Machine Dreaming and Consciousness

Machine Dreaming and Consciousness PDF Author: J. F. Pagel
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128037423
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Machine Dreaming and Consciousness is the first book to discuss the questions raised by the advent of machine dreaming. Artificial intelligence (AI) systems meeting criteria of primary and self-reflexive consciousness are often utilized to extend the human interface, creating waking experiences that resemble the human dream. Surprisingly, AI systems also easily meet all human-based operational criteria for dreaming. These "dreams are far different from anthropomorphic dreaming, including such processes as fuzzy logic, liquid illogic, and integration instability, all processes that may be necessary in both biologic and artificial systems to extend creative capacity. Today, multi-linear AI systems are being built to resemble the structural framework of the human central nervous system. The creation of the biologic framework of dreaming (emotions, associative memories, and visual imagery) is well within our technical capacity. AI dreams potentially portend the further development of consciousness in these systems. This focus on AI dreaming raises even larger questions. In many ways, dreaming defines our humanity. What is humanly special about the states of dreaming? And what are we losing when we limit our focus to its technical and biologic structure, and extend the capacity for dreaming into our artificial creations? Machine Dreaming and Consciousness provides thorough discussion of these issues for neuroscientists and other researchers investigating consciousness and cognition. - Addresses the function and role of dream-like processing in AI systems - Describes the functions of dreaming in the creative process of both humans and machines - Presents an alternative approach to the philosophy of machine consciousness - Provides thorough discussion of machine dreaming and consciousness for neuroscientists and other researchers investigating consciousness and cognition

Machine Dreaming and Consciousness

Machine Dreaming and Consciousness PDF Author: J. F. Pagel
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0128037423
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Get Book Here

Book Description
Machine Dreaming and Consciousness is the first book to discuss the questions raised by the advent of machine dreaming. Artificial intelligence (AI) systems meeting criteria of primary and self-reflexive consciousness are often utilized to extend the human interface, creating waking experiences that resemble the human dream. Surprisingly, AI systems also easily meet all human-based operational criteria for dreaming. These "dreams are far different from anthropomorphic dreaming, including such processes as fuzzy logic, liquid illogic, and integration instability, all processes that may be necessary in both biologic and artificial systems to extend creative capacity. Today, multi-linear AI systems are being built to resemble the structural framework of the human central nervous system. The creation of the biologic framework of dreaming (emotions, associative memories, and visual imagery) is well within our technical capacity. AI dreams potentially portend the further development of consciousness in these systems. This focus on AI dreaming raises even larger questions. In many ways, dreaming defines our humanity. What is humanly special about the states of dreaming? And what are we losing when we limit our focus to its technical and biologic structure, and extend the capacity for dreaming into our artificial creations? Machine Dreaming and Consciousness provides thorough discussion of these issues for neuroscientists and other researchers investigating consciousness and cognition. - Addresses the function and role of dream-like processing in AI systems - Describes the functions of dreaming in the creative process of both humans and machines - Presents an alternative approach to the philosophy of machine consciousness - Provides thorough discussion of machine dreaming and consciousness for neuroscientists and other researchers investigating consciousness and cognition

The Science of Consciousness

The Science of Consciousness PDF Author: Trevor A. Harley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107125286
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 515

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Book Description
An introduction to the psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience of consciousness, including sleep, dreaming, meditative, and altered states.

The Revelations

The Revelations PDF Author: Erik Hoel
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 164700098X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
An edgy and ambitious debut by a powerful new voice in contemporary literary fiction Monday, Kierk wakes up. Once a rising star in neuroscience, Kierk Suren is now homeless, broken by his all-consuming quest to find a scientific theory of consciousness. But when he’s offered a spot in a prestigious postdoctoral program, he decides to rejoin society and vows not to self-destruct again. Instead of focusing on his work, however, Kierk becomes obsessed with another project—investigating the sudden and suspicious death of a colleague. As his search for truth brings him closer to Carmen Green, another postdoc, their list of suspects grows, along with the sense that something sinister may be happening all around them. The Revelations, not unlike its main character, is ambitious and abrasive, challenging and disarming. Bursting with ideas, ranging from Greek mythology to the dark realities of animal testing, to some of the biggest unanswered questions facing scientists today, The Revelations is written in muscular, hypnotic prose, and its cyclically dreamlike structure pushes the boundaries of literary fiction. Erik Hoel has crafted a stunning debut of rare power—an intense look at cutting-edge science, consciousness, and human connection.

Beyond Zero and One

Beyond Zero and One PDF Author: Andrew Smart
Publisher: OR Books
ISBN: 1682190072
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
“Andrew Smart deftly shows why it’s time for us to think deeply about thinking machines before they begin thinking deeply about us.” —Douglas Rushkoff, author, Escaping the Growth Trap,Present Shock, and Program or Be Programmed “Provocative and cool.” —Cory Doctorow “Forget the Turing test—will the supersmart AIs that we hear so much about these days pass the acid test? In this playful, informative, and prescient book, Andrew Smart brings psychedelics into dialogue with neuroscience in order to challenge the whiz-bang computational views of human and machine sentience that dominate the headlines. Giving robots LSD sounds like a joke, but Smart is dead serious in his critique of the hidden and sometimes dangerous biases that underlie both popular and scientific fantasies of digital minds.” —Erik Davis, host of “Expanding Mind” and author, Techgnosis: Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of Information “Philosophy, psychedelics, robots, and the future; consciousness and intelligence, what else do you desire? Here you will see why those machines that reach singularity will be smarter than us and take over the world—and shall need to be conscious…and maybe they can only be conscious if they are human enough. The thesis of the book, and the path shown us by Smart, leads to a great trip, of imagination and philosophy, of maths and neuroscience.” —Dr. Tristan Bekinschtein, Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge Can we build a robot that trips on acid? This is not a frivolous question, according to neuroscientist Andrew Smart. If we can’t, he argues, we haven’t really created artificial intelligence. In an exposition reminiscent of crossover works such as Gödel, Escher, Bach and Fermat’s Last Theorem, Andrew Smart weaves together Mangarevan binary numbers, the discovery of LSD, Leibniz, computer programming, and much more to connect the vast but largely forgotten world of psychedelic research with the resurgent field of AI and the attempt to build conscious robots. A book that draws on the history of mathematics, philosophy, and digital technology, Beyond Zero and One challenges fundamental assumptions underlying artificial intelligence. Is the human brain based on computation? Can information alone explain human consciousness and intelligence? Smart convincingly makes the case that true intelligence, and artificial intelligence, requires an appreciation of what is beyond the computational.

The Electromagnetic Fields of Consciousness

The Electromagnetic Fields of Consciousness PDF Author: J. F. Pagel
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0323997392
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
The Electrical Fields of Consciousness: Brain Waves and Dreaming examines neuro-electrophysiology from its origins in the electrical fields of primitive organisms to its roles in the electrophysiologically defined states of human consciousness. This volume presents and cogently organizes the wide spectrum of information available as to how and why bioelectrical fields are used to define and function in supporting both life and consciousness. Integrating electrophysiology in a comprehensible manner into neuroanatomical, electromagnetic, and global platform theories of neuroconsciousness, this book brings together the wide spectrum of available data-based evidence regarding the physiology and functions of bioelectric fields and their relationship to consciousness.Chapters examine the origin and potential function of bioelectrical fields and EEG associations with conscious states, as well as the relationship between electrical fields and consciousness. Incorporating the basic science, clinical correlates, and functional potential of CNS bioelectrical fields, this book is a must-read for all working in the field of CNS electrophysiology or neuroconsciousness. - Addresses our current understandings of the origin and potential functions of bioelectricity - Integrates electrophysiology into current theories of neuroconsciousness, presenting within an historic research and clinical context - Explores the origin, nature, bioenergetics, and potential genetic effects of synchronous physiologic electrical fields and their use as markers for life and death - Addresses the definition and assessment of consciousness in human and non-human systems and reviews electrophysiological markers of wake and sleep consciousness states - Discusses electrophysiologic drug and disease correlates as well as modern forms of electrical therapy

Human and Machine Consciousness

Human and Machine Consciousness PDF Author: David Gamez
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
ISBN: 1783743018
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
Consciousness is widely perceived as one of the most fundamental, interesting and difficult problems of our time. However, we still know next to nothing about the relationship between consciousness and the brain and we can only speculate about the consciousness of animals and machines. Human and Machine Consciousness presents a new foundation for the scientific study of consciousness. It sets out a bold interpretation of consciousness that neutralizes the philosophical problems and explains how we can make scientific predictions about the consciousness of animals, brain-damaged patients and machines. Gamez interprets the scientific study of consciousness as a search for mathematical theories that map between measurements of consciousness and measurements of the physical world. We can use artificial intelligence to discover these theories and they could make accurate predictions about the consciousness of humans, animals and artificial systems. Human and Machine Consciousness also provides original insights into unusual conscious experiences, such as hallucinations, religious experiences and out-of-body states, and demonstrates how ‘designer’ states of consciousness could be created in the future. Gamez explains difficult concepts in a clear way that closely engages with scientific research. His punchy, concise prose is packed with vivid examples, making it suitable for the educated general reader as well as philosophers and scientists. Problems are brought to life in colourful illustrations and a helpful summary is given at the end of each chapter. The endnotes provide detailed discussions of individual points and full references to the scientific and philosophical literature.

Why We Sleep

Why We Sleep PDF Author: Matthew Walker
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501144316
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
"Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity ... An explosion of scientific discoveries in the last twenty years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now ... neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming"--Amazon.com.

The Age of Spiritual Machines

The Age of Spiritual Machines PDF Author: Ray Kurzweil
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101077883
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Bold futurist Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity Is Near, offers a framework for envisioning the future of machine intelligence—“a book for anyone who wonders where human technology is going next” (The New York Times Book Review). “Kurzweil offers a thought-provoking analysis of human and artificial intelligence and a unique look at a future in which the capabilities of the computer and the species that invented it grow ever closer.”—BILL GATES Imagine a world where the difference between man and machine blurs, where the line between humanity and technology fades, and where the soul and the silicon chip unite. This is not science fiction. This is the twenty-first century according to Ray Kurzweil, the “restless genius” (The Wall Street Journal), “ultimate thinking machine” (Forbes), and inventor of the most innovative and compelling technology of our era. In his inspired hands, life in the new millennium no longer seems daunting. Instead, it promises to be an age in which the marriage of human sensitivity and artificial intelligence fundamentally alters and improves the way we live. More than just a list of predictions, Kurzweil’s prophetic blueprint for the future guides us through the inexorable advances that will result in: • Computers exceeding the memory capacity and computational ability of the human brain (with human-level capabilities not far behind) • Relationships with automated personalities who will be our teachers, companions, and lovers • Information fed straight into our brains along direct neural pathways Eventually, the distinction between humans and computers will have become sufficiently blurred that when the machines claim to be conscious, we will believe them.

The Artist in the Machine

The Artist in the Machine PDF Author: Arthur I. Miller
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262539624
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 429

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Book Description
An authority on creativity introduces us to AI-powered computers that are creating art, literature, and music that may well surpass the creations of humans. Today's computers are composing music that sounds “more Bach than Bach,” turning photographs into paintings in the style of Van Gogh's Starry Night, and even writing screenplays. But are computers truly creative—or are they merely tools to be used by musicians, artists, and writers? In this book, Arthur I. Miller takes us on a tour of creativity in the age of machines. Miller, an authority on creativity, identifies the key factors essential to the creative process, from “the need for introspection” to “the ability to discover the key problem.” He talks to people on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence, encountering computers that mimic the brain and machines that have defeated champions in chess, Jeopardy!, and Go. In the central part of the book, Miller explores the riches of computer-created art, introducing us to artists and computer scientists who have, among much else, unleashed an artificial neural network to create a nightmarish, multi-eyed dog-cat; taught AI to imagine; developed a robot that paints; created algorithms for poetry; and produced the world's first computer-composed musical, Beyond the Fence, staged by Android Lloyd Webber and friends. But, Miller writes, in order to be truly creative, machines will need to step into the world. He probes the nature of consciousness and speaks to researchers trying to develop emotions and consciousness in computers. Miller argues that computers can already be as creative as humans—and someday will surpass us. But this is not a dystopian account; Miller celebrates the creative possibilities of artificial intelligence in art, music, and literature.

Society Of Mind

Society Of Mind PDF Author: Marvin Minsky
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0671657135
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
Computing Methodologies -- Artificial Intelligence.