Towards Machine Equivalent Consciousness

Abstract

Alan Turing’s fundamental inquiry asking “Can Machines think?” has given rise to a wide variety of contrasting approaches to building intelligent machines. Thinking requires that a computer must know what it processes and form conscious about meaningful concepts based on which subjective mental activities (e.g. seeing, knowing, learning, judging, evaluating, deciding, reasoning, etc.) can be carried on. However, a modern computer runs trillions of operations per second and is capable of performing complex computation, but still lack self-awareness—a basic element for thinking. So, how can a machine gain conscious awareness from bits of electronic signals it processes? This article explores whether generating self-awareness is possible through a mechanical procedure. Specifically, we examine patterns of human perception to identify a) what happens in the course of receiving external information and what the outputs that each sense produces are; b) how such outputs are bound into a meaningful concept; and c) the nature of self-awareness. Our research suggests that conscious awareness is a perceived pattern of physical energy. We show that the process of gaining awareness can be simulated and mechanized.