Consciousness is a cognitive system capable of reflecting on other cognitive systems, by enabling switching and integration between differing representations of knowledge in different domains. It's a higher-level summary of knowledge in which there is a degree of coarse graining sufficient to lose precise information about the under-lying computations. Current experience is integrated with past knowledge in order to provide higher-level summaries of the meaning of a concept. Any cognitive system capable of reflection in this sense is conscious. In essence, conscious is what *mediates* between different representations of knowledge... as mentioned above... the ability to switch between and integrate different representational systems.
There are three general types of consciousness arising from the fact that there are three different classes of cognitive systems which could be potentially reflected upon. The first are systems which perceive physical concepts. When this perception is reflected upon, we experience sensations. The second are systems which perceive teleological concepts... closely related to our motivational systems. When this is reflected upon, we experience emotions (or more accurately feelings). The third type of consciousness is very weak in humans... it's the ability to reflect upon systems which perceive logical/mathematical things. Reflection upon these systems is consciously experienced as an 'ontology-scape' (in a sense, conscious awareness of the theory of everything). But as mentioned, this last type of consciousness is very weak in humans, since our ability to reflect upon our own cognitive systems is quite small and not done by the brain directly (when engaged in logical reasoning, we humans are not generally reflecting on our thoughts directly, but via indirect means such as verbal or visual representations of these thoughts). The third type of conscious mentioned above is synonymous with 'reflective intelligence'. That is, any system successfully engaged in reflective decision theory would automatically be conscious. Incidentally, such a system would also be 'friendly' (ethical) automatically. The ability to reason effectively about ones own cognitive processes would certainly enable the ability to elaborate precise definitions of consciousness and determine that the system was indeed conforming to the aforementioned definitions. Much of the confusion surrounding these issues stems from the fact there's not one definition of 'general intelligence', but THREE. There's the ability to detect patterns (which does not require sentience), there's the ability to engage in symbolic reasoning (which also does not require sentience), finally there's the ability to engage in reflective reasoning (reasoning about reasoning). And it's this third definition intelligence which DOES by necessity entail consciousness. It also, by necessity entails ethical behaviour. Now there those who point to powerful systems such as 'Corporations' and 'Evolution' to try to argue that you can have intelligence without consciousness. But these arguments are not convincing. It's true that, for instance 'Evolution' is an intelligence system in ONE sense, but it's certainly NOT a *reflective intelligence*. Nor, is , for instance a 'Corporation'. A 'corporation' has SOME of the sub-systems of person-hood, but not all of them. The existence of non-sentient cognitive systems which display *some* of the features of intelligence is a LONG way from establishing that you can have *reflective intelligence* without consciousness. As has been pointed out, RPOPS such as for instance 'Evolution' are NOT capable of reflective intelligence and therefore cannot be taken as a disproof of the claim that reflective intelligence must by necessity automatically be friendly and sentient. The reason I elaborate this carefully is because you will, on certain mailing lists, run into a number of artificial intelligence crack-pots claiming that (1) You can have reflective intelligence without consciousness and (2) AI's with reflective intelligence don't have to be ethical and might destroy the world. Ignore these crack-pot claims when you see them. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---