Janusz Starzyk School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ohio University, USA

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 • 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 • The quality or state of being aware especially of something within oneselffrom Merriam Webster Dictionary • Nobody has a slightest idea of how anything material can be conscious– J.A Fodor • …our subjective experience or conscious state involving awareness, attention, and self reference - Jeanette Norden. • 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 • 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 • Nisargadattastates that awareness is not a part (subset) of consciousness but instead it is its superset

Emergence of Consciousness 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 Photos: http://images.google.com/

Evolution and consciousness –absence of consciousness 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 inter-relationship • 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

Attention • selective process of • cognitive perception/action • other cognitive experiences • results from attention switching • 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 • 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 • 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 self-awareness 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 usescognitive 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 Inspiration: human brain Photo (brain): http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Neuronal_correlates_of_consciousness Central Executive Episodic Memory & Learning Attention switching Action monitoring Emotions, rewards, and sub-cortical processing Planning and thinking Queuing and organization of episodes Motivation and goal processor Episodic memory Sensory-motor Semantic memory Motor skills Motor processors Sensory processors Data encoders/ decoders Data encoders/ decoders Motor units Sensory units

Sensory- Motor Block Emotions, rewards, and sub-cortical processing • sensory processors integrated with semantic memory • motor processors integrated with motor skills • sub-cortical processor integrated with emotions and rewards • Multiple processors, parallel processing, multiple individual outputs Sensory-motor Semantic memory Motor skills Motor processors Sensory processors Data encoders/ decoders Data encoders/ decoders Motor units Sensory units

Central Executive Central Executive • interacts with other units for • performing its tasks • gathering data • giving directions to other units • no clearly identified decision center • decision influenced by • competing signals representing motivations, pains, desires, and attention switching • need not be cognitive or consciously realized • competition can be interrupted by attention switching signal Attention switching Action monitoring Planning and thinking Motivation and goal processor

Central Executive Central Executive Attention switching Action monitoring • Requires • capability to dynamically select and directly execute programs • capability to activate semantic memory and control emotions • Tasks • cognitive perception • attention • attention switching • motivation • goal creation and selection • thoughts • planning • learning, etc. Planning and thinking Motivation and goal processor

Computational Model: Implications • The motivations for actions are physically distributed • 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 • 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 • 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-mind-training.html

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. References 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/

Janusz Starzyk School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Ohio University, USA