I'm deeply unhappy with that idea, because it means that (certain specialised) computers will rapidly have far higher degrees of consciçousness than us. If they don't already. It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
I tend to shy away from the discussion:
Organization and "software" matters. A Lot.
Finally, the only "conscious," "intelligent," system we can point to are humans and it's becoming very clear Cognitive ability (frontal lobe processing) depends, to a large extent, on Emotion (limbic lobe processing) and the connections and processing 'twixt and 'tween the two; not only immediately but also processing based on learning, memory, and prediction. Computers, of course, have a fairly good 'Cognitive' memory but are as dumb as a sack of hammers in the other two areas.
So ...
Don't worry. Humans aren't obsolete and we show no signs of being replaced by computers.
:-)
If consciousness, as I propose, emerges through the developing complexity of multiple simultaneous 'terminations', then I would further suggest that consciousness is not a reproducible 'state' that could be artificially encoded, i.e. AC or Artificial Consciousness could not reproduce the effect of boot-up lasting a lifetime (though some MS driven computers may show this tendency).
And that the entire journey from 100% noise in the womb to a fair bit of signal in the noise when you leave school, is only accomplished by the effects of the very basic 'wow' and 'ugh' factors. Wow = this feels good, ugh = this feels bad. Wow = gotta remember this so I can do it again. Ugh = gotta remember this so I don't so it again.
Even the sea anemone's 8 neurons are capable of wow and ugh.
Wow and Ugh are both biochemically driven, and the process by which new neural connections are made or reinforced depends on particularly shaped molecules fitting into precise receptors. This is not manageable or reproducible 'data'. You can't be me, I'm taken
Put yourself in the baby's bootees: mum' breast, soft cooing, milk taste and smell, blankies, being held and being warm - these are all synesthesically almost one - to start with. But I imagine (citation needed) that as sensations begin to be 'categorized' or patternized, that 'dialogue' is discovered. "I hear sounds, I make sounds'. The baby is communicating.
And for me, it is communication that leads to enlightenment ;-)
Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880-June 1, 1968) was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.[1][2] The story of how Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate, has become known worldwide through the dramatic depictions of the play and film The Miracle Worker.
Not too much later, these phonemes are combined into words and proto-words. "No" seems to be not only easily learned but the most common of all words used in the first stage of verbal communication. :-)
Put yourself in the baby's bootees ...
Not unless, and until, I reincarnate. :-D
Some of the worst papers I've read are Baby Studies claiming all kinds of things ... based on experimenter projection, IMNSHO.
I would say it is communication that leads to mutual acknowledgement of consciousness. So Internet will be recognized as soon as it has its own webpage that spontaneously updates :) A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
video gives a most inadequate brief of what I'm on about.
