Manuel Blum Ryan Williams Brendan Juba Matt Humphrey 13 June 2005 TOWARD A HIGH-LEVEL DEFINITION OF CONSCIOUSNESS

From Collins English Dictionary, 1995: conscious adj. 4. a. denoting or relating to a part of the human mind that is aware of a person’s self, environment, and mental activity and that to a certain extent determines his choices of action. b. (as n.) the conscious is only a small part of the mind. Compare unconscious.

My credentials for studying consciousness: -

A complete summary of my results: Consciousness is a kind of flashlight. The flashlight beam is a limited resource (what Minski calls a serial bottleneck) Our conscious self is offered a set of choices. The beam of consciousness selects one. This repeats ad infinitum

Philosophy Understanding “understanding,” “self- awareness,” “free will,” resolving: “All theory is against the freedom of the will; all experience for it.” — Dr. Johnson Science Building good theorem provers (as opposed to proof checkers), and better CAPTCHAs Applications

There are many researchers trying to understand consciousness, including –Philosophers: since forever –Neurophysiologists: fMRI studies! –Cognitive psychologists –Roboticists No complexity theorists that I know of –Les Valiant comes closest –Leslie Lamport “How to Write a Proof” Why Consciousness Now

They have not thought about it, but they are well-suited to develop the theory –Automata and Turing machines –Knowledge (Zero-knowledge) –Randomness (Pseudorandomness) –They understand that complexity rulez Researchers in The Scientific Study of Consciousness cry out for a theory Why should Complexity Theorists study Consciousness?

CONSCS = Conceptualizing Strategizing Control Systems CONSCSness = the state, condition, or quality of being CONSCS Our approach is to define a formal concept of consciousness, called CONSCSness

Informal Notion of Entity & Environment An ENTITY is an organism (such as an ant or a person) or an organization (such as an ant colony, a cultural group, or a nation) — in relation to an environment An entity's ENVIRONMENT at time t is the entity's (relevant) world at time t: the context in which the entity functions

More Formal Definition of Environment & Entity An ENVIRONMENT is a computational device having the full power of a Universal Turing Machine (UTM). It is connected to a collection of other computational devices, called ENTITIES An ENTITY is a computational device that (together with memory supplied by the environment) has the full power of a UTM

You have just seen the only “definitions” in this talk… …unfortunately

The CONSCS-defining game 1. Formal definition of CONSCS should be mechanically applicable to any entity in a well-defined environment –One should not have to be conscious to test if an entity is a CONSCS –This requirement has a similar (but weak) analogy with CAPTCHAs, which are bots that distinguish humans from bots –We do NOT require that our definition of consciousness be “black-box.” One may be forced to “open up” an entity

1.Formal definition of CONSCS should be mechanically applicable to any entity in a well-defined environment 2.The question whether an entity is CONSCS is a function of its algorithms, not the stuff (silicon or carbon) that implements those algorithms 3. In the real-world environment, people are CONSCS while rocks are not (CONSCS) The CONSCS-defining game

Informally: An entity is CONSCS relative to a given environment iff: 1.The entity has a model of its environment, and a model of itself in the environment 2. The entity is motivated/driven towards goals 3. The entity is able to “try on any 'story' for size.” A story provides strategy for dealing in the world 4. The entity has simple serial circuit — the CONSCS processor — as interface between self and world

Model of Entity Model of Environment Entity Environment 1. The entity has a model of its environment and a model of itself in its environment

A. These models are for making predictions B. The models are derived from experiment C. The models are constantly revised 1. The entity has a model of its environment and a model of itself in its environment

2. The entity is motivated/driven towards certain goals Initially, goals are determined by the values of two real variables: “pleasure” and “pain” Later they are determined also by the current story and its associated strategy The entity is driven to maximize [ pleasure(t) – pain(t) ] dt Expected current stories  t 0 = current time 

3. The entity has the ability to “try on any ‘story’ for size” A story is a theory of the world, such as:. Other entities are built just like me Other entities are mindless robots A story provides a corresponding strategy for dealing with the world: Treat other entities with respect Treat other entities any way you like

4. The entity has a simple serial circuit — the CONSCS processor — as interface between: Entity’s internal unconscious (parallel) brain AND The entity’s external (massively parallel) world CONSCS processor is for choosing a story, and using story to select strategic option to focus on The options are offered up by the entity’s internal (unconscious parallel) brain Choice made according to current story/strategy

Philosophy Understanding “understanding,” “self- awareness,” “free will,” resolving: “All theory is against the freedom of the will; all experience for it.” — Dr. Johnson Science Building good theorem provers (as opposed to proof checkers), and better CAPTCHAs Applications

Bibliography on the Scientific Study of Consciousness David Chalmers, philosopher logician, has a huge excellent online bibliography Rodolfo Llinas, neuroscientist, wrote “I of the vortex” Bernard Baars has a long history of good writing; his theater metaphor is widely accepted Daniel Dennett, Antonio Damasi, … Marvin Minsky never uses “consciousness” in his “emotion machine.” He (rightly) claims that “Consciousness is a packrat