UNDERSTANDING HOLARCHIC CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE INTEGRAL THEORY OF KEN WILBER

Get Complete Project Material File(s) Now! »

The functioning of computational devices in relation to Moore’s law.

Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore were among the first computer scientists to suggest that a computational device using silicon based transistors could function more efficiently than the hitherto vacuum-tube based computers had functioned (Jonscher 1999:106). Robert Noyce was in fact the inventor of the silicon based integrated circuit, which he developed in 1958. It was a revolutionary device since it was able to contain a number of switching transistors on a single silicon circuit, both reducing the size and increasing the switching speed of computers. Gordon Moore would later go on to become the founder and chairman of the Intel Corporation, the paragon of computer chip manufacturers to thepresent day. It is after Gordon Moore that Moore’s law takes its name. In order to meaningfully discuss Moore’s law this chapter will start by offering some insight into the functioning and development of computers as logic processing devices.

What is a computer?

Pre-computer age technologies were huge developments that had far reaching consequences on social and economic development the world over. Most notable amongst these were the invention of the telephone by Bell in 1875, the radio by Marconi at the turn of the 19th century, and the television by Baird in 1926. Marshall McLuhan coined the famous phrase that these technologies ushered in the “global village” (in Jonscher 1999:93). All of these technologies were analogous (analog) technologies. As the name implies, the electrical currents in them copied, replicated, or were an analogy of the sounds and images they transmitted.

The argument from scientific progress.

The first critique of the claims of Strong Artificial Intelligence are those that question the ability of science to truly understand the complexity of the human mind and then relate this complexity to an artificial emulative model (Furse 1996:3-4). The recent advances that have been made with nuclear magnetic resonance scanners have enabled researchers to concentrate on the activity of the brain whilst subjects engage in tasks and solve problems. Both Furse, and Kurzweil, believe that there is no reason why such technology will not continue to be refined and developed to the point where it is able to provide a complete map of the neuroanatomy of the human brain (Furse 1996:4, Kurzweil in Richards 2002:36-38). Kurzweil writes.

The argument from technological progress.

The second argument against Strong Artificial Intelligence relates less to the human brain, and far more the technology that is supposed to emulate it. Many theorists doubt computers will ever become powerful enough to emulate the capacity and functioning of the human brain (most notably see Penrose 1995: chapters 1,2 and 3, and Michael Denton in Richards 2002:78-98). Central to this argument is the supposition that the complexity of the human brain cannot be adequately replicated with current technology. This is the case indeed. There is no current computer (or group of computers) that is powerful enough to accurately emulate all aspects of the conscious human brain. The two fundamental problems seem to be firstly, the ceiling that computer speed will reach when “traditional chip manufacturing techniques… hit the quantum barrier of near-atomic line widths” (Richards 2002:6)16 .

The argument against views of the human brain as a machine.

The next important group of critiques against the claims of Strong Artificial Intelligence are those that dispute views of the brain as a complex computational machine. It is quite true that recent discoveries in neuroscience have shown that memory, intelligence, and ultimately consciousness are about more than just complex sets of neurons. However, this does not discount the possibility of artificially replicating the other necessary elements of the functioning of a human brain. In fact simpler brains (such as those of insects) have already been replicated using artificial technologies with a fair measure of success (Furse 1996:3). Kurzweil also mentions the groundbreaking work of Carver Mead’s retinal models, and Lloyd Watts’ work on replicating sections of the human brain (in Richards 2002:201). Thus, Kurzweil concludes that.

Consciousness and evolution.

Because humans are so good at knowing, we are seldom aware of the incredible miracle of our ability to perceive the world around us. Truly this is nothing short of a miracle. What is it that allows us to observe something through our senses and fairly accurately be able to tell what it is? Let us use the example of sight to illustrate this incredible attribute. The fairly common fallacy is to assume that it is simply the two small distorted upside-down images in your eyeballs that create the vivid three-dimensional world you see around you.

Table of contents :

• Title page
• Summary and key words
• Declaration
• Acknowledgements
• Table of contents
• 1. INTRODUCTION: STATING THE RESEARCH PROBLEM, OUTLINING THE RESEARCH METHOD, PROCESS AND STRUCTURE
  • 1.1. Background to the research problem
  • 1.2. Statement of the research question and how this research aims to investigate it
  • 1.3. The goals of this research
  • 1.4. Motivation for the research
  • 1.5. Research design
    • 1.5.1. The research approach
    • 1.5.2. The research strategy
  • 1.6. An overview of the relevant literature
  • 1.6.1. Literature in computer science, Artificial Intelligence and philosophy that is relevant to this research
  • 1.6.2. Literature in consciousness studies and the brain that is relevant to this research
    • 1.6.3. Literature in integral philosophy that is relevant to this research
    • 1.6.4. Literature in African cosmology, views of personhood, identity, and theology that are relevant to this research
  • 1.7. An outline of the study
• 2. A CRISIS OF IDENTITY: UNDERSTANDING HOW THE HYPOTHETICAL CONSCIOUSNESS ASSERTIONS OF RAY KURZWEIL’S STRONG ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ACCENTUATE THE PROBLEM OF SELF-VALIDATING INDIVIDUAL HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS AND IDENTITY CLAIMS
  • 2.1. Meaning and identity in an ever-changing world: The Hypothetical identity crisis that arises from consciousness emulation in Strong Artificial Intelligence
  • 2.2. Artificial consciousness. A discussion of the hypothesis of Strong Artificial Intelligence leading to an emulative consciousness
  • 2.2.1. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s evolution of consciousness as a theological model that suggests that evolution has an intent much larger than the evolution of human beings
  • 2.2.2. Ray Kurzweil and Bill Joy’s naturalistic assumptions relating to cosmic evolution
• 3. CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE FUNCTIONING OF THE HUMAN BRAIN: A DISCUSSION OF BIOLOGICAL, PHYSICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL THEORIES RELATING TO INDIVIDUAL HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE BRAIN
  • 3.1. Brain, mind, and the mystery of human consciousness
    • 3.1.1. Consciousness and evolution
    • 3.1.2. Consciousness and the processing of information
    • 3.1.3. Consciousness and inner experience
  • 3.2. Twelve major schools of consciousness studies
  • 3.3. First, (second) and third person approaches to consciousness: Challenges and values
  • 3.4. Nothing but neurons? The biological functioning of the human brain
    • 3.4.1. The biology of the brain
    • 3.4.2. Intelligence and spirituality in the formation of identity and individual consciousness
• 4. PARTS AND THE WHOLE: UNDERSTANDING HOLARCHIC CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE INTEGRAL THEORY OF KEN WILBER
  • 4.1. Self and other? A discussion of the Newtonian / Cartesian world-view and its impact upon studies in consciousness
  • 4.2. Ken Wilber’s integral theory of consciousness
    • 4.2.1. Ken Wilber’s Integral Philosophy in relation to consciousness
    • 4.2.2. Ken Wilber’s understanding of consciousness from the perennial philosophy:
  • A neo-perennial philosophy
    • 4.2.3. A mapping of consciousness: Ken Wilber’s understanding of consciousness as Holarchic
  • 4.3. Holistic consciousness in relation to Ken Wilber’s four quadrants of reality
    • 4.3.1. “A view from within”: Interiority and consciousness
    • 4.3.2. The Four existential realms
    • 4.3.3. Ken Wilber’s notion of the Four Quadrants
    • 4.3.4. The interrelations among the Four Quadrants
    • 4.3.5. Validity claims in relation to Wilber’s Four Quadrants
    • 4.3.6. Common Reductionist pitfalls in relation to the four quadrants
  • 4.4. Conclusion
• 5. AN AFRICAN THEOLOGICAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE DEBATE ON SELF VALIDATING CONSCIOUSNESS IN STRONG ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

GET THE COMPLETE PROJECT
Validation of individual consciousness in Strong Artificial Intelligence: An African Theological contribution.