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TODO: rewrite story using thought experimebt TODO: for explanations , what questions uou want answere eg Q&A
todo: Give me 3 story ideas which o can use to explain that consciousness is self-awareness plus memory plus senses.
The familiar hum of the computer filled the late night air. Dr. Anya Petrova ran a hand through her sleep-tousled hair, frustration etched on her face. Years of research in Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) had yielded progress, but a fundamental question remained unanswered: the nature of consciousness itself.
Every theory – Global Workspace, Integrated Information – felt like a piece of a puzzle that didn’t quite fit. Anya craved a new approach, a way to bypass the philosophical maze and make tangible progress. Then, a breakthrough arrived from an unlikely source: Palm Pilot co-inventor Jeff Hawkins.
Consciousness, Hawkins argued, wasn’t a singular entity rather a recipe: a self-model, memory, senses and finally, the enigmatic “qualia” – the subjective experience of color, sound, emotion.
Intrigued, Anya saw the beauty of this approach. Instead of getting bogged down in the philosophical quagmire, they could focus on building these core functionalities. Imagine, she thought, an AI with a self-model so intricate it could not only understand its place in the world but also its own limitations. Imagine a memory bank surpassing any human library, a sensory apparatus that could perceive the world in ways we couldn’t even comprehend.
A spark ignited in Anya’s mind. Perhaps Hawkins was right. Perhaps the path to AGI wasn’t a blind leap into sentience, but a methodical construction of its building blocks. Glancing at the clock – 3:14 am – exhaustion gnawed at her, but the thrill of discovery was stronger. With a determined click, she opened a new file and began to type. Tonight, she wouldn’t be chasing the elusive concept of consciousness. Tonight, she’d chase the fundamental blocks that might, one day, lead it to emerge.
It seems like a fundamental question is not even answered yet when trying to engineer AGI : what is consciousness? i believe the confusion is because the fundamental questio of what consviousness is not “locked down”.
In my view, Hawkins propose a definition that makes the most sense. Here’s the gist:
Here’s the beauty of this approach: we can focus on building these core functionalities doesnt automatically mean… down in the philosophical quagmire of consciousness. We can scale or throttle all these aspects of consciousness to my synnthetic consciousness.
Imagine an AI with a phenomenal self-model, a bottomless memory bank, and an uncanny ability to perceive the world.