Emergence, Mind, and Consciousness: A Bio-Inspired Design for a Conscious Agent

by Lucas, Gary A.

• ISBN13: 9781462041374
• ISBN10: 146204137X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-09-06
• Publisher: Author Solutions

Summary

In Emergence, Mind, and Consciousness, author Gary A. Lucas does something that many consider impossible: he bridges the gap between a bottom-up description of brain mechanisms and the top-down emergence of mental processes. The result is a comprehensive yet readily understandable explanation of how consciousness emerges.Lucas, however, strives to do more. He seeks to design an artificial agent with all the essential properties of the human mind- consciousness, declarative memory, a sense of self, reasoning skills, language, and social identity. His account is mechanistic, and yet, as the bio-inspired networks are linked to emergent mental properties, we come to understand that we can truly construct a conscious agent. We have a model for how to build one.If you're interested in the emergent properties of mind, consciousness, cognition, self-awareness, social belongingness, or the possibility of constructing a robotic agent with such properties, then this is essential reading. It is conscious mind explained on a level that even a robot will understand it.