Natural and Artificial Consciousness: MacLennan's Framework
What role can consciousness play in autonomous robots? This paper by Bruce J. MacLennan explores functions of consciousness, including deliberate control, self-awareness, and metacognition, while addressing the “Hard Problem” of subjective awareness in robots from the perspective of protophenomena theory.
Consciousness: Natural and Artificial, authored by Bruce J. MacLennan, bridges evolutionary psychology and robotics to discuss how key aspects of consciousness can enhance autonomous robotic systems.
Key Highlights
- Functional Consciousness: Identifies adaptive advantages of consciousness, including deliberate control of actions and integration of sensory data, for robots operating in complex environments.
- Protophenomena Theory: Proposes that consciousness arises from elementary subjective experiences (protophenomena) associated with neural or analogous physical processes.
- Intentionality and Meaning: Discusses the intrinsic intentionality required for robots to find meaning in their actions and representations, distinct from mere data processing.
- The Hard Problem: Explores the challenge of reconciling physical mechanisms with subjective awareness and its potential emergence in sufficiently complex robotic systems.
Connection to ACM
The Artificial Consciousness Module (ACM) aligns with this study by:
- Protophenomena Modeling: ACM can leverage protophenomena theory to simulate elementary subjective experiences in virtual environments.
- Intentionality in AI: Insights into intrinsic intentionality can inform ACM’s design of systems that derive meaning from interactions and decisions.
- Adaptive Consciousness: The adaptive roles of consciousness, such as deliberate control and metacognition, resonate with ACM’s objectives for creating contextually aware and self-reflective AI.
For an in-depth examination of the theoretical and practical aspects discussed, access the full paper here.
