Scientists Believe Self-Aware Robots are Entirely Possible
A team of neuroscientists believe self-aware robots are entirely possible with a little bit of code.
An international coalition, Stanislas Dehaene, Hakwan Lau, and Sid Kouider, set out to determine if robots could develop consciousness.
In order to answer this question, they first had to consider what consciousness actually is.
What is consciousness?
What is consciousness and can a computer replicate it?
The neuroscientists aimed to figure out what conscious means in a physical sense. Consciousness comes from the brain and the brain is a physical part of our body, so what happens in the brain to “create” consciousness?
They determined that consciousness, as we know it is, applies to two separate information processing systems:
- The selection of information and making it available for reporting or computations.
- The self-monitoring of this information that allows us to arrive at a sense of certainty.
After deciding how consciousness arises in the brain, the team determined that consciousness could indeed be replicated through the correct algorithm.
Brains already work like computers the way they process information. So by studying how consciousness works in the brain, AI teams could soon create self-aware robots.
Self-aware robots
Embracing technology and artificial intelligence always comes with certain risks. Anything connected to a computer system or the internet is at risk for hacking. This is dangerous when you consider that everything from cars, to washing machines, to sex dolls could be hacked and ordered to kill you.
Technology in itself poses a whole new range of challenges. Let’s say a wife hires a hacker to disable the breaks in her spouse’s car as he drives over the Golden Gate Bridge. How would detectives figure out if foul play was involved?
As if this didn’t create enough problems we aren’t ready for, scientists now believe self-aware robots are entirely possible.
Why is this a problem?
If robots have consciousness, this means they can make decisions without any input from humans or even go rogue.
Could this create a doomsday scenario?
Experts like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking aren’t too optimistic about this fast approaching scenario. In 2015, the duo released an open letter calling for research and evaluation on the societal impact of artificial intelligence.
Musk and Hawking among many others believe reaching singularity (the point when robots become smarter than humans) is fast approaching and could create an existential crisis.
But we aren’t quite there yet.
In 2015, a robot passed a self-awareness test for the first time which proved that self-aware robots can be developed through mathematical equations.
However, answering a couple questions is a lot different than developing a personality and taking over the world.
For now, you just need to worry about them making your job obsolete. If you don’t have a job and can’t afford to survive, who cares if they go rogue and destroy humanity?
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Randi Nord lives in Pontiac, Michigan. She is the co-founder of Geopolitics Alert Independent World News.