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| Unique Features of Human Consciousness |
Unique Features of Human Consciousness
From an evolutionary perspective, one would expect different species in the animal kingdom to possess varying degrees of consciousness – from the non-conscious state of a slug to the conscious state of modern humans. One would also expect to find varying mental capabilities among the billions of humans on Earth. One would even expect that individuals would display varying degrees of consciousness, from time to time.
While it is apparent that many animals possess a degree of consciousness, it is also obvious that human consciousness and mental capabilities are far superior to any other animal on Earth. Chimpanzees can master up to a few hundred symbols for simple communications such as ‘Where is Sam?’ or ‘I want a banana.’ Humans have vocabularies with thousands of words enabling them to publish daily newspapers, write books, and launch communication satellites.
Human consciousness is different in quality from that of other animals because we have more information to work with, and have a greater range of social and technical issues to deal with. We are skilled at rapidly shifting items in and out of immediateterm memory so that we can remain alert to what is happening around us and, at the same time, are able to assemble the best information available for making decisions.
With practice and effort we are even able to multi-task and make decisions regarding diverse issues at virtually the same time. Humans have highly developed capacities for processing information, applying learned behaviours, and developing novel solutions to problems. Humans have the ability to contemplate the implications of past and future events.
There is another interesting question involving consciousness. Will it ever be possible for a computer (or a robot) to develop a state of consciousness? Some have argued that it is not possible to create true artificial intelligence and consciousness, but those arguments might just be critiques of our own lack of knowledge rather than proofs that artificial intelligence and consciousness are impossible.
Animal evolution towards consciousness has been energized by the Sun and motivated by the release of endorphins in the brain to stimulate survival and reproduction.
Perhaps a computer could be given the ability to obtain its own power, and a suitable reward system could be devised to motivate one computer to build a better computer. Such an evolutionary approach to artificial intelligence might be more productive than any attempt to sit down and deliberately design a machine with artificial intelligence. In fact, the world’s largest manufacturers of computer chips already use elaborate computer programs to design successive generations of CPUs that are so complex that no single human can comprehend all the intricacies of the designs. Perhaps several steps have already been taken along the evolutionary path to artificial intelligence.
From an evolutionary perspective, one would expect different species in the animal kingdom to possess varying degrees of consciousness – from the non-conscious state of a slug to the conscious state of modern humans. One would also expect to find varying mental capabilities among the billions of humans on Earth. One would even expect that individuals would display varying degrees of consciousness, from time to time.
While it is apparent that many animals possess a degree of consciousness, it is also obvious that human consciousness and mental capabilities are far superior to any other animal on Earth. Chimpanzees can master up to a few hundred symbols for simple communications such as ‘Where is Sam?’ or ‘I want a banana.’ Humans have vocabularies with thousands of words enabling them to publish daily newspapers, write books, and launch communication satellites.
Human consciousness is different in quality from that of other animals because we have more information to work with, and have a greater range of social and technical issues to deal with. We are skilled at rapidly shifting items in and out of immediateterm memory so that we can remain alert to what is happening around us and, at the same time, are able to assemble the best information available for making decisions.
With practice and effort we are even able to multi-task and make decisions regarding diverse issues at virtually the same time. Humans have highly developed capacities for processing information, applying learned behaviours, and developing novel solutions to problems. Humans have the ability to contemplate the implications of past and future events.
There is another interesting question involving consciousness. Will it ever be possible for a computer (or a robot) to develop a state of consciousness? Some have argued that it is not possible to create true artificial intelligence and consciousness, but those arguments might just be critiques of our own lack of knowledge rather than proofs that artificial intelligence and consciousness are impossible.
Animal evolution towards consciousness has been energized by the Sun and motivated by the release of endorphins in the brain to stimulate survival and reproduction.
Perhaps a computer could be given the ability to obtain its own power, and a suitable reward system could be devised to motivate one computer to build a better computer. Such an evolutionary approach to artificial intelligence might be more productive than any attempt to sit down and deliberately design a machine with artificial intelligence. In fact, the world’s largest manufacturers of computer chips already use elaborate computer programs to design successive generations of CPUs that are so complex that no single human can comprehend all the intricacies of the designs. Perhaps several steps have already been taken along the evolutionary path to artificial intelligence.
