IngentaConnect Machine Consciousness: Cognitive and Kinaesthetic Imagination

Author: Stuart, Susan A.J.¹

Source: Journal of Consciousness Studies, Volume 14, Number 7, 2007 , pp. 141-153(13)

Abstract:

Machine consciousness exists already in organic systems and it is only a matter of time -- and some agreement -- before it will be realised in reverse-engineered organic systems and forward- engineered inorganic systems. The agreement must be over the preconditions that must first be met if the enterprise is to be successful, and it is these preconditions, for instance, being a socially-embedded, structurally-coupled and dynamic, goal-directed entity that organises its perceptual input and enacts its world through the application of both a cognitive and kinaesthetic imagination, that I shall concentrate on presenting in this paper. It will become clear that these preconditions will present engineers with a tall order, but not, I will argue, an impossible one. After all, we might agree with Freeman and Núñez's claim that the machine metaphor has restricted the expectations of the cognitive sciences (Freeman & Núñez, 1999); but it is a double-edged sword, since our limited expectations about machines also narrow the potential of our cognitive science.

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: 11 University Gardens, University of Glasgow, Glasgow,G12 8QH, Email: S.Stuart@philosophy.arts.gla.ac.uk

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