If you don’t own a robot,- with today’s smartphones you have at least the world in your hands.

Well,then you probably don’t have any robots around you yet – at least none of them with awareness. But if you own a Smartphone, Iphone or tablet,you really have an advanced computer and virtually the whole world between your hands.

With one of these machines you can photograph, send messages and photos to people all over the world. And read email. Watch movies, make videos. You can continuously follow the big and small world news, pay bills, airline tickets, record a video of a lion on the run, send it to ABC news, CBS, BBC or NRK. And you can date an exciting lady or man at a social gathering place for singles looking for a partner. “You can even call mom or dad, a friend or your sister!”(laugh)

The birth and quantum leap of the digital revolution.

The development of all this has taken a long time, so we have to make some jumps. But without the Indo-Arabic numeral system developed between the first and fourth centuries by Indian mathematicians, and adopted by the Arabs approximately at year 900, the world would look different today. And without the bullet frame a few hundred years later, the digital revolution would hardly have taken place.

From the bullet frame to the calculator

In 1642, the French philosopher Blaise Pascal invented a mechanical device that could be used for mathematical calculations. Pascal’s machines are today considered the earliest precursors of the computer. They were called Pascalinians and worked primarily as calculators. They were also further developed by other inventors in both the 17th and 19th centuries.

Binary coding: 010001111100100 0000 001 1 0

The development of a computer language based on all variants of 0-1 combinations, called binary coding, is the basic principle of the functions of all advanced computers and so-called artificial intelligence today. Binary coding was also invented by an ancient philosopher, the German and french writing , Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. His principles for “on and off”, 0-1, were published in 1703. “Explication de l’Arithmétique Binaire”.

Artificial intelligence. AI

Many people considered the calculators that came in the 1960s and 1970s to be quite intelligent, that is, if these calculating operations were performed by a human, this person would be perceived as relatively intelligent.

However, the big breakthrough in artificial intelligence came in 1997, when IBM computer “Deep Blue” beat Garri Kasparov in a chess tournament in New York.

What is AI, – artificial intelligence?

Professor Einar Duengen Bøhn, from the Center for Artificial Intelligence Research, at the University of Agder, is careful to define what artificial intelligence is. But he thinks we can generally say that; “Artificial intelligence is intelligent behavior in an artificial material”. (ie machine, computer, etc.,- my addition.)

He also is careful to distinguish between artificial intelligence, artificial consciousness, and artificial morality. A person may well be very intelligent and at the same time evil. At the same time, but not necessarily, a moral person can be very intelligent. There is also no automatic connection between consciousness and intelligence, he claims. Artificial intelligence has its strength in the ability to categorize patterns, and from data make complex problem solving that we think is intelligent. Here, hardware with image recognition patterns for various pathological conditions, has had a major impact on diagnostics in the health care system.

The famous Berkeley philosopher John Searle, who specializes in the field of AI, Artificial Intelligence, is skeptical of the whole idea of ​​intelligent computers: “What I can say is that my present computer is faster than my earlie. If you and I understand English, when we ask and answer these questions (about AI), my computer answers nothing! Their level of intelligence is absolutely zero! “

AI and self-awareness.

Professor Bøhn believes that even the most advanced computer today cannot experience itself from the inside. Such an experience is about a sense of what it is like to be me. He thinks intelligence is about behavior, ie whether you can solve a problem or not.

Consciousness is something completely different for which it is not possible to create an algorithm. Artificial intelligence, as he points out, works like this: If this – then this! That’s why we can’t, at least not yet, train machines to be so smart that they become conscious.

This also applies to moral issues. He therefore believes that we cannot train a system to become moral. Artificial intelligence, no matter how sophisticated machines we make, is and will be amoral. (Retrieved from an interview in NRK’s ​​”Value Exchange””Verdibørsen”, on artificial intelligence and awareness) https://radio.nrk.no/podkast/verdiboersen/nrkno-poddkast-69-153289-11052019060000)

The “Turing test” and “The Chinese room”.

In the NRK program I refer to, the “Turing test” by Alan Turing, (the scientist with “The imitation game”), was discussed. In the “Turing test”, there are two booths with their separate curtains, so you can’t tell if there is a human in the booth or a computer. The one standing outside asks different questions that both booths should answer. The idea behind the Turing test is that if the person asking the questions and receiving the answers believes that there is a human being inside the booth, then it is a human being.

“The Chinese Room”

Although no machine has so far passed the “Turing test” with legal means, Professor Searle believes it has limited value. Instead, he suggests the idea of ​​”The Chinese room”. It is a closed room with two small openings on each side. Inside is a person who does not know Chinese at all, but who has all the world’s instruction books in Chinese, of the type; if you get this on a note written in chinese, then you answer this. Thus, through one of the hatches, the questions come in a language the person inside the closed room has no knowledge about. But they have thousands of Chinese reference books, and will then send their correct answer in Chinese through the second hatch.

Searle says that on the outside, the person inside seems to know Chinese, but he has no clue. Because on the inside, nothing happens! AI systems cannot think like humans. «You can stimulate a computer so it can simulate playing chess, or answering questions. But there is no psychological reality, because it exists only in an electrical circuit. There is a syntax but no semantics. Translated; there is knowledge of how words are put together into whole sentences, but no knowledge of meaning. “The amount of understanding is absolutely zero,” Searle says.

Buenger Bøhn adds that AI is very context dependent, or context rigid. Therefore, AI cannot transfer knowledge from one context to another, as we humans can, that are context flexible. He does not rule out that new techniques can create artificial awareness, but then they cannot rely on today’s principles for building problem-solving strategies.

What is missing in AI technology today?

I would like to start with two key phrases from both of the above-mentioned professionals, who on each side specialize in understanding what artificial intelligence means and what limitations it has.

John Searle: “You can train a computer to give it the impression that it can play chess, or answer questions. But it has no psychological reality, because it exists only in an electronic circuit »

Einar Duengen Bøhn: “Even the most advanced computer today cannot experience itself from the inside. Such an experience is about a sense of what it is like to be me. // ..Consciousness is something completely different for which it is not possible to create an algorithm.“

The basic principles of the human brain for developing conscious awareness.

Those who have read my two popularized articles on the brain and consciousness; “Consciousness and the Brain” part one and two, may perhaps nod recognizable to Searles and Bøhn’s thoughts on the limitations of today’s artificial intelligence.

In these two articles I explain the basic principles of the human brain for developing consciousness, meaning awareness of itself. Not just being awake as opposed to coma. The big difference is being able to be conscious of one’s own existence and the experience of one’s own “I” or self among other “Is” or selves in the world.

The anchoring of the senses in the multidimensional reality.

In order to develop consciousness/self-awareness, I pointed in particular to our seven main senses:

Sight.

Smell.

Taste.

Hearing.

Touch.

Balance (sense of equilibrium)

Position. (The sense that tells us about the hands, fingers, legs – yes, body positions and movement.)

Where are the computer’s sensory system and emotions?

Where are the experiences of the wind blowing through your hair? Dad who kisses you on the cheek and lifts you up in his arms, the rain dripping on your nose, the scrubs on your knees as you stumble on the slopes. The crying that stopped when Mom comforted you. Where’s the horror when my mom was gone, and the joy when she showed up again?

The experience of the struggle to be accepted in kindergarten, the feeling of exclusion in the schoolyard. The joy and happiness when you made your first friend. The feeling of mastery as you learned to read. The envy you felt when your brother got more Christmas presents than you. The bad conscience when you punched him in the cheek so he started screaming.?

The music that flowed through your ears, the delight of your eyes as you watched the beach behind the pine trees and the sparkling sea just waiting for you. Where is the sleep with all the dreams, crushes, jealousy, and dizziness as you end up in the newest mountain and coaster in the amusement park?

In this way, we could go on to describe one sensory experience after another, and all the emotions that go through us from infancy. Emotions that take further momentum in childhood, and not least in our teens. Emotions that only continue as we grow into adults, where all these life experiences are woven together into a multidimensional pattern that constitutes our own personal history , surrounded by family history, country history, – parts of world history.

But first and foremost, it is about our perceived history of ourselves and all our relationships in the encounter with the world. The question then is how do we get a machine to experience, review and remember all this inside its software? What about the unconscious and subconscious psychological levels of our conscious mind?

In “Consciousness and the brain” part 2, I distinguish between three functional systems in the brain by, among other things, referring to neuropsychologist Luria’s research. 1. The first system controls sleep, degree of wakefulness, and the body’s energy supply and metabolism etc. This system has a deep center in the brain, in what we call the brain stem, and spread it signals like a network upwards in complex patterns. This system is something we share with most animal species.

The second system receives, records and assembles all of our different sensory experiences from the above 7 senses. Nor is this system very different from what many other animal species have.

Our third brain system collects all the sensory data to get an overview of the situation and our surroundings, and can plan and program the brain to perform actions,. This third brain system seems much more advanced than what the primates have. Especially because our sensory experiences, which are modal, ie specific to each of the senses, are made amodal ie non-specific in the neocortex, – our frontal lobes. In other words, this third system transforms the sum of our specific sensory experiences into an abstraction of the reality around us.

“The third system is completely dependent on information from the other two systems to function properly. That is, it bases its planning and executive activities and quality checking, upon the experiences of the senses”. (janeriwaa 2019,”Consciusness and the Brain”)

This is because up here on this information-gathering platform, everything the individual has experienced is integrated. Here, the results of all trial and error, – all successes and defeats are memorized. With the help of our language, images, melodies, motor skills, as well as good and painful experiences, and socially learned norms, these data are combined into a complex whole. ”(Janeriwaa 2019, Consciousness and the Brain part two) http: //www.selvuniverset.com/2019/06/08/consciousness-and-the-brain-part-2-2/

The ability of symbol formation, through the language center of the brain, is precisely what allows us, in what I will call the foremost part of the brain, to think about reality and the people around us, without having to see the things or conditions the symbols refer to. The same goes for our numerical ability and mathematics, which is a further abstraction of the linguistic representation of reality. And this abstraction ability is again why Pascal and Leibniz, as well as highly innovative modern IT technologists, have been able to build and develop today’s computers with so-called artificial intelligence.

Can’t we make this conscious and fully aware human robot soon?

Can’t we just start, as the researchers in the Speilberg movie “AI” did when they made robots that looked like real children from the outside. The robot kids had software that gave them awareness and could not just trigger attachment, affection, sensitivity, grief and despair in themselves, but also within the adoptive parents.

As a psychologist and father, I still wonder if we rather should use our limited resources and advanced brains for other and more important things. For example,in “reprogramming” our own environmentally destructive and partially devestating survival strategies. Getting our brains to prioritize living life instead of robots, nature over accumulated capital, mutual negotiation over war power, reconciliation over hate, and care over indifference. Naive? – Yes, absolutely! True? – yes, by far, unfortunately!

Self-awareness is a relational phenomenon.

Self-awareness, as an awareness of one’s own consciousness and being in the world, is fundamentally a relational phenomenon. Our brain must relate to another brain, or more, that in turn relates to our own brain, preferably with deep respect, and this other brain must itself have awareness of itself and others. (se: Robots that gain consciousness and become like humans.)

If you believe that the way to achieve these goals must go through the continuous training of computers with advanced artificial intelligence and approximate awareness, I agree. As long as those who know this field better than me, can provide substantial arguments for it. Because in this field there are many possibilities, and as a human being I am fascinated by the developments in the AI ​​research and technology.

As a psychologist with an interest in neuropsychology and with daily contact with wonderful, vibrant, but also very suffering people, I doubt that we will be able to create genuinely reflective, self-aware, nervous and vulnerable computers that increase their humanity and empathy every time they are met with love, and increase in wisdom and humility every time they stumble, or fall on the ground or floor ………….