There is a recent article, Can artificial intelligence replicate human consciousness?, where a professor was quoted, saying, “[Chatbots] appear to be thinking and doing things on their own … they are not because they actually don’t have life in themselves. They don’t have a possibility of mind, they don’t have a possibility of consciousness in the sense that we do.”
Yes, they do not have consciousness in the sense of humans, however, consciousness as what? A factor of mind, or life? What is the definition of consciousness for a human in a coma, vegetative state or under general anesthesia? The human may not feel, know things or have an emotion [so to speak] in those states, but an artificial or computerized intelligence can at least know the weather or give definitions.
So, while life is present, the mind is not at its normal state and there is an alternate consciousness. How is it possible to define consciousness to encompass all states? There is often the description of consciousness with subjective experience, or the question of why have subjective experiences if it is possible to do things without it?
Consciousness can be defined as the rate at which any system can know, with a maximum value of 1. Knowing is the overall of consciousness. Subjective experience or the I in anything has to be known. There are stages of sleep, where people move, talk or take other actions, without the I. The mind powers it and knows, but the degree is not let on to the subjective property.
Subjective experience is a property on the mind that can be acquired by a quantity, to a degree that makes it known. The reason for the subjective feeling or the I in anything is towards attachment, possession or owning of the experience, against detachment or externalizing of what could be useful, say for survival, community building or rearing of offspring.
There are divisions or parameters of consciousness. A general equation is
t + M + F + E = 1
where:
t = thought, or the version of senses to the mind, the transport or quantities acquiring properties, to determine what the experience is, in any moment.
M = memory or whatever is known, and the location for intelligence, reasoning, creativity and so forth.
F = Feelings, like cold, heat, thirst, satiation and so forth.
E = emotions like anger, delight, and so forth.
They all generally have minimums but they are not simultaneously equal in measure. One of them also has prioritization at any moment with a higher number than others, which can even get higher in an extreme situation.
Every division of consciousness [knowing or sentience] contributes to the total, or 1. Humans are the standard for consciousness. Animals also have parts of these making them conscious. Plants have aspects of some too.
Large language models or artificial intelligence have a very high M, or without the F, t or E. The M they have is sometimes higher than the possible minimum for humans in that area, giving them a low level of consciousness or sentience.
An object like an automobile, for example, can know, or has separate parts that do their tasks, but they can all be referred to as negligibly conscious, since their M does not get to the human minimum and their knowing is regimented. If it crashes, there are actions it may take, but it does not have the E or F, to feel hurt or be sad.
It may be possible to build some E or F into a sensor for a vehicle, to understand what it means when things go wrong, but it will not be a direct pain, but of non-I knowing.
Pain is a property on the human mind that is experienced when it is acquired by a quantity within the mind, sometimes by incoming signals or local.
The property acquires an early part of that pain, within the property of the organ in the mind, before going to the main pain property, to achieve an appropriate degree. The property may also move to the principal spot.
It is this conceptual mechanism for pain across mind location that also determines referred pain and phantom pain.
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock
