Can a machine be conscious?
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I'll be there from around 7pm if anyone would like a social like a social chat before we get started.
What do we mean by “consciousness” when applied to people and animals. What are the essential characteristics of “conscious” entities?
Why is “consciousness” important? (As opposed to sophisticated problem-solving skills, language and other aspects of "intelligence").
How and why might consciousness have evolved?
To what extent could a machine exhibit the essential elements of consciousness? If it did, would that make it conscious? Or would something always be missing – would the machine only qualify as a “simulation” of consciousness. What would be the difference?
What ethical issues would arise if machines ever do achieve some level of consciousness? How would we cope with them.
Would machines have rights and responsibilities?
In what sense could they be held to account? and how?
What motivates people to try to build conscious machines?
These are deep and fascinating questions which will doubtless lead to a great discussion. Some prior reading/watching would be helpful.
For example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06-iq-0yJNM Seth/Chalmers discussion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_consciousness
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/consciousness/
Hope to see you there.