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The problem of how the brain produces consciousness, subjectivity and 'something it is like to be' remains one of the greatest challenges to a complete science of the natural world. While various scientists and philosophers approach the problem from their own unique perspectives and in the terms of their own respective fields, Biophysics of Consciousness: A Foundational Approach attempts a consilience across disparate disciplines to explain how it is possible that an objective brain produces subjective experience.This volume unites the crème de la crème of physicists, neuroscientists, and psychiatrists in the attempt to understand consciousness through a foundational approach encompassing ontological, evolutionary, neurobiological, and Freudian interpretations with the focus on conscious phenomena occurring in the brain. By integrating the perspectives of these diverse disciplines with the latest research and theories on the biophysics of the brain, the book tries to explain how consciousness can be an adaptive and causal element in the natural world.
THIS BOOK is the fully revised and updated second edition of 'Consciousness and Robot Sentience'. With lots of new material, it will provide new insights into artificial intelligence (AI) and machine consciousness, beyond materials published in the first edition. The organization of this book has been streamlined for better clarity and continuity of the lines of arguments.The perspective of AI has been added to this edition. It is shown that contemporary AI has a hidden problem, which prevents it from becoming a true intelligent agent. A self-evident solution to this problem is given in this book.This solution is surprisingly connected with the concepts of qualia, the mind-body problem and c...
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has seen rapid advancements in recent years, particularly in the areas of deep learning and the ability to generalize from concrete objects to abstract concepts. Meanwhile, in the study of machine consciousness, a universally agreed definition among scientists and philosophers is still lacking.This book raises a number of issues surrounding the nature and implications of conscious artificial intelligence:This edited volume consists of 10 chapters that highlight the prospects of machine consciousness and study the subject from several perspectives. The issues are wide-ranging and include topics such as the metaverse, a computational approach to pain and suffering, universal cognitive intelligence, intentional action, the categorization of conscious machines, and more. The volume is designed as a reference guide for researchers, practitioners, and students interested in the intersection of AI and consciousness.
Volume I, entitled “Augmentation of Brain Functions: Brain-Machine Interfaces”, is a collection of articles on neuroprosthetic technologies that utilize brain-machine interfaces (BMIs). BMIs strive to augment the brain by linking neural activity, recorded invasively or noninvasively, to external devices, such as arm prostheses, exoskeletons that enable bipedal walking, means of communication and technologies that augment attention. In addition to many practical applications, BMIs provide useful research tools for basic science. Several articles cover challenges and controversies in this rapidly developing field, such as ways to improve information transfer rate. BMIs can be applied to th...
This book discusses two main cultural problems behind the failure of machine consciousness and artificial general intelligence (AGI) projects over many decades. The first problem recognizes that building a conscious AGI means building an artificial scientist. The book identifies the responsible pitfalls in mainstream scientific behavior and eliminates them by proposing a new operational framework for scientists called “Dual Aspect Science”.The second problem arises because scholars involved in machine consciousness and AGI essentially aim to replicate brains with computers. They are demonstrably not doing this, and this failure has been prevalent since the rise of computers. Instead, the book discusses the possibility of doing real empirical neuroscience by means of artificial materials that literally do what the brain does.Inspired by Thomas Kuhn, one of the most influential philosophers of science of the twentieth century, this compendium proposes a fresh perspective on machine consciousness, on AGI and, more generally, on how the machinery of science might need to change to accommodate it.
This new Research Topic is, in part, a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the game-changing “neural correlates of consciousness” concept, first proposed as part of Crick and Koch’s 1990 “neurobiological theory of consciousness.” After thirty years of research and theory-building, scholars in the science of consciousness are perhaps not much closer to a widely-accepted theory of consciousness.
While it is often thought that a serious theism is largely incompatible with a radical ontological pluralism, Mark McLeod-Harrison defends the claim that ontological relativism not only requires theism but is consistent with traditional Christianity. Building primarily on the work of Nelson Goodman and Michael Lynch, McLeod-Harrison spells out what is right and what is missing from contemporary pluralism. Proposing a new defence, he explains the need for God and shows how and why radical relativistic pluralism is consistent with traditional Christianity. He also explores how pluralism can be defended against the notorious "consistency challenge" and analyses the relationships among noetic irrealism, pluralism, necessity, God's nature, theories of truth, and idealism. Philosophers working in the field of realistic/antirealistic metaphysics, theologians struggling with how to put traditional Christian claims together with our postmodern situation, and those interested in a new framework For The integration of faith and theorizing will findMake/Believing the World(s)of great interest.