Lifenaut Project. Eternalizing Consciousness using a virtual avatar

A talk with Nick Mayer, Manager of Cyberbiological Systems at Terasem Movement Foundation.

The goal of the Lifenaut Project is to create an automated, user-friendly, and web accessible system that allows individuals around the globe to create significantly detailed personality archives. The service is completely free and our hope is that future AI-like software will allow these archives (which we call "mindfiles") to replicate the consciousness of the individuals from which they came, explained Nick Mayer, whose job is to guide the development teams involved in this project and oversee the orchestration of their work.

Presently the mindfiles are composed of: an array of file types that the user uploads (and can view) using our lifenaut interface, personality test results, profile information, and lines of conversation from teaching sessions between the user and his/her talking "AI Avatar."  Mayer believes that although at this point the AI Avatars are not too intelligent, ultimately all of the information in the mindfile can be tapped into the conversational capability of the avatar, thus creating an analog of the users’ consciousness.

More details about the Lifenaut project are described in the following excerpt from a letter that Mayer composed to lifenaut userbase:

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The Cognitive Approach to Conscious Machines

by Pentti O. Haikonen

Principal Scientist, Cognitive Technology, Nokia Research
Imprint Academics. March 2003, 300 pp., ISBN 0907845428.

Review of the book ‘The Cognitive Approach to Conscious Machines’ by Pentti O. Haikonen, Principal Scientist, Cognitive Technology, Nokia Research.

The first thing to say about this book is that it is quite complete. For anyone interested in Machine Consciousness, this is an excellent resource as it covers virtually all open issues of this research field. The first part of the book is an introduction to computation, Artificial Intelligence and Neural Networks, so it is worth reading for those who don’t have a good background in Computer Science (even though if you are not particularly interested in Machine Consciousness).

The simple and direct writing style of the book makes it quite easy to read, even to the non-native English speaker (like me). It is actually amazing how the author manages to deal with lots of controversial and complicated issues with such a clarity and simplicity. After having read some other books on consciousness I have to say that this is the one that you can read and have the real feeling that you actually understand everything. But make no mistake; this apparent simplicity doesn’t imply that the author doesn’t approach the hard issues of Machine Consciousness. On the contrary, hard problems like the generation of speech are brilliantly tackled down and practical solutions are always explained.

Part II of the book is an introduction to consciousness and cognition, hard concepts that again are clearly introduced and explained. Part III of the book covers the author’s Machine Consciousness proposal, the cognitive architecture. I think that someone with a strong background in Computer Science (part I) and also in the scientific study of consciousness (part II) could skip parts I and II. However, I enjoyed reading them as they are presented from a particular straightforward point of view. Haikonen’s cognitive architecture described in part III of the book is something that anyone seriously interested in Machine Consciousness should read. I personally don’t know of any other framework that covers in such a broad range the problem of Machine Consciousness.

Finally the two last chapters are quite thought provoking and provide an insight of what the field of Machine Consciousness could lead us to in the future.

• More about this book.
• RELATED BOOK: Robot Brains: Circuits and Systems for Conscious Machines. 

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Sources of Consciousness (Green, Triffet, 1997)

I haven’t read this book (yet), but I think it could be interesting to some extend as it tries to cover the biophysical and computational roots of consciousness. From a quick look at the index and some leaf through it seems that the authors are proposing a quantum mechanics explanation for consciousness (however, it doesn’t looks like the Orch-OR – Orchestrated Objective Reduction proposed by Hameroff and Penrose). Instead, they argue that the brain is like a quantal turing machine that processes information stored in a tape (memory). For them, perception is the instant action of gaining information, while awareness is the continuing aspect of acquiring the information from the quantal tape. Complementarily, the instant action of creating new information is identified with a decision, while volition is said to be the continuing aspect of the information creation process.

Book details:
Title: Sources of Consciousness. The Biophysical and Computational Basis of Thought.
Authors: H. S. Green and T. Triffet.
World Scientific Publishing. 1997.

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I Am A Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter.

As the theory about consciousness proposed by Douglas Hofstadter was being discussed here in Conscious-Robots.com forums and elsewhere, I decided to challenge again my genuinely engineering and scientific intellect with another dangerous incursion into philosophy. Being a researcher in the field of consciousness this is actually a must, given the multidisciplinary nature of the study of consciousness. Anyhow, I am to some extend an experienced reader of essays on philosophy of mind, and I’ve been surprised by the style and content of I am Strange Loop Book.

Even for those who are not interested in the problem of consciousness, but have some interest in computation, mathematics and logic, the first chapters of the book could be of great value. Hofstadter present in these first chapters some amazing (and easy to understand) mathematical concepts. Also, Russell and Whitehead’s Principa Mathematica are discussed under the view of Gödel achievements. Gödel’s incompleteness theorems and their implications will be the core of Hofstadter’s theory for consciousness.

To be honest, I must say that this was not an easy reading for me (partly because English is not my mother tongue and partly because of the more or less 400 pages, which sometimes I felt there were filled with too much musing). However, the way the book is written, which sometimes I would call an autobiography, helps the reader to understand the exact point that Hofstadter wants to communicate. The way the author reveals his intimate thoughts and feelings help the reader to understand how his arguments about consciousness can be assimilated from a personal point of view (specifically for those who don’t believe in any form of dualism). By the way, Hofstadter includes in the book some arguments and criticism against other philosophical ideas about consciousness. Dualism is particularly discussed under the light of the proposed theory and heavily criticized. In summary, Hofstadter tries to convey the reader a highly counterintuitive idea of consciousness by confronting it to his own personal feelings and other dualist approaches.

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The Making of Memory by Steven Rose

This is not a book on consciousness but there is no doubt that memory is a fundamental component of mind. That’s the reason why I am also interested in the research of memory in mammals and that’s why I read this book by Steven Rose: The Making of Memory. From Molecules to Mind. (ISBN: 0099449986. 1992. Actually my copy is a revised edition published by Vintage in 2003).

As the title suggests, Rose offers a scientific review of current advances in the study of the processes of memory at the biochemical, physiological, and cognitive levels. However, one has to take into account that this is not a cognitive science book, and the strength is given in the realms of biochemistry and physiology. The book is to a great extend a biography of Rose’s research career, which I believe is a good strategy to introduce the world of biochemical research to the reader. For those whose field of research is not related with biology or physiology labs (like me) the book provides a good insight about how things are done, what animals and methods are used, and finally how science knowledge is obtained out of these sort of scientific research. Additionally, Rose makes an interlude in chapter 13, where he describes from his own experience how the social aspects of science and scientific community dynamics interact in the whole process of research, bringing to light the back-stage issues constantly present in the life of a scientific researcher.

This book is a great opportunity to discover the great complexity of the brain when you look at it from the point of view of biological processes that take place at the levels of description studied by biochemistry (composition), physiology (dynamics), and to a lesser extend psychology (cognitive functions). If you are interested in neurosciences, you’ll have fun reading this book.

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Theatre of the Mind. Raising the curtain on consciousness. Jay Ingram (2005).

Reviewed: 2007/09/18 13:13

This book by Jay Ingram is published by Harper Collins Canada (2005).

This is the last book I’ve read about consciousness, and I can recommend it to anyone interested in the field as an introductory journey into the matter. As Jay Ingram is a science broadcaster the book is written for the broad public, and it can be easily understood. Books about consciousness can be sometimes too difficult to understand for the non-expert in the field, as they tend to use too many philosophical terms and usually the writer assumes previous knowledge in cognitive sciences and/or neurobiology. But, this is not the case of Theater of the Mind. It is written in a direct and easy way, thus creating a comfortable and enjoyable summary of latest advances in the search for an explanation of consciousness.

Other strong point I see in this book is that it covers a wide range of issues related with consciousness, from its definition, the problem of free will, dreams, animal consciousness, and even cosmic experiences. This will make you to wonder many new questions about your consciousness. Also, some of the most remarkable neurological syndromes are also described, like split brains, giving the reader the chance to appreciate how neurologists and psychologists infer some assumptions regarding the nature of consciousness.

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