User:AliAbbas4477/Artificial consciousness

Week 7 Additional Content

The hard problem of consciousness refers to the difficulty in explaining why a conscious physical being is conscious rather than being unconscious. Science might be able to explain all of the biological processes that go into consciousness and how conscious life emerged, but it still has yet to fully answer the question on why the being is conscious in the first place. Some argue that this has created a problem that science might not be able to answer because this is more of a philosophical question rather than being a question that can be answered with data. Still, scientists can study the easy problems of consciousness, and better understanding these processes and how to replicate them could lead to the formation of an artificial consciousness. If scientists can understand things like the function of consciousness, its dynamics, and the structures that make up consciousness, then hypothetically speaking, an artificially conscious being could be created. For instance, if scientists were able to create a computer system with the necessary sensory inputs, a processor that could carry out functions like a human brain, and the right programming to allow that system to interface with the real world, then it is possible an artificial consciousness could be created. The difficult part of this is that it is hard to tell if the artificial consciousness will truly have a similar conscious experience to what human beings do. Human beings are able to tell how it feels to be conscious and aware and can communicate about this, yet it is harder to tell if an artificial consciousness is experiencing these same things. This is why the Turing test has been created as something that can determine whether a computer system is conscious or not, yet is is still limited because it is dependent upon human observation.

Assignment 6

1. Artificial consciousness

2. Artificial consciousness is an idea related to artificial intelligence and robotics. The main idea is that human beings can engineer a type of consciousness intelligence from a non-organic source. The artificial consciousness would need to be aware, would have to be able to learn and have memory, and would need to have a subjective experience.

3. The main problems involve the challenges that researchers would need to overcome to create an artificial lifeform, which involve creating something that can learn on its own and be aware of its existence.

4. This is worth undertaking because an artificial consciousness could lead to the creation of powerful AI systems that would have a significant impact on computing and all of society.

5. The technological aspects involve computing, machine learning, self-modeling, and cognitive architectures.

6. There are ethical problems such as whether it is ethical for human beings to create life, and how this artificial life should be governed and regulated.

7. Some believe that it is a dangerous idea that would lead to the downfall of society, while others see it as another beneficial form of technology like the internet.

8. AI researchers, computer scientists, and a general audience would be interested by this article.

Summary

An important part of artificial consciousness involves a working memory system in which there is learning, rehearsal, and retrieval.