A process based architecture for artificial consciousness: from ontogenesis to phenomenal experience University of Genoa (Italy) Riccardo Manzotti September 2003 Birmingham EBICC

An approach to phenomenal experience Hypotheses about the nature of phenomenal experience Hypotheses on the necessary and sufficient physical conditions for the occurrence of it Design of experimental setups to test these hypotheses

5 steps to (phenomenal) consciousness 1.Getting rid of representations and other dualistic attitudes 2.A process based ontology 3.The causal structure of relevant processes 4.An process-based module 5.An process-based architecture

1 Getting rid of representations and other dualistic attitudes

Dualistic approach Observer Observed

Braincentrism (another form of dualism) This concept can be better understood when we realize how the visual system operates. The eye is responsible for transforming light into an electric signal by means of the cells in the retina. This electrical signal reaches the sight center in the brain. The signals create the vision you see when you look out of the window. In other words, the sights you see are created in your brain. You see the image in your brain, not the view outside the window. Representationalism is the philosophical position that the world we see in conscious experience is not the real world itself, but merely a miniature virtual- reality replica of that world in an internal representation. From “Gestalt Isomorphism and the Primacy of Subjective Conscious Experience: A Gestalt Bubble Model” Steven Lehar, Target paper accepted for publication in Behavioral Brain Sciences

This is still dualism Not mental/physical dualism but physical/physical dualism, where the physical domain is logically defined in Cartesian terms In a sense it is even poorer than Cartesian dualism since it lacks qualitative elements (new problem: the binding problem)

Why did the idea of representation arise? The belief in a separate domain for the soul and its own objects, a belief eminently founded by Plato and afterward reinforced by other authors like Hegel and Frege. The almost ubiquitous presence of the ‘so called’ derived representation: words, signs, printed characters, drawing, schemas, statues, picture, and portraits. The discovery of the active role of the subject in the constitution of reality during the XVIIth century. The development of information theory during the second half of the XXth century. The fact that we are phylogenetically oriented in distinguishing ourselves from the environment.

What is a representation? It is a re-presentation, that is a duplicate of reality Thus representations entails dualism and, in turn, dualism entails representations Do we really need dualism? Do we really need representations?

1 An process based ontology

Principle of existence Something to exist must produce effects

Observer Observed An alternative approach Process (form and cause)

There are not two ‘things’ (dualism) the object and its phenomenal experience There is just a single process that we call onphene because it is at the same time what happen (ontos) and what is perceived (phenomenon)

Objects Object = physical parts + subject’s process

An analogy: the photon wave particle photon ontos phenomenon Intentionality representation existence onphene

A process view of phenomenal experiences (Presence)

Changing perspectives Classical approach: naturalising intentionality Ontology Phenomeno.Epistemo. Intentionality Process based approach Onphene/Process Onto.Pheno.Episte.

Hypotheses about the nature of phenomenal experience (what is it?) Phenomenal experience is a physical process going from the external object to the neural activation Hypotheses on the underlying mechanisms for the occurrence of phenomenal experience (how does it happen?) The object itself has to be the cause of the capability in the subject. In turn, the object begins to exist insofar it begins to produce effects by means of the subject. Both the subject and the object are reduced to a different principle: the process.

3 The causal structure of onphenes

Causal description of an onphene An event is responsible not just of an effect but of the instation of the casual relation between itself and some future event Example: ontogenesis

An Architecture for Consciusness Each phenomenal experience has to correspond to a physical process (onphene) of which the brain is the end part The architecture must be able to permit to a huge number of these physical processes (onphenes) to take place

4 An onphene based module

intentional module module intentional unit imprinting module (e 2 ) output event (e B ) input event (e A ) Onphene implementation

Ontogenetic Module Phylogenetic Module External events + Categories Module (CM) Relevant Signal Stimuli Phylogenetic Signals Ontogenetic Signals Categories Vector Basic Intentional Unit

Object oriented perspective Ontogenetic Module Phylogenetic Module + Categories Module (CM) Relevant Signal Stimuli Phylogenetic Signals Ontogenetic Signals Categories Vector Ontogenetic Module Phylogenetic Module + Categories Module (CM) Relevant Signal Stimuli Phylogenetic Signals Ontogenetic Signals Categories Vector Response

Process oriented perspective Ontogenetic Module Phylogenetic Module + Categories Module (CM) Relevant Signal Stimuli Phylogenetic Signals Ontogenetic Signals Categories Vector Ontogenetic Module Phylogenetic Module + Categories Module (CM) Relevant Signal Stimuli Phylogenetic Signals Ontogenetic Signals Categories Vector Response Some condition Onphene

4 An onphene based module

Ontogenetic Module (thalamus like) Phylogenetic Module (amygdala like) External events Categories Module (CM) (cortex like)

Actions Behaviour Perception Learning Motivations Phenomenal consciousness

Another definition of autonomous agent An autonomous agent is an agent that i) is capable of developing new goals ii) is using these new goals to control its own development and learning

Conclusion Representations are physically identical to dynamic processes between the external world and the inside of the architecture There is no need for re-presentation: Reality is one A conscious subject is a hierarchy of processes built during development through the creations of new motivations Each individual architecture will develop its unique personal and relatively unpredictable subjective mind (made of unique motivations and phenomenal experiences) A conscious agent is an autonomus agent

[…] the co-existence, Or say that the end precedes the beginning. And the end and the beginning were always there Before the beginning and after the end. And all is always now. from ‘Burnt Norton’, T.S. Eliot