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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.
Human and Machine Consciousness
David Gamez | March 2018
234 | 26 colour illustrations | 6.14" x 9.21" (234 x 156 mm)
ISBN Paperback: 9781783742981
ISBN Hardback: 9781783742998
ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781783743001
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781783743018
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781783743025
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0107
Subject codes, BIC: HPM (Philosophy of mind), PDA (Philosophy of science), PSAN (Neurosciences), UYQ (Artificial intelligence), JMT (States of consciousness); BISAC: PHI015000 (PHILOSOPHY / Mind & Body), SCI089000 (SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Neuroscience), SCI075000 (SCIENCE / Philosophy & Social Aspects), COM004000 (COMPUTERS / Intelligence (AI) & Semantics), OCC000000 (BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / General)
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List of Illustrations
1. Introduction
2. The Emergence of the Concept of Consciousness
3. The Philosophy and Science of Consciousness
4. The Measurement of Consciousness
5. From Correlates to Theories of Consciousness
6. Physical Theories of Consciousness
7. Information Theories of Consciousness
8. Computation Theories of Consciousness
9. Predictions and Deductions about Consciousness
10. Modification and Enhancement of Consciousness
11. Machine Consciousness
12. Conclusion
Appendix: Definitions, Assumptions, Lemmas and Constraints
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index
© David Gamez
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that he endorses you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information:
David Gamez. Human and Machine Consciousness. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2018. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0107
Further details about CC BY licenses are available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher.
Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher.
Cover image: Stereogram created by David Gamez with data from Anderson Winkler (https://brainder.org/research/brain-for-blender/) licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.