Harry Chesley wrote:
Richard Loosemore wrote:
I completed the first draft of a technical paper on consciousness the
other day. It is intended for the AGI-09 conference, and it can be
found at:
http://susaro.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/draft_consciousness_rpwl.pdf
One other point: Although this is a possible explanation for our
subjective experience of qualia like "red" or "soft," I don't see it
explaining "pain" or "happy" quite so easily. You can hypothesize a sort
of mechanism-level explanation of those by relegating them to the older
or "lower" parts of the brain (i.e., they're atomic at the conscious
level, but have more effects at the physiological level (like releasing
chemicals into the system)), but that doesn't satisfactorily cover the
subjective side for me.
I do have a quick answer to that one.
Remember that the core of the model is the *scope* of the analysis
mechanism. If there is a sharp boundary (as well there might be), then
this defines the point where the qualia kick in. Pain receptors are
fairly easy: they are primitive signal lines. Emotions are, I believe,
caused by clusters of lower brain structures, so the interface between
"lower brain" and "foreground" is the place where the foreground sees a
limit to the analysis mechanisms.
More generally, the significance of the "foreground" is that it sets a
boundary on how far the analysis mechanisms can reach.
I am not sure why that would seem less satisfactory as an explanation of
the subjectivity. It is a "raw feel", and that is the key idea, no?
Richard Loosemore
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agi
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