Consciousness/Self Awareness

On another thread the subject of artificial intelligence (AI) surfaced, and I made a comment about the dangers of such an entity, putting it's own self preservation as a goal above any others. I assumed, (perhaps incorrectly), that a highly developed AI would develop a state of self awareness. I was taken to task on the issue and it was suggested that an AI would only need to be programmed to not want self preservation.

As it was a derail of the subject matter of the thread I decided to start this new one specifically about the nature of self awareness and consciousness.

Interestingly when you google self awareness, you get kinds of hits from those who would sell you all kinds of ideas on how to improve yours and so on, but little in the way of explanation of the subject itself. Googling consciousness is more productive however and I found this:

http://ift.tt/2fS0Yx0

Quote:

It might seem as if we stand little chance of making an artificial consciousness when the natural variety remains such an enigma. But in fact the quest for machine consciousness may be key to solving the mystery of human consciousness, as even scientists outside AI research are starting to acknowledge. “The best way of understanding something is to try and replicate it,” says psychologist Kevin O’Regan of Descartes University in Paris, France. “So if you want to understand what consciousness is, well make a machine that’s conscious.”

So as is said here natural consciousness is an enigma, (I read a few snippets from others who expressed the same sentiment), and maybe we need to try and make an artificial one to understand it.

As I mentioned on the other thread this may be risky.

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/2k5CSna