NIPS International Workshop for Scientific Study of Consciousness
The NIPS international workshop for Scientific Study of Consciousness (NIPS-SSC) will be held at the Okazaki Conference Center (Aichi, Japan) in Sep 19-20, 2009. This workshop is an official satellite event for the 32nd international neuroscience conference "Neuroscience 2009" (Nagoya. Sep 16-18, 2009).
No MRDS Simulation Competition at RoboCup 2009
Although Microsoft is still supporting RoboCup as sponsor, partnership with RoboCup has been relocated from Robotics Developer Studio team to Microsoft Research – Human-Robot Interaction.
Mind that Abides. Panpsychism in the new millennium
Edited by David Skrbina. University of Michigan at Dearborn Advances in Consciousness Research, 75 Benjamins Publishing Company. 2009. xiv, 401 pp. John.
Axel Cleeremans
Research Directors with the NFSR. Member of the Royal Academy of Belgium.
His research interests include Consciousness, Computational Models of Cognition, Implicit Learning, and Cognitive Science.
ASSC XIII
The thirteenth annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (ASSC) will be held from 5 till 8 June 2009 at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Review Robot Brains: Circuits and Systems for Conscious Machines
By Pentty Haikonen Wiley. September 2007. ISBN: 978-0-470-06204-3.
In 30 years we will have an alternative to death: being a ghost in a machine.
In a recent article by Christof Koch and Giulio Tononi [1], the authors argue that in 30 years we will be able to upload our mind to a computer. Actually, we can start building our “mindfiles” already using services like Lifenaut.
Despite of the optimism of this claim, Koch and Tononi recall us that we don’t know yet what consciousness is. They believe that consciousness will be artificially created eventually; however, it might not be the same sort of consciousness as we think.
The first assumption used as the base of the argumentation is that consciousness is produced in the brain by the natural world, and therefore it is controlled by the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology. The activity in the corticothalamic system seems to be a key factor in the production of consciousness. Nevertheless, other functions and brain areas (even those that are characteristic of human beings) are not necessary for the presence of consciousness. Even interaction with the environment could not be necessary for the existence of consciousness (provided that such interaction has existed before). In other words, we can have an entirely inner conscious experience.
Usually when we talk about situated agents as the target of the research in Artificial Intelligence or Machine Consciousness, we think about physical agents, like typical autonomous robots. One of the reasons why we tend to use physical robots as part of our experimental setup is because we believe embodiment plays a key role both in intelligence and consciousness.
AI Bots in a video game
Because of the limitations in cost and time, during development phases we are used to using simulation tools in order to quickly test our hypotheses. However, the final target is always the physical robot and its application into the real world. At least that is the obvious conclusion in the field of robotics.
But, what about final AI applications that only live within virtual worlds? Do they deserve less attention from AI research fields? In recent years we are seeing a growing interest in applications which reside entirely within virtual worlds and video games. Some relevant examples are Second Life and World of Warcraft. I personally believe the success of these products is rooted in the fact that they provide new ways of interaction between humans (players, colleagues, partners, etc.). We currently lack the same level and richness of interaction when it comes to AI bots (we use the term AI bot to refer to autonomous virtual agents that are controlled by an AI program).
From my point of view, there is no doubt that AI bots are a new example of situated agents. Whether they can be considered embodied or not is another question. Anyhow, we could say that they are embodied in terms of the simulated physical laws enforced by the engine which generates the corresponding virtual world or video game.
INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON MACHINE CONSCIOUSNESS, Hong Kong 14th June 2009
This workshop organized by Gino Yu and Ben Goertzel will be co-colocated with Toward a Science of Consciousness conference (to be held 12th~-14th JUNE 2009). This workshop will explore issues at the intersection of consciousness studies with cognitive robotics and artificial general intelligence.
Among the many important questions lying in this intersection, are the following:
What do contemporary theories of consciousness say about the possibility and nature of consciousness that may be possible in intelligent robots and software programs?
Assuming machine consciousness is achievable, what are likely to be the similarities and differences between machine consciousness and human consciousness.
What can one say about the relationship between degree of consciousness and degree of intelligence, across the scope of potential intelligent systems including humans, robots and software programs.
How important is embodiment for the development of machine consciousness? How should "embodiment" be defined in this context?
What are some contemporary robotics or AGI (artificial general intelligence) architectures that have the potential to lead so significant degrees of machine consciousness? Why do they seem to have this potential?
Is consciousness (or advanced forms of consciousness) something that must emerge within a robotics or AGI system via the system's interaction with its environment, rather than being explicitly programmed in? If so, what are the conditions for its emergence?
What implications do the social, collective aspects of consciousness have for the possibility and nature of machine consciousness?
Frontpage 
No MRDS Simulation Competition at RoboCup 2009
Mind that Abides. Panpsychism in the new millennium
Axel Cleeremans
Review
In 30 years we will have an alternative to death: being a ghost in a machine.
INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON MACHINE CONSCIOUSNESS, Hong Kong 14th June 2009
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