Do not SEARCH the internet for articles on
this topic. Just read this prompt, and do your own
thinking about this issue.
Imagine that it is the year 3037. All of Earth's environmental and social problems have been solved, space travel is commonplace, disease is a thing of the past, everyone lives very comfortably, and governments have so much extra cash that they can afford to fund incredibly expensive scientific projects. Imagine that you are visiting one such project, Project Turing, which is housed in a massive space station hanging in one of Earth's Lagrange points. Project Turing is an inconceivably large structured array of very powerful supercomputers. For comparison, imagine the most powerful supercomputer of the 21st century, and imagine a supercomputer about a million times more powerful than that. Then imagine several thousand billion of these super-supercomputers hooked together in a structured array many, many times larger than the 21st century internet. Project Turing is something like that, only larger, more powerful, and much, much more structured. (Computers can be made much, much smaller than they were in the 21st century, but even so, project Turing is clearly visible as a disk from the surface of the Earth.)
After a brief tour of the enormous space station, you are taken into the control room for a brief speech from the project director. She tells you that the computer array (named "Turing") is structured in exactly the same way as a fully developed adult normally functioning conscious human brain, with at least the level of complexity found in the brain of the average adult human brain. The array contains around 86 billion artificial neurones, (the same number as the brain) each one connected by artificial synapses to several thousand specific other neurones, and by artificial hormones to the appropriate variety of artificial glands. Each artificial neurone behaves in exactly the same way as some human neurone, and each one functions in a way appropriate for its position in the array. Every structure in the adult human brain has a precise analog in the Project Turing brain, and sensory centers that make qualia, such as the auditory and visual centers, are hooked up in just the right way to take advantage of microphones and cameras in the control room. (The structure of this arrangement of neurones is based on a complete scan of the brain of the 20-year-old Alan Turing, obtained through a limited form of transtemporal technology. It thus has the typical structure of a brain that has developed in the same way as all typical adult human brains. <added 10/21/23>)
When it is turned on, the artificial brain, with its artificial senses, will function in exactly the same way as a typical adult human brain. There will be nothing a human brain has that it doesn't have, and there will be nothing a adult human brain does that it doesn't do. (Thus the computer is not simulating consciousness, it will be emulating all the significant adult human brain functions.)
The basic question here is whether computers can have minds.
"Consciousness," is the faculty of being aware of yourself, your
feelings, your thoughts, and your surroundings. Most of your
mental processes occur without you being conscious of them, which
means that your mind is different from, and much bigger than your
consciousness.
Most people seem to think that consciousness is the whole mind.
This is a serious mistake. Your consciousness does not do any of
your thinking. "Conscious thought" is just you being aware of what
you are thinking. You also do a lot of thinking that you are not
aware of, and this "unconscious" thought is just as much a part of
your mind as the conscious stuff.
The proper way to understand the term "conscious mind" is as
referring to a set of mental processes that include can and do
include consciousness. There is no separate "unconscious mind."
You have only one mind, and that mind is aware of some of it's
processes at some times, and unaware of most processes most of the
time. We call this mental awareness "consciousness." (If you
want more information, see https://www.sciencealert.com/harvard-scientists-think-they-ve-pinpointed-the-neural-source-of-consciousness
and https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-consciousness/)
When an organism only has mental processes that cannot include
consciousness, free will or self-awareness, it is hard to think of
that organism as having a mind. Insects, for instance, may have
brains that are so simple that they cannot be conscious,
free-willed or self-aware. If that is indeed the case, I would
personally say that they do not have minds, even though at times
they might be thought to be thinking.
Present-day computers do not have minds. This is very clear from
their behavior and internal architecture. Even "chatbots" and
other programs that _simulate_ conversations clearly do not have
minds because the way they come up with things to say is a
randomized phrase-choosing system, and not a system that takes in
information, interprets it, considers it and formulates responses
on the basis of a developed personality, which is what adult human
brains do.
The question for this topic could therefore be formulated as either: "Can computers ever have minds?" or "Can computers ever be conscious?" or both. It doesn't really matter how you formulate the question as long as you remember the difference between mind and consciousness.
For this paper, you can see yourself as asking the question "can a computer ever have a conscious mind?
Your task is to explain the basic argument for computer consciousness, explain one argument agains computer consciousness, critically analyze both arguments, say which one didn't fail under analysis, and explain why the other one failed.
Remember at all times that this machine is not simulating anything. the machine is emulating adult human brain functions, the way a paper ornithopter emulates the function of a bird's wings. (3/19/20)
A few semesters ago, I read a bunch of student papers on computer consciousness, and was surprised to note that almost all of them completely ignored the basic argument for computer consciousness. Instead of discussing the argument for computer consciousness, these papers assumed that computers could not be programmed to do what brains do, and asserted things like "computers only simulate consciousness" or "computers are just programmed," without giving any reason to think that either of these things are true. So I've rewritten this assignment to make it clear that 1. there is a basic argument for computer consciousness and that 2. you are not allowed to ignore that argument.
|
Basic Argument For Computer
Consciousness (Pink Box) The basic argument for computer consciousness can be summarized as follows: 1. The functional part of the
adult human brain is made entirely of arrangements of
neurons (and glands that affect
neurons). Remember that the computer is not simulating consciousness, it will be emulating all the significant adult human brain functions. (4/19/20). Do not ignore this argument in your response to this prompt. (In fact, if you ignore this argument, you could easily get zero for the assignment.) |
Your assignment, if you pick this topic, is to:
First, state the argument for
computer consciousness in your own words. (This is the argument
in the pink box above.)
Second, come to a conlusion about whether we have any rational
reason to doubt this conclusion.
If you decide to claim that computers can't be conscious, and your
"argument" is "computers can't be conscious because consciousness
includes X, and computers can't do X," but you don't explain how humans
do X, and you don't prove that computers can't do X,
then you haven't proved that computers can't be
conscious, and that should be your thesis. (Do not ignore this
requirement in your response.)
If you decide to claim that computers can't be conscious because
computers only simulate consciousness, you will have to
deal with the fact that your argument basically proves that humans
only simulate consciousness since the hypothetical computer that
you are saying would only simulates consciousness would be doing
exactly what your brain does now to make consciousness, so if the
computer only simulates consciousness, your brain right now only
simulates consciousnness, and so you're really not conscious.
If you decide to claim that computers can't be conscious because
computers are just programmed, you will have to deal
with the fact that your argument basically proves that humans
are just programmed since the hypothetical computer that
you are saying would be just programmed would be
following exactly the program that your brain follows now to make
consciousness, so if the computer is just programmed,
your brain right now is just programmed, and so you're
really not conscious.
Don't forget that if you ignore the basic argument
for computer consciousness, you could get zero
for the assignment.
It should go without saying that if your only "argument"
is "computers can't be conscious because some guy says they can't
be conscious," then you haven't proved that computers
can't be conscious, and your thesis should be that they can.
It should also go without saying that if your only
"argument" is some poorly explained quotation from someone else,
then you haven't proved that computers can't be
conscious, and your thesis should be that they can.
If you cannot come up with a clearly understood, clearly
explainable reason why computers cannot ever be conscious, then
your thesis should be that, as far as you can tell, it is
perfectly possible for computers to someday be conscious.
| Important Note on "Imitation."
(Magenta Box): Sometimes students say that the computer won't "actually" produce consciousness because it's only imitating or simulating what brains do. This is like saying that someone who imitates Gene Kelly won't actually be dancing, or that someone who imitates Julia Child in this video, won't actually produce Bernaise sauce, or that an ornithopter (a device that imitates bird wings flapping) won't actually fly. |
| Important Final Note (Red Box): This prompt does NOT say that the scientists in the story make a computer to do anything different or less than what the human brain actually does. The computer is not running a simulation. The computer is not emulating only part of what the brain does. It is not emulating just the bits that make consciousness, or just the bits involved in making consciousness. It emulates the whole thing. Do NOT pretend that scientists in this prompt made a computer to do different things than what the brain does, and then called it "conscious." That is not the story. |
If you're not clear on how this can be done, Million-core neuromorphic supercomputer could simulate an entire mouse brain might help
If you have a hard time seeing how anyone could oppose the idea of computer consciousness, you can go to http://madwizard.com/fu_computerpro.htm, and find an anti-computer argument to analyze in your paper. (If you can do two or three pages of analysis already, you don't have to read this page. It's completely optional.)
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