Are Computers Aware?

[idav]

The computer is not aware of self. Nor is it capable of critical thinking.




Yet

No because they lack self-awareness.

I'm not sure self-awareness is really a prerequisite for being aware of your surroundings. There are few sentient beings that are actually aware of the self like humans and dolphins but shouldn't mean that the other animals are any less aware.

 

[freethinker44]

I'm not sure self-awareness is really a prerequisite for being aware of your surroundings. There are few sentient beings that are actually aware of the self like humans and dolphins but shouldn't mean that the other animals are any less aware.

Computers are not aware of anything. They only do what we tell them to, and even the, they aren't doing anything, the programmer who programmed the software did all the work. Think of a computer like a vehicle, it only works if there is a driver. Your car isn't aware of its surroundings because it can drive into the garage. It is being driven, just like computers. Without artificial intelligence, computers are no more aware of anything than your toaster is of toast.

 

[idav]

Computers are not aware of anything. They only do what we tell them to, and even the, they aren't doing anything, the programmer who programmed the software did all the work. Think of a computer like a vehicle, it only works if there is a driver. Your car isn't aware of its surroundings because it can drive into the garage. It is being driven, just like computers. Without artificial intelligence, computers are no more aware of anything than your toaster is of toast.

In the same respect our brains only do what it was born to do with it's built in mechanisms. We are driven by the programs in our mind like our brain telling us to eat and breathe.

For humans to be aware we have to be able to percieve from one of our five sense. Our eyes take in the light and our brains translate it into something we can work with. In a similar way a computer can use a camera to take in a picture and it translates into something the computer would recognize and if the computer has enough cool software can even interpret the images into something useful and give us back information we can work with. Which would be similar to us seeing something and trying to tell someone what we see.

 

[freethinker44]

In the same respect our brains only do what it was born to do with it's built in mechanisms. We are driven by the programs in our mind like our brain telling us to eat and breathe.

Computers are controlled by us. They don't act by their own programming. The software they use is just commands that we have told them to perform. Running a program on a computer is no different than you sitting there typing out hundreds of commands to a computer. It looks like it is doing something by itself, but it is not. It could in the future, but right now, they are just tools being used by humans. A wrench isn't aware it is turning a bolt, a car isn't aware it is driving, they are just things that would serve absolutely no purpose if not for the humans that are operating them. Just like computers. Some day maybe computers will have some sort of awareness but until then, computers are just appliances.

 

[idav]

Computers are controlled by us. They don't act by their own programming. The software they use is just commands that we have told them to perform. Running a program on a computer is no different than you sitting there typing out hundreds of commands to a computer. It looks like it is doing something by itself, but it is not. It could in the future, but right now, they are just tools being used by humans. A wrench isn't aware it is turning a bolt, a car isn't aware it is driving, they are just things that would serve absolutely no purpose if not for the humans that are operating them. Just like computers. Some day maybe computers will have some sort of awareness but until then, computers are just appliances.

I completely understand your point but what about the fact that our brains are also pre-programmed. I'm not trying to say that some designer went in and coded our brain to do such and such but it is very similar, the difference is we inherit the programming. If I programmed a machine to get charged when it was draining low on battery and to go around cleaning the house in a autonomous fashion, this machine wouldn't be aware of the house and aware of the fact of when it was low on charge? The fact that we are driven just to react due to cause and effect makes this awareness a strange thing. Essentially it's like saying they aren't complex enough to be aware even though it is percieving by it's own version of senses. Do you think a simple organism reacting to stimuli is aware?

 

[freethinker44]

I completely understand your point but what about the fact that our brains are also pre-programmed.

It is irrelevant that our brains may be pre-programmed. Computers are directly controlled by human interaction. They are like another body part. Saying a computer is aware is like saying your hand is aware. It isn't, it just sends and receives information to our brain, and that is all a computer does. It isn't even autonomous. It just seems like it is. It only works like our brains do because we built it to look like that is how it works so it would be easier for us to use it. But however much it looks like it is it's own being, it is not. It is just a tool... For now.

 

[idav]

It is irrelevant that our brains may be pre-programmed. Computers are directly controlled by human interaction. They are like another body part. Saying a computer is aware is like saying your hand is aware. It isn't, it just sends and receives information to our brain, and that is all a computer does. It isn't even autonomous. It just seems like it is. It only works like our brains do because we built it to look like that is how it works so it would be easier for us to use it. But however much it looks like it is it's own being, it is not. It is just a tool... For now.

Would making it autonomous make it aware? Does the example of a self charging machine that does housework count as aware or there still something missing? I already know machines are slaves and we kinda treat some animals like horses that way. Of course animal activists keep us in check but since machines can't feel we may not need to worry unless we program it to feel.

 

[idav]

Check out this machine, it thinks super fast and beats human champions.

[youtube]7kOEmupSHB8[/youtube]
YouTube - ‪Watson Sparring Matches: Watson as a Competitor‬‏

 

[Blackheart]

Surely awarness is the ability to independantly think for ones self. Computers are no more aware than a calculator. They only follow programs which someone with awareness has programed into them. The only way that a computer will ever become aware is if the biggest program that has ever been concieved is inputed and by that I mean a program that would fill the entire world with its code.

Simpy put, there will always be a difference between an aware mind and a machine that follows instructions, no matter how complex the instructions are.

 

[freethinker44]

Would making it autonomous make it aware?

No, but everything else that could be considered "aware" are also self-governing. Computers lack this.

I already know machines are slaves and we kinda treat some animals like horses that way. Of course animal activists keep us in check but since machines can't feel we may not need to worry unless we program it to feel.

Machines don't compare to animals. Machines are not slaves, they are doing exactly what they are meant to do. Slaves are forced to work, machines are made to work. How machines feel has nothing to do with it.

 

[idav]

It seems like what is being said is that complexity is what makes us aware as opposed to a single celled organism for example. The thing is that at the basic level a single cell is just matter like everything else except a cell is encoded with information on what it can do. In that sense a computer is like a single cell with encoded information. What makes humans aware is the fact that all these billions of cells are actually communicating with each other which give us the illusion that we are aware but it really is the cells communicating with each other in very complex ways. Leaves a question as how complex does it have to be for a cellular organism to be aware? It kinda leads me to the idea that one cell may actually be aware. A computer is also just matter and if the matter in the computer is communicating with itself in more complex ways eventually awareness should emerge just as a single cell organism emerging to the complexity of animals. Really the only thing about a cell is the combination of matter utilizing energy and energy is the only thing needed to make matter animate so the question lies in finding what is it that makes matter life. Answering that question would answer what it takes to make a machine aware if we haven't already done it.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I think awareness just needs to know reality, not just what it is programmed to know things... I think if it can learn things on its own and knows more beyond itself or what's in itself than it could be aware... I think self-awareness takes some part in it also.

 

[idav]

I think awareness just needs to know reality, not just what it is programmed to know things... I think if it can learn things on its own and knows more beyond itself or what's in itself than it could be aware... I think self-awareness takes some part in it also.

Yet WE are programmed to know things and programmed to learn and retain the data. I've always just thought of the brain as a biological machine. A highly complex machine but a machine no less. Just because it is made of something different should it make a difference?

 

[Copernicus]

I think that the topic question should be broadened to "Can machines be made aware"? Computers are not brains in any sense of the word, although that it a common metaphor. The thing about computers is that they can be configured to perform the same kinds of calculations that human brains can. So, can they (or some future form of "computer") be used to build a genuinely sentient being? To answer that question, you need to analyze what it means for something to be sentient or self-aware.

Human minds are "embodied" in that they exist in a central nervous system that is connected to a peripheral nervous system. That is, brains have "sensors" and "actuators", to use robotic terminology. They become aware of their surroundings through sensor feeds (touch, smell, sound, taste, etc.), and they can move body parts through volition. Brains can also sense the position of body parts through proprioception. Proprioception is a kind of self-awareness. In a sense, modern airliners and cars have a primitive type of self-awareness in that they contain sensors that constantly report on the condition, configuration, and location of their "body parts". Some robots can detect when their batteries are running low and that it is time to "feed" at a power outlet.

The field of robotics has been growing in leaps and bounds in recent years, thanks to advances in computer hardware and our understanding of how minds and brains function. We now know that walking robots need to think about where they plant their "feet", and they have to be able to report on failures of internal systems--just as humans need to be aware that pain signals a possible dangerous condition.

But robots are not self-aware in the sense that humans are, and they probably will not be for a very long time. Because people tend to see themselves in everything, there is a strong tendency among those who do not know much about programming to think of computers as intelligent and possibly self-aware. We can build programs that learn about their surroundings, their present state, and possible future states. Robots do this all the time. So they have the deceptive appearance of thinking like humans do. I have seen robots navigate obstacle courses like they really seemed to be aware of their surroundings in the same way that we are. But they do not approach anything like our level of mental complexity in their calculations.

In order to achieve our level of self-awareness, a machine would need to be able not just to have awareness of its surroundings, but it would have to achieve "metacognition"--awareness of its own thought processes. We really do not understand how that works in living brains yet, but there is no reason to think that there is anything non-physical or "quantum weird" in the process. We are making progress in unraveling the secrets of animal and human cognition.

 

[idav]

In order to achieve our level of self-awareness, a machine would need to be able not just to have awareness of its surroundings, but it would have to achieve "metacognition"--awareness of its own thought processes. We really do not understand how that works in living brains yet, but there is no reason to think that there is anything non-physical or "quantum weird" in the process. We are making progress in unraveling the secrets of animal and human cognition.

I do think that we are getting much closer to understanding what it takes to get a machine to achieve self-awareness especially with what is mentioned here regarding AI. We are able to mimic all of these systems making it "seem" aware. What I'm interested in is the the emergence of basic awareness and would like to know more of the distinction between 'aware' and 'self-aware'. As we understand more about other lifeforms we should be able to see the emergence of basic awareness.
Awareness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Outside of neuroscience biologists, Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela contributed their Santiago theory of cognition in which they wrote:

Living systems are cognitive systems, and living as a process is a process of cognition. This statement is valid for all organisms, with or without a nervous system.[5]
​

This theory contributes a perspective that cognition is a process present at organic levels that we don't usually consider to be aware. Given the possible relationship between awareness and cognition, and consciousness, this theory contributes an interesting perspective in the philosophical and scientific dialogue of awareness and living systems theory.

Given a theory of basic cognition I wonder if this is already achieved in computers as compared to a single cell organism as an example.

"Higher" forms of awareness including self-awareness require cortical contributions, but "primary consciousness" or "basic awareness" as an ability to integrate sensations from the environment with one's immediate goals and feelings in order to guide behavior,

 

[ScottySatan]

I offered mine a slice of pizza last night and got no response.

 

[idav]

I offered mine a slice of pizza last night and got no response.

Was the cam and voice recognition turned on?

 

[geoexplorer]

Computers are not aware, but with the increasing power of super computers, Artificial Awareness may be on the horizon!

 

[atanu]

Given a theory of basic cognition I wonder if this is already achieved in computers as compared to a single cell organism as an example.

Just wait a little more time and beware. Computers will snatch away girlfriends/boyfriends of many, including their own programmers, and copulate right under their noses, to investigate the science of jealousy, possesiveness etc..

 

[atanu]

In order to achieve our level of self-awareness, a machine would need to be able not just to have awareness of its surroundings, but it would have to achieve "metacognition"--awareness of its own thought processes. We really do not understand how that works in living brains yet, but there is no reason to think that there is anything non-physical ------

Is there any presupposition in the blue highlighted part?