Lately I''ve been reading about how the quest for Artificial Intelligence (Which is to say, Artificial OUR Intelligence) is burdened by the lack of definition for consciousness. And how often time our egos can make AI an impossible goal, because of our unwillingness to adhere to a flat definition in order to feel "special". Well, I propose we stop this nonsense, and just collectively work on a definition. Here is mine to start. "Conciousness is the abilty to modify connections without direct influence, and it is the ability to have freewill in their modification. Freewill such that the ability to determine self, and benefits and decreases in self that can be chosen depending on mental constitution. Self such that acknowledgement of inner and outer worlds, and that the discrepencies created by the two are self." Of course ye olde webster says consciousness is (while at the same time not saying what it is) : 1. the state of being conscious; awarenss 2. the thoughts and feelings, collectively, of an individual or of an aggregate of people. 3. full activity of the mind and senses, as in waking life: to regain consciousness. 4. awareness of something for what it is; internal knowledge: consciousness of wrongdoing. 5.concern, interest, or awareness: class consciousness. 6. the mental activity of which a person is aware, contrasted with unconscious though. 7. Philos, the mind or mental faculties, characterized by thought, feelsing, and volition. 8.raise one''s consciousness, to make or become aware of one''s own or another''s needs, attitudes, etc. esp. stemming from political or social repression. James

I think you''re definition includes too much.

"Conciousness is the state of processing of sensory information."




AI is burdened by much more important things imho

Whether we have a set definition of "consciousness" or not,imho doesn''t really matter. I''d like to think we are all perceptive enough to "know it when we see it". Then again, maybe I expect alot of the AI community.

I agree with alexjc: AI has bigger fish to fry than quibbling over a "standard" definition.

Conciousness: You'll know it when you see it.

quote:
Freewill such that the ability to determine self

This is one reason why you cannot define 'intelligence' or 'conciousness'. You can never prove that anyone (other than yourself, to yourself) has it.

I could be wrong, but I don't think it's even possible to prove that you are awake (as in, not dreaming).

Will

[edited by - RPGeezus on June 16, 2003 2:40:05 PM]

Well, the search is for Artificial "Intelligence", not artificial consciousness... I think the "key" to being considered intelligent is the ability to learn from its mistakes.

Many games don''t have this feature. Age of Empires for example, can be easily won every time by "tricking" the AI in very simple ways. A well placed guard tower will ALWAYS grab their attention and they will destroy it, regardless of its significance (or lack thereof) to your people and their military, as well as giving you a heads up an army is coming. This is one example of many AI "flaws" in that particular game.

A good AI, as I would define it, would be one that can make qualitative assessments on like units/structures/players... So instead of treating all towers with equal importance/priority, it would pick out the ones that grant the AI the best strategic advantage. So instead of attacking the lone tower doing nothing except to confuse the AI, it would determine it is meaningless and instead, go destroy the tower that has destroyed 35 of its fishing ships. And on top of that, would send a small fleet over to prevent future towers from being built.

To make a universal system of AI is naive in my opinion. AI for like games (Age of Empires, Age of Mythology, Age of Whatever) could obviously use the same AI libs, but would be ludicrous to try to port that into Unreal engine.

But basically, to end my rant here, AI should be able to learn from its mistakes. And eventually, one day we won''t have Ai for games, it will just be ''I'', nothing artificial about it.

I think alpha brainwaves increase in their turbulence when you are awake.

"Conciousness: You''ll know it when you see it. "
So, new question. Has anyone seen it? (In a non-human)

Consciousness: The ability to speculate as to what consciousness really is. (Cited from the dictionary of Kellen)

"seen it" - NO

But I think Stonicus has a very valid point too, conciousness does not equal intelligence and vise versa.

I have seen programs that it could be argued had "intelligence" (using Stonicus definition "learns from mistakes"), but they were definitely not "concious" (i.e. "aware of self"), supporting Stonicus point.

I think my dog is consciously aware of her self but not very intelligent.

Example: She gets VERY excited when she sees a dog outside the window, but she doesn''t care about her reflection in the mirror. Does this prove anything? No. But it''s good enough for me.

-solo (my site)

"Conciousness: You''ll know it when you see it. "
So, new question. Has anyone seen it? (In a non-human)

I have difficulty seeing it humans sometimes.