Human and Machine Consciousness
by David Gamez
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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. 
Book Description
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.
This open book is licensed under a Creative Commons License (CC BY). You can download Human and Machine Consciousness ebook for free in PDF format (9.6 MB).
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Introduction
Chapter 2
The Emergence of the Concept of Consciousness
Chapter 3
The Philosophy and Science of Consciousness
Chapter 4
The Measurement of Consciousness
Chapter 5
From Correlates to Theories of Consciousness
Chapter 6
Physical Theories of Consciousness
Chapter 7
Information Theories of Consciousness
Chapter 8
Computation Theories of Consciousness
Chapter 9
Predictions and Deductions about Consciousness
Chapter 10
Modification and Enhancement of Consciousness
Chapter 11
Machine Consciousness
Chapter 12
Conclusion
Appendix
Definitions, Assumptions, Lemmas and Constraints
Book Details
Title
Human and Machine Consciousness
Subject
Philosophy
Publisher
Open Book Publishers
Published
2018
Pages
236
Edition
1
Language
English
ISBN13
9781783742981
ISBN10
1783742984
ISBN13 Digital
9781783743001
ISBN10 Digital
178374300X
PDF Size
9.6 MB
License
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