Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
ers and robots, since they are considered by most people to be not alive,
have no consciousness at all. Let us examine this position further.
One early commentator on the topic of consciousness in machines
was the nineteenth-century British writer on philosophy Samuel Butler.
Having studied classics, and with no formal scientific training, Butler
took an interest in science after reading Charles Darwin's
On the Origin
of Species
and conducting a brief correspondence with Darwin himself,
following which Butler became a staunch evolutionist. On the subject
of machine consciousness Butler argued in his prophetic topic
Erewhon
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against the chauvinistic view of humans as the sole possessors of con-
sciousness:
There is a kind of plant that eats organic food with its flowers:
when a fly settles upon the blossom, the petals close upon it and
hold it fast till the plant has absorbed the insect into its system; but
they will close on nothing but what is good to eat; of a drop of
rain or a piece of stick they will take no notice. Curious! that so
unconscious a thing should have such a keen eye to its own interest.
If this is unconsciousness, where is the use of consciousness?
Shall we say that the plant does not know what it is doing merely
because it has no eyes, or ears, or brains? If we say that it acts me-
chanically, and mechanically only, shall we not be forced to admit
that sundry other and apparently very deliberate actions are also
mechanical? If it seems to us that the plant kills and eats a fly me-
chanically, may it not seem to the plant that a man must kill and
eat a sheep mechanically? [1]
Butler's nineteenth-century observation is supported by an argument from
more than a century later, put forward by Marvin Minsky:
Most people assume that computers can't be conscious, or self-
aware; at best they can only simulate the appearance of this. Of
course, this assumes that we, as humans, are self-aware. But are
we? I think not. I know that sounds ridiculous, so let me explain.
If by awareness we mean knowing what is in our minds, then, as
every clinical psychologist knows, people are only very slightly self-
aware, and most of what they think about themselves is guesswork.
We seem to build up networks of theories about what is in our
minds, and we mistake these apparent visions for what's really going
on. To put it bluntly, most of what our consciousness reveals to us
1
Erewhonisananagramofnowhere.
