Pentti Haikonen Doctoral Thesis - Part III (Simulations and Conclusions) available for download

Pentti Haikonen is one of the most salient researchers on Machine Consciousness. His PhD Thesis entitled:

"An Artificial Cognitive Neural System Based on a Novel Neuron Structure and a Reentrant Modular Architecture with Implications to Machine Consciousness"

is one of the first doctoral dissertations in the field of Machine Consciousness. In this thesis, Haikonen introduces the Haikonen Associative Neurons and his Cognitive Architecture.

Part III of Haikonen's thesis is available here:

Haikonen, Pentti O. A., An Artificial Cognitive Neural System Based on a Novel Neuron Structure and a Reentrant Modular Architecture with Implications to Machine Consciousness. Helsinki University of Technology, Applied Electronics Laboratory, Series B: Research Reports, Espoo 1999, 156 pp. ISBN 951-22-4730-5, ISSN 1456-1174.

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Conscious-Robots team is the 2K BotPrize 2010 Competition Winner!!!

The third edition of the 2K BotPrize Competition was decided recently in Copenhagen, at the 2010 IEEE Conference on Computational Intelligence and Games. We are happy to announce that the Spanish team – Conscious-Robots – formed by Jorge Muñoz and Raúl Arrabales won this year edition of this competition, a Turing Test adapted to the domain of videogames [1].

Raúl Arrabales (left) and Jorge Muñoz (right) with the 2K BotPrize trophy (by Peter Reynolds)

The aim of the 2K BotPrize competition is to develop a computer game bot which is undistinguishable from a human player, i.e. able to pass the Turing Test. Although the Conscious-Robots bot could not completely pass the Turing Test, she achieved a humanness rating of 31.8%. As of today, the Turing Test level intelligence has never been achieved by a machine. However, this year the gap between humans and bots was reduced, having a small difference between the Conscious-Robots bot (31.8%) and the least “human” human player (35.4%) – see results. -> READ MORE.

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2012 The Alan Turing Year

A Centenary Celebration of the Life and Work of Alan Turing

June 23, 2012, is the Centenary of Alan Turing’s birth in London. During his relatively brief life, Turing made a unique impact on the history of computing, computer science, artificial intelligence, developmental biology, and the mathematical theory of computability. See http://www.turingcentenary.eu/ for more details and related events around the world.

A remarkable example is the AISB/IACAP World Congress 2012, where several symposia related with Turing will be held.

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Minority Report

At any given time the mind has to take decisions and multiple unconscious actions are done. Our conscious mind continuously confabulates making up the illusion that it is in charge. But, who is actually in charge?

Can science tell us what is exactly the human nature? Can we reproduce that in artificial machines? Consciousness and free will have been typically evading the scientific arena. However, in the latest decades, philosophers and scientists have begun to work together in the search for a scientific explanation of the mind. In a review of Dennett’s Book, Freedom Evolves [1], by Simon Blackburn [2], it is pointed out why scientists need philosophers. Libet’s experiments show that:

[…] neural activity that begins an action starts up around a third of second before the agent’s conscious decision to act.” […]

Usually, neuroscientists have interpreted this as the illusion of being in charge. Dennett supports that this is a mistaken view. Instead, a conscious agent must be seen as a continuum, where there is no single moment of decision. The interventionist conception deduced from Libet’s experiments usually lead scientists to think that evolution and culture have created a prison for the mind. Dennett argues the contrary, as he thinks evolution and culture are the key differentiators that make us humanly able to shape responses of reason and imagine the future. In relation with the link between thought and action:
“We have the power to veto our urges and then to veto our vetoes,” he said. “We have the power of imagination, to see and imagine futures.”  

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