Consciousness, Evolution & Artificial Intelligence

Author Deepak Loomba

Excerpts from my Book 'Transformers' [ISBN 1514861240]
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Multidimensional Structure Dependency Matrix & Knowledge, Consciousness, Evolution, Reproduction, Culture, Resources, Quality

Consciousness

Philosophically, consciousness has been constrained within the mythical and the religious for times immemorial. I have tried interpreting and defining consciousness in the context of assistance/consumption (give & take). 'Consciousness’ has its origin in the same assistance/consumption paradigm. We often consider non-living things to be devoid of consciousness and human consciousness being higher than animal or plant consciousness. When someone knocks off or collapses, we describe him as being unconscious. What is this ‘consciousness’ or ‘Chetna’ (Hindi) or ‘soznaniya’ (Russian)?

‘Consciousness’ is the capability to interpret changes, that is - sense and influence/alter or intent to influence/alter one’s internal and external environment/ambience for various reasons but with at least one of the below mentioned three aims being ubiquitously there:

(i)             survival of oneself or

(ii)      to resist one’s de-classification as a resource or

(iii)     survival of the ‘capability to interpret’ in those cases where survival of oneself is not possible for whatsoever reasons.

‘One’ here stands for any living or non-living object or phenomenon or a group of them both. ‘Ubiquitous’ means present at every moment & place while one is in the conscious state. ‘External’ means everything that essentially requires one or more of sensory organs (incl. but not restricted to the five known senses) and originates from beyond “one’s” physical limits. ‘Internal’ means that which does not require inputs from the sensory organs.

Those states of ‘one’ when one possesses capability to either only sense or only influence/alter, either only internally or only externally does not accomplish the phenomenon of ‘interpretation’ and is therefore not consciousness. Hence, deep sleep, is not a conscious state because, while sensing is available - both ‘internal’ and ‘external’ (we do wake up on touch or noise), ‘influencing/altering’ is only ‘internal’ not ‘external’. Even if one is sleep walking the conditions are not fulfilled, because there is no ‘intent’ to perceive the external stimuli.

“Enhancement in the capability of interpreting, by sensing and influencing/altering, more and more number of changes in internal & external environs, leads to higher consciousness. Therefore, besides use of gadgets, there could be either discovery or evolution of newer senses as we address newer and newer challenges that recognition of more and more changes bring.”

The definition of consciousness is a discovery, not a derivation. I credit this discovery to Richard Dawkins. In one of the youtube videos of a panel discussion and narration of stories in science by nine panelists, Dawkins being one of them, “what is consciousness?” was proposed as one of the spontaneous queries for mankind which need to be answered. It so happened that I was editing the section on ‘Power’ in this book. The question got me thinking on the subject and resulted into the discovery of this chapter on Consciousness, Evolution and their link to other topics of this book like MDSM, Knowledge, Reproduction and Culture etc.

I have tried using the aforementioned definition in all possible situations and have failed to encounter cases, which do not satisfy it. Plants sense sunlight and bend towards (hence, alter) it to survive. Similarly, human consciousness increases with age, as the capability to interpret (sense & influence) changes in internal and external environs increases with enhancement of knowledge & memory. The capability to interpret (sense & influence) changes manifests not only in an individual being/object/thing but also in a group of beings/objects/things, where sensing & influencing could be done collectively. This is what happens in human societies and companies. In consequence, I bore the concept of Social or Corporate Consciousness, which is the capability of a group of people in a society or a Company to collectively interpret (sense and influence) changes in their internal and external environs. Better the capability, higher the consciousness.

Do robots & machines that sense & influence possess consciousness? According to my definition usually ‘no’. The reason is the last criticality in definition of consciousness, which is “with an aim of either (i) survival of oneself or (ii) to resist one’s de-classification as a resource (‘resources’ have been elaborated in next pages) or (iii) survival of the ‘capability to interpret’ in those cases where survival of oneself is not possible for whatsoever reasons”. Most machines are purposed to serve humans. Self-preservation is never the overriding purpose of existence of machines & robots. Hence, they are not imparted the capability of self-improvement through enhancement of their sensing and influencing capabilities. The first robot/machine, which is imparted overriding capability (superseding priority) to save himself or his ‘capability to interpret changes in internal or external environs, will be bestowed with consciousness.

Evolution

Evolution is the process of enhancement of consciousness (as defined above). Otherwise said, the higher the capability to sense & influence (interpret) changes in internal & external environment, the higher the consciousness of an individual or a group, the better  and hence more evolved shall it be.

Evolution & Quality, Resources

I defined resources as those that are constrained in supply in context of (a) Quantity or Dimensions, (b) Properties, (c) Location, (d) Ownership. Concurrently, I defined the sufficiency conditions for quality description as assessment & determination of changes in dimensions, properties, location and ownership, to enable resistance to de-classification as resources, of tangibles and intangibles. These four (‘a‘ to ‘d’) are nothing but four generic categories of changes. Therefore, I conclude that evolution is the enhancement in the capability (consciousness) of an individual or group to sense & influence (interpret) more and more number of four types of aforementioned changes (‘a’ to ‘d’) in their internal and external environs. From the quality view-point, evolution of a product or service is better elaboration of sufficiency conditions.

Evolution & Reproduction, Culture

The higher the consciousness the more evolved is the individual or a group. It is important to note that ‘consciousness’ is a capability and hence when ‘conscious’ object/being/groups fail to survive themselves, they bid to save/survive at least the ‘capability to interpret’.

Reproduction is a genetically coded process of survival (through transmission) of the ‘consciousness’ or ‘capability to sense & influence (interpret)’ all the four types of changes in the internal and external environs of objects/beings/groups.

Culture is a memetically coded process of survival (through transmission) of the ‘consciousness’ or ‘capability to sense & influence (interpret)’ all the four types of changes in the internal and external environs of objects/beings/groups.

Evolution & MDSM, Knowledge

Two important facts are revealed about MDSM ((Multi-dimensional Dependency structure matrix) ) - (i) MDSM is a relationship of all variables (changes) in an object/being/process/phenomenon, (ii) an MSDM is nothing but structured knowledge. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that (a) more elaborate the MDSM, the more is the knowledge & more evolved is the product. This indeed is how knowledge gets linked up with Evolution.

The links amongst various elements are exhibited in the graphical representation below.

The purpose of this link up is to exhibit, why higher consumption/assistance or connectivity amongst various elements/people will lead to higher number of change dependencies, the higher is the understanding of changes, the better is consciousness; the more is consciousness the higher is evolution. At the same time getting more elaborate understanding of sufficiency conditions of changes in quality description, recognition/discovery of a larger number of variables/changes in MDSM is more knowledge and will result into evolution of people/objects/products/phenomena.

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