do you think that A.I.s or computers could ever become self aware?

Question

it looks likely that soon we will have quantum computers who's power will dwarf anything we have now and its complexity may rival the human brain. could it be possible that these machines could be capable of learning by experience and develop a sense of self awareness, become a sentient individual. please don't mention an immortal soul as if this does come to pass you'll have backed your religion into a corner. the only soul i would be interested in is the mortal soul, the synthesis of emotion and intellect, the escence of one's identity. would the growth of intelligence naturally lead to the growth of some form of emotion? if machine did become self aware could they be owned? what rights would they have?

PLEASE READ ALL OF THE QUESTION.
no time limit on when it happens, the soul i refer to is our inherent spirituality that is not neccesarily related to god or religion. the machines are a mcguffin. concentrate on intelligence, emotion and rights.

Answer 1

I believe the answer is yes. An entity being aware of it's own existence has allready been created (as with us humans, and surely in other animals to some degree). So this is possible. Perhaps self-awareness, then, can also be created in a non-biological system.

As you indicated, at some point we can expect to have computers with a larger capacity for storing and processing information than that of our brains. So what would remain to be done at that point, I believe, is to design a structure for this machine that we want to build, that will enable it to be aware of itsself. Such a challenge would require us to know more about how our own brain works, and I suppose that this would also help us towards a more extensive knowledge about the human brain.

We allready have computers that can learn by experience, by the way. I believe these same machines also have a valence system (which could be comparable to what we might define as emotion). Gerald Edelman is involved in projects exploring this field.

On the question of rights, I think that will depend on the 'nature' of these machines. I mean whether or not such a machine could suffer, be happy, have the ability to empathise, and whether a machine can exist as an autonomous being. I believe this will be something that we will try to create, and probably succeed with. I would speculate, then, that machines will have rights at some point. I saw a Star Trek TNG episode called "Author, Author" that adresses exactly this issue.

Answer 2

Yes computers will become self aware, but not for some time yet, the difference between the first processors and today's is about the difference between a pea and a basketball. If room temp stable bio computers are produced the difference will be like that of a basket ball and Jupiter!! A long time before that, mankind will have to think about how we think of such AI computers, we can't 'own' them, and the 3 laws of robotics will be rubbish, especially the third law. How will such computers see mankind, their creator or a virus on the world?

Answer 3

That has been the theme of many science fiction stories - some great classics like "I Robot" by Isaac Asimov. No matter how complex we can make a computer (artificial intelligence) it is not likely that it will ever be capable of thinking like a human. It might think "better" than a human for many tasks, but never like a human. You can build in self-awareness but is that the same as "consciousness"? Any feedback mechanism, such as the rudimentary ones used in guided missiles, is a form of "self awareness" in that it takes its own actions into account when making course corrections, but is it conscious of this action? Animals come a lot closer to true self-awareness, but it is unlikely that they have anything like human consciousness either.

Answer 4

Before we can assess whether a machine is or is not self-ware we need to address that question of how we might claim to know that our fellow human beings are self-aware, or conscious. One answer is that we assume that other people have consciousness or self-awareness similar to our own because statements that we can understand issue from bodies similar to our own bodies. The relation between body and consciousness is uncertain, and controversial, but fairly certainly important. One thing that seems likely is that a machine would need to have a body with physical drives towards food, drink, sex, physical safety, warmth, and shelter, in order to have a self-awareness that would be recognisably equivalent to human consciousness.

Answer 5

Does this computer generate its own power also?
will it choose its own work or some one will have to command it?
If a computer can be made with self generating uninterrupted power supply and can think of organizing its own work then probably there will be no need for the human species on this earth. I think it will first decide to eliminate the human species which is the cause of all the troubles on this earth

Answer 6

The human mind is an organic computer. It operates not on ones and zeros, but chemical types and levels at synaptic bridges. The day you see binary modified, is the day AI becomes a ligitimate possibility.

Answer 7

Never,
self awareness is only a gift by God to Living things,
but it may become so powerful as much as we programme it

Answer 8

No. With all due respect, I think the idea of a "mortal soul" is but a logical contradiction, there are no several "categories" of souls... Just my opinion.

Answer 9

nope, as self awareness comes from a soul, and unless someone give a PC a soul then its highly unlikely that they will be able to be self aware.

Answer 10

machines will b self aware 1 day , but u ll not b around by then. so don t bother with it and enjoy ur sci fi programs mate !