Machine Consciousness
- A Computational Model
Janusz Starzyk
School of Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science, Ohio University,
USA
www.ent.ohiou.edu/~starzyk
Photo: https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/87/philosophy-zero-point.html
http://www.geneang.com/Presence_Healing,_LLC/Neuroscience_of_Consciousness.html
Outline
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Consciousness
Scientific perspective
Philosophers’ perspective
Emergence of consciousness
Evolution and consciousness
Our approach for machine consciousness
Consciousness: functional requirements
Definition of machine consciousness
Computational model
Computational model: implications
Photo: http://tsvetankapetrova.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/5-setbacks-that-stop-you-big-time/
Consciousness
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The quality or state of being aware especially of something
within oneself from Merriam Webster Dictionary
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Nobody has a slightest idea of how anything material can
be conscious – J.A Fodor
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…our subjective experience or conscious state involving
awareness, attention, and self reference - Jeanette Norden.
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Anything that we are aware of at a given moment forms
part of our consciousness, making conscious experience at
once the most familiar and most mysterious aspect of our
lives - Velmans
Photo: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Courses-Jeanette-Norden/dp/159803362X/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_2
Scientific perspective
 It may be pointless trying to define consciousness, its evolution or
function as they may have many different interpretations, similar to
other big words like perception, learning, knowledge, attention, etc
– Sloman
 Consciousness refers to focusing attention, mental rehearsal,
thinking, decision making, awareness, alerted state of mind,
voluntary actions and subliminal priming, concept of self and
internal talk – Calvin & Ojemann
 Consciousness is a combination of self awareness and qualia and
memory plays an important role in it – Jeff Hawkins
 Consciousness is a dynamic process and it changes with
development of brain. Further, at macro-level there is no
consciousness centre and at micro-level there are no committed
neurons or genes dedicated to consciousness – Susan Greenfield
Philosophers’ perspective
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Phenomenally conscious states are those states that possess
fine-grained intentional contents of which the subject is aware,
being the target or potential target of some sort of higher-order
representation – Rosenthal (Higher Order Theory)
Consciousness is accomplished by a distributed society of
specialists that is equipped with working memory, called a
global workspace, whose contents can be broadcast to the
system as a whole – Baars
…various events of content-fixation occurring in various places
at various times in the brain ... there is no single place in brain
for consciousness – Dennett
Nisargadatta states that awareness is not a part (subset) of
consciousness but instead it is its superset
Emergence of Consciousness
Week
Human Fetus brain development
6
Cortical cells come at the correct position
20
Cortical region is insulated with myelin sheath
25
Development of local connections between neurons
30
Fetus’ brain generates electrical wave patterns
Conclusion : Emergence of consciousness is a gradual process
Photos: http://daymix.com/Fetus-Brain-Development/
http://www.humanillnesses.com/Behavioral-Health-A-Br/The-Brain-and-Nervous-System.html?Comments[do]=mod&Comments[id]=1
Evolution and consciousness
– appearance and evolution of consciousness
Living Being
Analogous
feasibility in
machines
Evolutionary traits
 Fully developed cross-modal representation
Human
 Sensory capabilities: auditory, taste, touch, vision, Impossible at
Beings
etc.
present
 Bi-frontal cortex: planning, thought, motivation
Hedgehog
(earliest
mammals)
 Cross-modal representation
 Sensory capabilities: auditory, touch, vision (less
Impossible at
developed), etc.
present
 Small frontal cortex
 Primitive cross-modal representation
Birds
 Sensory capabilities: auditory, touch, vision,
Associative
olfactory.
memories
 Primitive associative memory
Photos: http://images.google.com/
Evolution and consciousness
–absence of consciousness
Living Being
Reptiles*
Hagfish (early
vertebrate)
Lower level
animals
(hydra, sponge, etc.)
Evolutionary traits
 Olfactory system
 Primitive vision
 Primitive olfactory system
 Primitive nervous system
Analogous feasibility
in machines
Computer vision
(nascent)
Artificial neural
networks
Mechanical and/or
electronic control
 Point to point nervous system systems
 Sensory motor units
* inconclusive\consciousness in transition
Exceptional cases -> Octopus(memory & learning skill), Circadian sleep wake
cycle of insects (crude state of consciousness), etc.
Photos: http://images.google.com/
Our approach for
machine consciousness
 Define consciousness in functional
terms
 Identify minimum functional
requirements
 Identify minimum functional blocks,
their individual roles, their interrelationship
 A computational model
Photo: http://www.theglobalintelligencer.com/aug2007/fringe
Consciousness:
functional requirements
 Knowledge
•
Mechanism to acquire and represent Knowledge
•
Knowledge is a result of learning
 Attention
 Attention Switching
 Cognitive perception and related action
•
Semantic memory
•
Associative memory
 Cognitive awareness
 Central executive
Photo: http://eduspaces.net/csessums/weblog/11712.html
Consciousness:
functional requirements
 Knowledge
•
Mechanism to acquire and represent Knowledge
•
Knowledge is a result of learning
 Attention
 Attention Switching
 Cognitive perception and related action
•
Semantic memory
•
Associative memory
 Cognitive awareness
 Central executive
Photo: http://eduspaces.net/csessums/weblog/11712.html
Attention
 selective process of

cognitive perception/action

other cognitive experiences
 results from attention switching
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needed to have cognitive
experience
Comic: http://lonewolflibrarian.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/attention-and-distraction-what-are-you-paying-attention-to-08-05-09/
Attention Switching !!!
 dynamic process resulting from competition between
•
•
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representations related to motivations
sensory inputs
internal thoughts including spurious signals (like noise).
 may be a result of
•
•
deliberate cognitive experience (and thus fully conscious signal)
subconscious process (stimulated by internal or external
signals)
Thus, while paying attention is a conscious experience,
switching attention does not have to be.
Photo: http://lonewolflibrarian.wordpress.com/2009/10/page/3/
Central Executive
 operates no matter whether machine is conscious or not
 platform for the emergence, control, and manifestation of
consciousness
 control its conscious and subconscious processes
 driven by
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learning mechanism
creation and selection of
• motivations and goals
Thus, central executive, using cognitive perception
and cognitive understanding of motivations,
thoughts or plans will be responsible for selfawareness and create conscious state of mind.
Definition of Machine Consciousness
A machine is conscious IF besides the required components
for perception, action, and associative memory, it has a
central executive that controls all the processes (conscious
or subconscious) of the machine;
The central executive is driven by the machine’s motivation
and goal selection, attention switching, learning mechanism,
etc. and uses cognitive perception and understanding of
motivations, thoughts, or plans.
Thus, central executive, by relating cognitive experience to
internal motivations and plans, creates self-awareness and
conscious state of mind.
Photo: www.spectrum.ieee.org/.../biorobot11f-thumb.jpg
Computational Model of Machine Consciousness
Episodic
Memory &
Learning
Planning and
thinking
Central
Executive
Queuing and
organization
of episodes
Attention
switching
Motivation and
goal processor
Action
monitoring
Episodic
memory
Semantic
memory
Emotions, rewards,
and sub-cortical
processing
Motor
skills
Sensory
processors
Motor
processors
Sensory-motor
Inspiration: human brain
Data encoders/ decoders
Data encoders/ decoders
Sensory
units
Motor
units
Photo (brain): http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Neuronal_correlates_of_consciousness
Semantic
memory
SensoryMotor Block
Emotions, rewards, and
sub-cortical processing
Sensory
processors
Motor skills
Motor
processors
Sensory-motor
Data encoders/ decoders
Data encoders/ decoders
Sensory units
Motor units
 sensory processors integrated with semantic memory
 motor processors integrated with motor skills
 sub-cortical processor integrated with emotions and rewards
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Multiple processors, parallel processing, multiple individual outputs
Planning and
thinking
Central Executive
Attention
switching
Motivation and
goal processor
Central
Executive
Action
monitoring
 interacts with other units for
o
o
o
performing its tasks
gathering data
giving directions to other units
 no clearly identified decision center
 decision influenced by
o
o
competing signals representing motivations, pains, desires, and
attention switching
• need not be cognitive or consciously realized
competition can be interrupted by attention switching signal
Planning and
thinking
Central Executive
Motivation and
goal processor
Attention
switching
 Tasks
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
cognitive perception
attention
attention switching
motivation
goal creation and selection
thoughts
planning
learning, etc.
Central
Executive
Action
monitoring
 Requires
o
o
capability to dynamically
select and directly
execute programs
capability to activate
semantic memory and
control emotions
Computational Model: Implications
 The motivations for actions are physically distributed
o
competing signals are generated in various parts of machine’s
mind
 Before a winner is selected, machine does not interpret
the meaning of competing signals
 Cognitive processing is predominantly sequential
o
winner of the internal competition serves as an instantaneous
director of the cognitive thought process, before it is replaced
by another winner
 Top down activation for perception, planning, internal
thought or motor functions
o
o
results in conscious experience
• decision of what is observed
• planning how to respond
a continuous train of such experiences constitutes
consciousness
Photo: http://www.prlog.org/10313829-homeless-man-earns-250000-after-viewing-prosperity-consciousness-video-subliminal-mindtraining.html
References
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J. A. Fodor, "The big idea: can there be science of the mind," Times
Literary Supplement, pp. 5-7, July 1992.
J. Norden, Understanding the brain, Video lecture series.
M. Velmans, "Where experiences are: Dualist, physicalist, enactive and
reflexive accounts of phenomenal consciousness," Phenomenology
and the Cognitive Sciences, vol. 6, pp. 547-563, 2007
A. Sloman, "Developing concept of consciousness," Behavioral and
Brain Sciences, vol. 14 (4), pp. 694-695, Dec 1991.
W. H. Calvin and G. A. Ojemann, Conversation with Neil's brain: the
neural nature of thought and language: Addison-Wesley, 1994.
J. Hawkins and S. Blakeslee, On intelligence. New York: Henry Holt &
Company, LLC., 2004.
S. Greenfield, The private life of the brain. New York: John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., 2000.
Nisargadatta, I am that. Bombay: Chetana Publishing, 1973.
D. C. Dennett, Consciousness Explained, Penguin Press,1993.
D. M. Rosenthal, The nature of Mind, Oxford University Press, 1991.
B. J. Baars “A cognitive theory of consciousness,” Cambridge
University Press, 1998.
Photo: http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o209/TiTekty/?action=view&current=hist_sci_image1.jpg
Questions ??
Photo: http://bajan.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/dont-blame-life-blame-the-way-how-you-live-it/