Can we build a conscious machine?
This work addresses the fundamental problem of consciousness for AI and neuroscience, proposing a novel experimental approach rather than an incremental improvement.
The paper tackles the problem of consciousness by proposing a hybrid system that combines an evolving brain grown from reprogrammed human cells with digital computers to simulate and train it using substitutional reality, predicting that this training will eventually trigger a conscious experience.
The underlying physiological mechanisms of generating conscious states are still unknown. To make progress on the problem of consciousness, we will need to experimentally design a system that evolves in a similar way our brains do. Recent experimental data show that the multiscale nature of the evolving human brain can be implemented by reprogramming human cells. A hybrid system can be designed to include an evolving brain equipped with digital computers that maintain homeostasis and provide the right amount of nutrients and oxygen for the brain growth. Shaping the structure of the evolving brain will be progressively achieved by controlling spatial organization of various types of cells. Following a specific program, the evolving brain can be trained using substitutional reality to learn and experience live scenes. We already know from neuroelectrodynamics that meaningful information in the brain is electrically (wirelessly) read out and written fast in neurons and synapses at the molecular (protein) level during the generation of action potentials and synaptic activities. Since with training, meaningful information accumulates and is electrically integrated in the brain, one can predict, that this gradual process of training will trigger a tipping point for conscious experience to emerge in the hybrid system.