The Nature of Consciousness, why we can’t put it in machines (yet). Explores hard problem of consciousness, the binding problem, lucid dreaming and our minds reality simulator.

1. The Nature of Consciousness
why we can’t put it in
machines (yet)
Stefan van der Wel

2. Know your transhumanist
The Extropian
Wants to live forever in a free-market,
libertarian paradise, his psyche augmented
by the best technology and drugs.
• Currently reading: BioMEMS:
Fundamentals of Implant
Microfabrication
• Most recent meal: Day 9 of calorie-
restricted diet: 20 grams of protein, 1
gram of carbohydrates, 600 ml of water.
• Favorite tattoo: SPINAL IMPLANT GOES
HERE.
• Saved on iPod: Full genetic code
• Biggest fears: Death, taxes.
The Singularitarian
Believes people will soon merge with
computers and become an immortal new
life-form - a "singular" event in human
history.
• Currently reading: Collected Stories of
Vernor Vinge and The Cyborg Handbook
• Most recent meal: Whatever is in the
lab vending machine.
• Favorite tattoo: EVERYBODY LOVES
RAYMOND (KURZWEIL).
• Saved on iPod: Algorithms. Lots of
Algorithms
• Stored in his basement: Self-evolving AI
network running on 42 linked PCs.
• Biggest fears: Direct sunlight, women.
Vernor Vinge (1993): “Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended
From wired circa 2003

3. Chat with David Pearce:
“Singularity unlikely because of the
Binding Problem of Consciousness”
David Pearce
• Co-founder of world transhumanist association
(now humanity plus)
• interested in the use of biotechnology to abolish
suffering
• Discusses Consciousness in a piece on ‘NON-
MATERIALIST PHYSICALISM’
• Lives off selling domain names he bought in the
early days of the internet!
Singularity Scenarios Discussion
• Traditional view:
Hard takeoff of artificial general intelligence. AI
rearchitects itself leading to runaway recursive
self-improvement (Ray K, Vernor Vinge)
• My take:
Memeplex super entity emerging from
unconscious thought interaction between BCI
connected people due to increase in
transmission speed and throughput of
memes/culture.
Loosely based off memetics, pan psychism, self-
reference / strange loop theory (Dan Dennett,
Susan Blackmore, Douglas Hofstadter)

4. The Binding Problem of Consciousness
How do we unify all sensory inputs to produce a unified simulation of reality?
• Hard Problem of Consciousness: why aren’t we
p-zombies
• Segregation problem: how do brains segregate
elements in complex patterns of sensory input
so that they are allocated to discrete "objects"
• Combination problem: how objects, background
and abstract or emotional features are
combined into a single experience
• Maybe due to classical massive parallelism in
brain data processing?
The Cartesian theatre model of consciousness.
Dan Dennett believes it’s an illusion
David Pearce thinks it’s a quantum phenomena

5. Your reality simulation Engine
“Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality”
- Anil Seth
Brain is a prediction engine, combines electric
signals to form a “best guess” of reality
Perception is controlled hallucination,
reality is the parts of our hallucination we
agree upon
“Brain isn’t only dependent on signals coming into
the brain, but on perceptual predictions. We don’t
just passively perceive, we actively generate”
To really “get it” lucid dream

6. My brain in ‘offline’ mode (dreaming)
Lucid Dreaming – Reality engine defects
My reality check tests
• Gravity doesn’t work
• People are a simple bunch
• Mirror images turn into people
• If you think too hard you wake up.. Not enough
CPU ? ;-)
• Things reappear after being destroyed
• Visual & Sensory discrepancies
Why aren’t we always lucid in dreams? Brain
naturally generates theories for all sorts of ridiculous
this that happen in dreams and not as many rational
process are running
One defect example: Visual
location of tree branch out of
synch with sensory location

7. Experience of self is a controlled hallucination
The model of self perceives/predicts it wrong

8. Introspective Sense of Self is about Control and Regulation of the Body
• Ability to assess and regulate body likely gave rise to consciousness
Bodily Self-regulation
A lot of legacy code….. Try dieting if you disagree!

9. Model-dependent realism – Abstract Models
The stuff humans do better than other animals… models in an evolutionary fight for survival within conscious hosts
“it is meaningless to talk
about the "true reality" of a
model as we can never
be absolutely certain of
anything. The only meaningful
thing is the usefulness of the
model.”

10. Is individual decision
making also an illusion?
Unaware thought processes make the decisions and then we
assign agency after the fact
“There are strong indications that the subconscious mind,
those thought-processes that by their very definition we are
unaware of, are actually responsible for many, if not most, of
our intellectual capabilities.“
Some research suggesting's that many decisions that seem to
be under more conscious control than they actually are. In
many cases, consciousness may simply be window dressing.

11. Lucid dream introspection: Decisioning
Different parts of the brain process sensory data and
make different decisions, Amygdala “reptilian” brain
has final say
I tested what would happen during a head on collision
within a lucid dream
• Neo-cortex knows it’s a dream and can’t be hurt
• Amygdala got scared, braces for impact, pumped my
body with adrenaline
• Instinctively want to swerve – do not
• “Interpersonal agency engine“ predicted other car would
serve, It did not
• Car passed right through mine, no memories of head-on
crashes?
• Reality simulator adjusted understanding of
environment, second car was rendered to look like grand
theft auto car

12. Singularity & Consciousness Summary
BINDING PROBLEM OF HOW THE
MIND INTEGRATES OBJECTS,
BACKGROUND AND EMOTIONS INTO
COHERENT EXPERIENCES NOT
UNDERSTOOD
SILICON GENRAL ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE WILL REMAIN P-
ZOMBIES EVEN IF IT PASSES TURING
TEST DUE TO BINDING PROBLEM
BINDING PROBLEM MAY PREVENT
WORLD SCALE SUPER
CONSCIOUSNESS AS A WORLD
SIMULATION MAY NOT WORK
ACROSS DISTRIBUTED NODES

13. What about immediate ‘extropian’ outcomes
Immediate
Mindfulness – observe your
decisioning processes
Be selective on what complex
parts of reality you model
Quantitive self – more data for
decisioning! Fitbits, chip implants..
Data, data, data
Less immediate – more brain
computer interfaces
The actual interface to the brain is
so crude today, and it relies a lot
on the power of the computing or
signal analysis outside of the
brain. What we want is an
electronic circuit that can
communicate neurally.
BCI to ‘feel’ additional decisioning
engine output. Computers can
think much faster than us their
output could be feelings for us…
BCI to feel collective thinking:
Group think
After that? Replacement of all legacy senses… live your life in a lucid dream with an internet connection?

14. Bring dreams ‘online’

15. Transhumanist splice
Memeplex ?
• Not everyone has given up on it
• Lincoln Cannon is a technologist and
philosopher, and leading advocate
of technological evolution and post
secular religion.
• Is attempting to ‘meme splice’
transhumanism with Mormonism
• Founded Mormon transhumanist
association