Discussion chapter3: Consciousness. (Total word account: 300. Post 1, Reply 2)

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Discussion for Chapter 3 — Consciousness

This is my favorite topic. It is, in fact, the actual reason why I entered the field of psychology. Philosophy didn’t have the answers. It just had all the good questions. So I thought that science, and especially the science of the mind, would definitely have those answers.

I was wrong.

Consciousness is the most elusive, strange, and amazing phenomenon in existence. Well, at least it is for me. Maybe for someone else it’s watching your child grow, or football, or Gummy Bears. For me, it’s the fact that we’re aware. This problem has been discussed in philosophy for thousands of years since Plato and Socrates and many others. Why is it a problem? Because one has yet to explain why we’re aware of anything. We understand a lot about the brain, but we don’t know why it’s conscious.

Your brain processes color, shapes, movement, sounds, the feel of wood, heat, cold, feeling sad or happy, anxious or sleepy. It processes thoughts, memories and pain. A computer can do this, too. At least in principle. It can process information to respond to its environment. But could it ever be AWARE of any of these things? Your brain processes information but you’re at the center of it. You SEE it, you FEEL it, you HEAR it.

Now here’s a question. Let’s say you needed to know whether a robot was conscious. How would you determine that? Simply asking it whether it was conscious wouldn’t quite cut it. A robot can be programmed to say, “Yes.” Asking it to interact with you wouldn’t do any good. It would just do as you asked. Even if the robot behaved spontaneously, it could simply be programmed to do so. So how would you know? What question could you ask of it to see if it was aware of its surroundings, of you?

Before you explore that question, watch the following videos.

Who is the “You” in Your Brain?

The Split-BrainLinks to an external site.Your left and right hemispheres do not always cooperate. When they are split (through a surgical procedure to control seizures), it seems that the right brain has plans of its own. It’s as if they were two people inside one brain — not just one. Do not confuse this with multiple personalities. It is not the same thing. Remember when you watch this video that the left hand is controlled by the right hemisphere, and the right hand by the left. Also remember that the left hemisphere is the one that controls speech.

Alien Hand SyndromeLinks to an external site.This is based on the earlier experiments of famous Roger Sperry.

Could You Tell Wether A Robot Is Conscious?

Robot DancingLinks to an external site.This is simply disturbing.

AsimoLinks to an external site.Honda has worked a long time in developing this robot. One day, it may be part of your life.

Asimo Meets President ObamaLinks to an external site.I don’t think Obama was altogether comfortable.

When Robots Become More “HumanLinks to an external site.Androids are in current development. They’re becoming more and more lifelike. One day, your grandson or great granddaughter may even marry one. Don’t let that disturb you. And if you are, you may start thinking about moving to another planet.

Now is the time for debate: Could a robot ever be conscious? First, what is “consciousness”? And how would you know if it existed inside a machine?

2 posts need to reply:

First post: Joshua Tobar Lam: Current public technology and software available is not capable of producing a robot that is conscious. To be conscious is to ask questions about the information available at the instant in time or be able to comprehend what is going on by the use of a few data inputs. These inputs can be the sense of smell, sight, sound, or touch. There is technology that can gather and sort these parameters through sensors but sensors can not sense a question. AI answers questions that can be answered through accessing data collection. AI would have to be able to ask itself what the data means through intuition and not by accessing stored memory. Foremost AI will have come up with the question. Conscious AI will have to be able to reboot itself without the need of assistance. People in a coma are conscious because a part of them is not giving up and is constantly pushing to survive. AI will have to determine if high CPU temperatures are caused by too much data or simply too much time spent processing. For a human, high temperatures are a sign of sickness and rest is needed. AI will have to determine if a few hours of none processing is the better option compared to getting stuck in a rebooting cycle causing more stress to internal components. People in a coma have been forced by their brains to stay dormant to keep the body and brain alive compared to inducing seizures. Finally, for a robot to be fully conscious it is going to have to endure a fight for survival everyday and humans will notice once machines become addicted to the power grid.

Second post: Elizabeth Frasquillo: According to the textbook, Psychology in your life the definition of consciousness is “the combination of a person’s subjective experience of the external world and the person’s mental activity; this combination results from brain activity”. Therefore I do not believe that a robot is conscious since it is lacking a human brain and has no experience. Robots can not think, feel, imagine, or have emotions. While it is very possible to program a robot to behave and perform tasks like humans, achieving consciousness, in my opinion, is not feasible. Robots are designed to come up with certain responses, as for a human we will put our thoughts into our thinking. Since robots are lacking emotions that we as humans have. For example, if you were to ask Siri questions she will be able to provide information that has been programmed over the years of research. However if you were to ask her a question about her feelings, she will respond with factual data such as what other people programmed her to say or she will say that she can not answer that question. Whereas if you were to ask a person something about their feelings they will be able to respond using their experience on that matter.