The Cognitive Development of Machine Consciousness Implementations Articles uri icon

publication date

  • December 2010

start page

  • 213

end page

  • 225

issue

  • 2

volume

  • 2

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1937-1799

abstract

  • The progress in the machine consciousness research fiel has to be assessed in terms of the features demonstrated by the new models and implementations currently being designed. In this paper, we focus on the
    functional aspects of consciousness and propose the application of a
    revision of ConsScale a biologically inspired scale for measuring
    cognitive development in artificial agents in order to assess the
    cognitive capabilities of machine consciousness implementations. We
    argue that the progress in the implementation of consciousness in
    artificial agents can be assessed by looking at how key cognitive
    abilities associated to consciousness are integrated within artificial
    systems. Specifically, we characterize ConsScale as a partially ordered
    set and propose a particular dependency hierarchy for cognitive skills.
    Associated to that hierarchy a graphical representation of the cognitive
    profile of an artificial agent is presented as a helpful analytic tool.
    The proposed evaluation schema is discussed and applied to a number of
    significant machine consciousness models and implementations. Finally,
    the possibility of generating qualia and phenomenological states in
    machines is discussed in the context of the proposed analysis.