>From the rewrite-in-progress of the User Manual -- 1.4 Is MindForth conscious?
MindForth has been engineered for artificial consciousness but most likely will not report its own consciousness unless it is installed in a robot body with a sufficient motorium and adequate sensorium to engender self-awareness. Instead of having a consciousness module -- which would be impossible -- the MindForth software is geared towards having the proper flow of information for consciousness to emerge as an epiphenomenon on top of the otherwise mechanistic machinery of mind. Consciousness has to serve a purpose, or it would not even exist in nature. Perhaps the purpose of consciousness is to ensure the fastest possible speed of thought in the Darwinian fight for survival of the fittest. On the other hand, perhaps consciousness is a byproduct of the division of labor between sleep and the waking state in the maintenance of a central nervous system (CNS). Rest assured, however, that True AI Mind.Forth was truly built with consciousness in mind. In the section of this Manual on how Mind.Forth thinks, we read of the developmental decision to have syntax reach down into the conceptual plane and activate one single concept after another until a chain of thought is formed. That decision in 2001 was unwittingly a milestone on the long march towards machine consciousness in MindForth AI, because a few years later in 2005 a decision was made to have single activations move like a wave through the mindgrid, based on the earlier idea from 2001 that the process of NLP generation "chases" activation from concept to concept. If we think of consciousness as the constantly shifting focus of the searchlight of attention, then our Moving Wave Algorithm (MWA) facilitates consciousness by keeping only one concept active at a time in the AI Mind. The MWA at the same time facilitates the subconscious area of the mind, where previously active concepts slowly decrease their activation on a slide into temporary oblivion. The subconscious area, however, facilitates meandering chains of thought, because semi-activated concepts remain briefly available for inclusion in an incipient thought. Consciousness, then, because it includes the subconscious, may be a necessary conditio sine qua non for the very existence of rational intellect engaging in thought. ATM -- http://mentifex.virtualentity.com/mind4th.html http://mentifex.virtualentity.com/m4thuser.html ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=94603346-a08d2f
