INTRODUCTION
Can machines have consciousness? A 2013 Spike Jonze’s film entitled “Her” reintroduces the age-old idea of conscious, intelligent computer programs, a theme regularly explored in science fiction. In the movie, the intelligent operating system dubs herself Samantha, and appears, for all intents and purposes, to be human, lifelike with the apparent capability to retain autonomy, to learn, to feel emotions, to have personality growth. This is indicative that we equate “being human” or at the very least, “being alive” (also applicable to animals, besides humans) to “having consciousness”.
This brings about, for some, disbelief that machines as we know them today to be lifeless systems that receive information and produce output according …show more content…
This means that there are various events of “content-fixation” at different parts of the brain running at the same time, and that results in a whole, on-going narrative, which is what we experience while we are alive. Alternatively, Aleksander & Dunmall proposed five axioms as essential functional properties of a conscious system (2003). Embodiment and situatedness, episodic memory, attention, goals and motivation, and emotions are the requirements proposed. However, as we take into consideration Dennett’s definition of consciousness, the required criteria are the first four, and not necessarily emotion. A machine is, hence, with reference to Dennett’s definition, in our opinion, conscious if it can “live out a life”, many facet as a life is, with a beginning, middle and end – that is, it has a “story to tell” (not necessarily does it tell it). When a machine is assembled and equipped in such a way to be able to do this, it is then conscious.
This is in agreement with a functionalist view which dictates that mental states are dependent on the way it functions and its roles, its internal states irrelevant (Levin, 2013). It only matters that the machine or system can behave or emulate the behaviour of a conscious being. A machine can be verified as to be conscious or not with the Turing test which requires two subjects and an interrogator. It …show more content…
The level of consciousness of a machine corresponds to the amount of integrated information possessed by the machine. The main tenets of IIT can be explained by five phenomenological axioms of existence, composition, information, integration, and exclusion. Consciousness exists, therefore I am able to experience it. Conscious experience is composed of various aspect like sounds, emotion and vision. Information is defined as “difference that makes a difference”, which alternatives that lead to distinct consequences while information integration implies that every conscious experience is integrated as whole by integrating information with knowledge and memory. Individual sets that made up the whole experience is ignored by
Can machines have consciousness? A 2013 Spike Jonze’s film entitled “Her” reintroduces the age-old idea of conscious, intelligent computer programs, a theme regularly explored in science fiction. In the movie, the intelligent operating system dubs herself Samantha, and appears, for all intents and purposes, to be human, lifelike with the apparent capability to retain autonomy, to learn, to feel emotions, to have personality growth. This is indicative that we equate “being human” or at the very least, “being alive” (also applicable to animals, besides humans) to “having consciousness”.
This brings about, for some, disbelief that machines as we know them today to be lifeless systems that receive information and produce output according …show more content…
This means that there are various events of “content-fixation” at different parts of the brain running at the same time, and that results in a whole, on-going narrative, which is what we experience while we are alive. Alternatively, Aleksander & Dunmall proposed five axioms as essential functional properties of a conscious system (2003). Embodiment and situatedness, episodic memory, attention, goals and motivation, and emotions are the requirements proposed. However, as we take into consideration Dennett’s definition of consciousness, the required criteria are the first four, and not necessarily emotion. A machine is, hence, with reference to Dennett’s definition, in our opinion, conscious if it can “live out a life”, many facet as a life is, with a beginning, middle and end – that is, it has a “story to tell” (not necessarily does it tell it). When a machine is assembled and equipped in such a way to be able to do this, it is then conscious.
This is in agreement with a functionalist view which dictates that mental states are dependent on the way it functions and its roles, its internal states irrelevant (Levin, 2013). It only matters that the machine or system can behave or emulate the behaviour of a conscious being. A machine can be verified as to be conscious or not with the Turing test which requires two subjects and an interrogator. It …show more content…
The level of consciousness of a machine corresponds to the amount of integrated information possessed by the machine. The main tenets of IIT can be explained by five phenomenological axioms of existence, composition, information, integration, and exclusion. Consciousness exists, therefore I am able to experience it. Conscious experience is composed of various aspect like sounds, emotion and vision. Information is defined as “difference that makes a difference”, which alternatives that lead to distinct consequences while information integration implies that every conscious experience is integrated as whole by integrating information with knowledge and memory. Individual sets that made up the whole experience is ignored by