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Chapter 6 - Artificial intelligence and consciousness

from Part I - The cognitive science of consciousness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Drew McDermott
Edited by
Philip David Zelazo ,
Morris Moscovitch  and
Evan Thompson
Philip David Zelazo
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Morris Moscovitch
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Evan Thompson
Affiliation:
University of York
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Summary

Consciousness is only marginally relevant to artificial intelligence (AI), because to most researchers in the field other problems seem more pressing. The purpose of consciousness, from an evolutionary perspective, is often held to have something to do with the allocation and organization of scarce cognitive resources. This chapter describes Daniel Dennett's idea of the intentional stance, in which an observer explains a system's behavior by invoking such intentional categories as beliefs and goals. The computationalist theory of phenomenal consciousness ends up looking like a spoil-sport's explanation of a magic trick. The chapter focuses on critiques that are specifically directed at computational models of consciousness, as opposed to general critiques of materialist explanation. The contribution of artificial intelligence to consciousness studies has been slender so far, because almost everyone in the field would rather work on better defined, less controversial problems.
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Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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