Machine consciousness is the hypothetical presence of subjective awareness or experience in an artificial system. Whether silicon systems could be conscious remains unsettled because consciousness lacks a consensus definition or test. section 11.2
Several theories offer different ways to assess possible artificial consciousness:
- Reentry theories associate consciousness with recurrent connections, while feed-forward Transformer architectures may lack the required structure. section 11.2
- Higher-order thought theory describes consciousness as awareness of a first-order mental state. section 11.2
- Integrated information theory relates consciousness to how extensively information is integrated within a system. section 11.2
The global workspace analogy
Global workspace theory compares conscious thought to a bulletin board: many mental processes run continuously, but noticed processes enter a shared workspace. Thinking about an email may share attention with wondering about a date, while breathing usually remains unnoticed. section 11.2
Figure 11.1 A diagram of the global workspace theory
Use the diagram to visualize how processes become available within a global workspace. section 11.2
