Machines Like Us

In this paper, author Christophe Menant notes that current research on artificial intelligence typically takes phenomenal consciousness as a reference model for human consciousness. He proposes an alternate approach by taking self-consciousness as a reference model, and consequently opens new areas of investigation for artificial intelligence.

Self-consciousness can be defined as "the possession of the concept of the self and the ability to use this concept in thinking about oneself" (Block, 2002). It is different from phenomenal consciousness which can be understood as "experience; the phenomenally conscious aspect of a state is what it is like to be in that state" (Block, 2002). The author feels that taking self-consciousness as a base for analyzing the possibilities of an artificial consciousness can open new perspectives for robot perception, reasoning and action. Such an approach could also provide a simpler frame for positioning artificial consciousness versus human consciousness.

Read full paper here.