as Descarte's "COGITO ERGO SUM"/"DUBITO ERGO SUM"
argument- that is, how could one tell whether or not an "I" exists for the
machine?
Furthermore, would such a machine have to be "creative"? And if so, how would
we measure the machine's creativity?
I suspect that the Turing Test is no longer an adequate means of judging
whether or not a machine is intelligent.
If anyone has any ideas, comments, or insights into the above questions or any
questions that might be raised by them, please don't hesitate to reply.
Thanks for any help,
Rudy
--
Rudy Mician mician@usfvax2.usf.edu
Usenet: ...!{ihnp4, cbatt}!codas!usfvax2!mician
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Date: 5 Oct 88 20:24:56 GMT
From: bwk@mitre-bedford.arpa (Barry W. Kort)
Subject: Re: Intelligence / Consciousness Test for Machines
(Neural-Nets)???
In article <1141@usfvax2.EDU> mician@usfvax2.usf.edu.UUCP,
(Rudy Mician) asks:
>When can a machine be considered a conscious entity?
Consciousness is not a binary phenomenon. There are degrees of
consciousness. So the transition from non-conscious to conscious
is a fuzzy, gradual transition.
A normal person who is asleep is usually regarded as unconscious,
as is a person in a coma. An alert Dalmation may be considered
conscious.
It might be more instructive to catalog the stages that lead to
higher levels of consciousness. I like to start with sentience,
which I define as the ability of a system to sense its environment
and to construct an internal map, model, or representation of that
environment. Awareness may then be defined as the ability of a
sentient system to monitor an evolving state of affairs.
Self-awareness may, in turn, be defined as the capacity of a sentient
system to monitor itself.
As an aware being expands its powers of observation, it achieves
progressively higher degrees of consciousness.
Julian Jaynes has suggested that the bicameral mind gives rise to
human consciousness. By linking two semi-autonomous hemispheres
through the corpus callosum, it is possible for one hemisphere
to act as observer and coach for the other. In other words,
consciousness requires a feedback loop.
Group consciousness arises when independent individuals engage in
mutual mirroring and monitoring. From Narcissus to Lewis Carroll,
the looking glass has served as the metaphor for consciousness raising.
--Barry Kort
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Date: 6 Oct 88 12:06:26 GMT
From: uhccux!lee@humu.nosc.mil (Greg Lee)
Subject: Re: Intelligence / Consciousness Test for Machines
(Neural-Nets)???
>From article <1141@usfvax2.EDU>, by mician@usfvax2.EDU (Rudy Mician):
" ...
" When can a machine be considered a conscious entity?
Always. It's a matter of respect and empathy on your part. All
the machines I use are conscious.
Or never, maybe, if you take 'conscious' seriously enough to
entertain the possibility that you yourself are not conscious
except sporadically. Whatever one may think of his overall thesis,
Julian Jaynes (The Origin of Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind)
is very persuasive when he argues that consciousness is not
required for use of human language or every-day human activities.
Greg, lee@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu
------------------------------
Date: 6 Oct 88 15:06:55 GMT
From: tank!uxc!ksuvax1!cseg!cdc@oddjob.uchicago.edu (C. David
Covington)
Subject: Re: Intelligence / Consciousness Test for Machines
(Neural-Nets)???
In article <1141@usfvax2.EDU>, mician@usfvax2.EDU (Rudy Mician) writes:
>
> I have a question that I know has been addressed in the past (and undoubtedly
> continues to be addressed):
>
> When can a machine be considered a conscious entity?
>
. . .
>
> I suspect that the Turing Test is no longer an adequate means of judging
> whether or not a machine is intelligent.
>
Regarding intelligent machines, to the naive it's totally magic, to the
wizard it's clever programming and a masterful illusion at best. To ascribe
consciousness to a machine is a personal matter. If I cannot tell the
difference between a 'conscious' human and a skillful emulation of the same,
then I am perfectly justified in *modeling* the machine as human. It's not
so much a question of what *is* as a question of what *appears* to be.
The same machine might be rightfully deemed conscious by one but not
by another. I must expose my world view as predominantly Christian at this
point. My belief in a Supreme Being places my view of man above all other
animals and therefore above any emulation of man by machine. I say this not
so much to convert the masses to my point of view but to clarify that there
are people that think this way and this allows no place for conscious
machines.
So to readdress the original question, the Turing test is certainly
still valid from my understanding that it is a matter of how accurately
you can mimic human behaviors. Between the lines you are making the
assumption that man and machine are the same in essence. To this I object
by faith. The question cannot be properly addressed without first dealing
with world views on man.
David Covington
Assistant Professor
Electrical Engineering
University of Arkansas
(501)575-6583
------------------------------
Date: 6 Oct 88 23:58:51 GMT
From: esosun!jackson@seismo.css.gov (Jerry Jackson)
Subject: Re: Intelligence / Consciousness Test for Machines
(Neural-Nets)???
In article <40680@linus.UUCP> bwk@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Barry W. Kort) writes:
In article <1141@usfvax2.EDU> mician@usfvax2.usf.edu.UUCP,
(Rudy Mician) asks:
> >When can a machine be considered a conscious entity?
> A normal person who is asleep is usually regarded as unconscious,
> as is a person in a coma. An alert Dalmation may be considered
> conscious.
A person who is in a coma is unconscious because he is incapable of
experiencing the outside world. Consciousness is a *subjective*
phenomenon. It is truly not even possible to determine if your
neighbor is conscious. If a person felt no pain and experienced no
colors, sounds, thoughts, emotions, or tactile sensations he could be
considered unconscious. Note that we would be unable to determine
this. He could behave in exactly the same way while being completely
inert/dead inside. Machines that are obviously unconscious such as
feedback-controlled battleship guns and thermostats respond to their
environments but, I would hardly call them conscious. It is hard to
imagine what one would have to do to make a computer conscious, but it
does seem that it would involve more than adding a few rules.
--Jerry Jackson
------------------------------
Date: 7 Oct 88 20:09:54 GMT
From: hubcap!ncrcae!gollum!rolandi@gatech.edu (mail)
Subject: Re: Intelligence / Consciousness Test for Machines
(Neural-Nets)???
Adding to Barry Kort's......
>Consciousness is not a binary phenomenon. There are degrees of
>consciousness. So the transition from non-conscious to conscious
>is a fuzzy, gradual transition.
When a person is awake and responds in a predictable manner, he is said
to be conscious.
>Awareness may then be defined as the ability of a
>sentient system to monitor an evolving state of affairs.
When a person is known to know some given thing, he is said to be aware.
>Self-awareness may, in turn, be defined as the capacity of a sentient
>system to monitor itself.
When a person can label his own behavior in ways that are consistent with
the labels of those who observe him, he is said to be self-aware.
Walter Rolandi
rolandi@ncrcae.Columbia.NCR.COM
NCR Advanced Systems Development, Columbia, SC
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