Survey of Consciousness Theory from Computational Perspective
It addresses the problem of understanding consciousness for researchers in AI and cognitive science, but it is incremental as it primarily reviews existing theories.
This paper surveys major consciousness theories from fields like information theory and computer science, aiming to bridge them from a computational perspective, and discusses evaluation metrics and the potential for computational models to achieve consciousness.
Human consciousness has been a long-lasting mystery for centuries, while machine intelligence and consciousness is an arduous pursuit. Researchers have developed diverse theories for interpreting the consciousness phenomenon in human brains from different perspectives and levels. This paper surveys several main branches of consciousness theories originating from different subjects including information theory, quantum physics, cognitive psychology, physiology and computer science, with the aim of bridging these theories from a computational perspective. It also discusses the existing evaluation metrics of consciousness and possibility for current computational models to be conscious. Breaking the mystery of consciousness can be an essential step in building general artificial intelligence with computing machines.