Conscious Robots

"Lives up to all the hype" "An absolutely necessary book", "Should be taught in schools", "Dynamite, this is a brilliant book" - see the reviews on Amazon.com. The Future's Most important Book: -- Why we're so convinced that we're in charge when we're really just carrying out evolution's instructions -- Why our lives, as Buddha suggested, are inherently unsatisfactory, despite our luxurious homes, successful careers and loving families -- How humans will one day take control of their conscious minds, get happy and stay happy. And the real reason Aliens haven't visited the Earth yet... 107 minutes (average read time) to change the way you think about everything. "Easy to understand and persuasive" "Fun, short, insightful" "Bad Ass "

Building a conscious robot is a scientific and technological challenge. Debates about the possibility of conscious robots and the related positive outcomes and hazards for human beings are today no longer confined to philosophical circles. Robot consciousness is a research field aimed at a two-part goal: on the one hand, scholars working in robot consciousness take inspiration from biological consciousness to build robots that present forms of experiential and functional consciousness. On the other hand, scholars employ robots as tools to better understand biological consciousness. Thus, part one of the goal concerns the replication of aspects of biological consciousness in robots, by unifying a variety of approaches from AI and robotics, cognitive robotics, epigenetic and affective robotics, situated and embodied robotics, developmental robotics, anticipatory systems, and biomimetic robotics. Part two of the goal is pursued by employing robots to advance and mark progress in the study of consciousness in humans and animals. Notably, neuroscientists involved in the study of consciousness do not exclude the possibility that robots may be conscious. This eBook comprises a collection of thirteen manuscripts and an Editorial published by Frontiers in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, under the section Humanoid Robotics, and Frontiers in Neurorobotics, on the topic “Consciousness in Humanoid Robots.” This compendium aims at collating the most recent theoretical studies, models, and case studies of machine consciousness that take the humanoid robot as a frame of reference. The content in the articles may be applied to many different kinds of robots, and to software agents as well.

As we approach a great turning point in history when technology is poised to redefine what it means to be human, The Fourth Age offers fascinating insight into AI, robotics, and their extraordinary implications for our species. “If you only read just one book about the AI revolution, make it this one” (John Mackey, cofounder and CEO, Whole Foods Market). In The Fourth Age, Byron Reese makes the case that technology has reshaped humanity just three times in history: 100,000 years ago, we harnessed fire, which led to language; 10,000 years ago, we developed agriculture, which led to cities and warfare; 5,000 years ago, we invented the wheel and writing, which lead to the nation state. We are now on the doorstep of a fourth change brought about by two technologies: AI and robotics. “Timely, highly informative, and certainly optimistic” (Booklist), The Fourth Age provides an essential background on how we got to this point, and how—rather than what—we should think about the topics we’ll soon all be facing: machine consciousness, automation, changes in employment, creative computers, radical life extension, artificial life, AI ethics, the future of warfare, superintelligence, and the implications of extreme prosperity. By asking questions like “Are you a machine?” and “Could a computer feel anything?”, Reese leads you through a discussion along the cutting edge in robotics and AI, and provides a framework by which we can all understand, discuss, and act on the issues of the Fourth Age and how they’ll transform humanity.

This book focuses on the research and development in the field of self-aware robots. Its theme is artificial consciousness, a field that covers both artificial intelligence and robotics, and includes philosophy, psychology, the study of biological evolution, physiology, and medicine, especially brain neuroscience and neuropsychiatry. Building on the first edition, Creation of a Conscious Robot: Mirror Image Cognition and Self-Awareness, this new edition discusses artificial neural networks and functions of human consciousness. It proposes a structure for a neural network with consciousness functions, explains the construction of a conscious system, and discusses the results of progressive research in designing and developing small robots with conscious systems capable of recognizing their own images in mirrors. Emphasizing the contributions of conscious robots to society and their potential future impact, the book also describes the robots that know the unknown, Pavlovian robots, and the development of a consciousness model possessing the well-known multiple personality disorder.

Present-day computers lack well-defined functions to accept various kinds of sensual information such as vision, hearing, and smelling (binding problem). Computers also lack any well-defined mechanisms to coordinate various behaviors in the presence of an object (conscious mechanism). This book serves as a breakthrough that opens a new world. Using

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 consciousness. These are the hard problems of consciousness that so far have been without viable solution. Unfortunately, the solution to the hidden problem of AI cannot be satisfactorily implemented, unless the phenomena of qualia and consciousness are first understood. In this book an explanation of consciousness is presented, one that rejects material and immaterial substances, dualism, panpsychism, emergence and metaphysics. What remains is obvious. This explanation excludes consciousness in digital computers, but allows the artificial creation of consciousness in one natural-like way, by associative non-computational neural networks.The proof of a theory calls for empirical verification. In this case, the proof could be in the form of a sentient robot. This book describes a step towards this in the form of the author's small experimental robot XCR-1. This robot has evolved through the years, and has now new cognitive abilities, which are described.

Could robots be genuinely intelligent? Could they be conscious? Could there be zombies? Prompted by these questions Robert Kirk introduces the main problems of consciousness and sets out a new approach to solving them. He starts by discussing behaviourism, Turing's test of intelligence and Searle's famous Chinese Room argument, and goes on to examine dualism – the idea that consciousness requires something beyond the physical – together with its opposite, physicalism. Probing the idea of zombies, he concludes they are logically impossible. Having presented the central problems, he sketches his solution: a version of functionalism, according to which consciousness consists in the performance of functions. While there is wide agreement among philosophers about what the main problems of consciousness are, there is little agreement on how to go about solving them. With this powerful case for his version of functionalism, Kirk offers an engaging introduction to both the problems and a possible solution.

Haikonen envisions autonomous robots that perceive and understand the world directly, acting in it in a natural human-like way without the need of programs and numerical representation of information. By developing higher-level cognitive functions through the power of artificial associative neuron architectures, the author approaches the issues of machine consciousness. Robot Brains expertly outlines a complete system approach to cognitive machines, offering practical design guidelines for the creation of non-numeric autonomous creative machines. It details topics such as component parts and realization principles, so that different pieces may be implemented in hardware or software. Real-world examples for designers and researchers are provided, including circuit and systems examples that few books on this topic give. In novel technical and practical detail, this book also considers: the limitations and remedies of traditional neural associators in creating true machine cognition; basic circuit assemblies cognitive neural architectures; how motors can be interfaced with the associative neural system in order for fluent motion to be achieved without numeric computations; memorization, imagination, planning and reasoning in the machine; the concept of machine emotions for motivation and value systems; an approach towards the use and understanding of natural language in robots. The methods presented in this book have important implications for computer vision, signal processing, speech recognition and other information technology fields. Systematic and thoroughly logical, it will appeal to practising engineers involved in the development and design of robots and cognitive machines, also researchers in Artificial Intelligence. Postgraduate students in computational neuroscience and robotics, and neuromorphic engineers will find it an exciting source of information.

The contributions to this book are original articles, representing a cross-section of current philosophical work on consciousness and thereby allowing students and readers from other disciplines to acquaint themselves with the very latest debate, so that they can then pursue their own research interests more effectively. The volume includes a bibliography on consciousness in philosophy, cognitive science and brain research, covering the last 25 years and consisting of over 1000 entries in 18 thematic sections, compiled by David Chalmers and Thomas Metzinger.

Intended for anyone attempting to find their way through the large and confusingly interwoven philosophical literature on consciousness, this reader brings together most of the principal texts in philosophy (and a small set of related key works in neuropsychology) on consciousness through 1997, and includes some forthcoming articles. Its extensive coverage strikes a balance between seminal works of the past few decades and the leading edge of philosophical research on consciousness.As no other anthology currently does, The Nature of Consciousness provides a substantial introduction to the field, and imposes structure on a vast and complicated literature, with sections covering stream of consciousness, theoretical issues, consciousness and representation, the function of consciousness, subjectivity and the explanatory gap, the knowledge argument, qualia, and monitoring conceptions of consciousness. Of the 49 contributions, 18 are either new or have been adapted from a previous publication.