Watanabe M. From Biological to Artificial Consciousness: Neuroscientific Insights and Progress

Cham: Springer, 2022. — 180 p.AcknowledgementsThe Mystery of Consciousness
I Think, Therefore I Am
Subjective Experience: The Ultimate Reduction of Consciousness
The Fiction of the Visual World
Imagine Being a Mole
Seeing Things
Visual Processing in the Human Brain Without Subjective Experience
Subjective Experience Is a Privilege of the Conscious
Neurons as the Source of Consciousness
Research by Hodgkin and Huxley
Cranking Out Hypotheses
Are Neurons Connected? The Debate Between Golgi and Cajal
Information Transmission Between Neurons
Neuronal Interaction Through Neurotransmitters
Neuron Thresholds
The Brain Learns by Fiddling with Synapses
You Are Nothing But a Pack of Neurons
Pursuing the Shadows of Consciousness
Neuronal Activity Accompanying Consciousness
Binocular Rivalry
Logothetis’s Search for Consciousness
An Upheaval in the Science of Consciousness
Hubel and Wiesel
Neurons Conduct Telephone Surveys
Where Are the Cherry Trees Blooming?
The Survey in the Brain
Retinotopy in the Visual Cortex
Hierarchy of Visual Areas and Response Properties of Neurons
Generalization: Another Hierarchical Change in the Response Properties of Neurons
Searching for the Seat of Consciousness
The Battle of V1
Information in the Primary Visual Cortex that Consciousness Cannot Access
Binocular Rivalry in the Primary Visual Cortex
The Difference Between Correlation and Causality
NCC and Akira
Pursuing NCC by Process of Elimination
CFS: An Innovation in Consciousness Studies
Consciousness Versus Attention
Empire Strikes Back
Neural Manipulation for Causal Investigation of Consciousness
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as a Revolutionary Tool
The Yin and Yang of TMS
Time Lag in Consciousness
Subjective Back-Referral
Does the Future Affect Consciousness?
What About Conscious Free Will?
Conscious Free Will is a Grand Illusion
Motion Phosphenes and NCC
The Difficulty of Using Manipulation Experiments to Search for NCC
Process of Elimination Through Manipulation Experiments
Optogenetics: A New Development in Manipulation Experiments
Do Rats Experience Binocular Rivalry?
A New Hope: Visual Backward Masking
Do Rats Experience Visual Backward Masking?
Do Mice Experience Visual Backward Masking?
Investigating NCC Through Optogenetics
The Future of Neural Manipulation in Search of NCC
The Quest for a Natural Law of Consciousness
The Brain as a Neural Network
Glimpses of Consciousness in Neural Networks
Is NCC All There Is?
The Mill Argument
The Hard Problem of Consciousness
The Consciousness of a Thermostat
Can Consciousness Actually Be Understood?
Natural Laws Are the Foundation of All Science
Resistance to Natural Laws of Consciousness
Bridging the Explanatory Gap and Solving the Hard Problem
How Do We Verify Natural Laws of Consciousness?
Analysis by Synthesis
Fading Qualia
Digital Fading Qualia
Philosophical Zombies Hinder Tests of Machine Consciousness
Seeing for Ourselves
Two Hemispheres, Two Consciousnesses
Sperry Extracts the Right-Hemisphere’s Testimony
Interhemispheric Communication in Cortical Hierarchy
A Subjective Test for Machine Consciousness
Is Consciousness Information or Algorithm?
Candidate Natural Laws of Consciousness
Integrated Information Theory
Preliminary Validation with the Proposed Test for Machine Consciousness
The Problem with Equating Information and Consciousness
Algorithms and Generative Models
The Virtual Reality Within Our Brains
Brain’s Virtual Reality During Wakefulness
Generative Model as a Neural Implementation of Brain’s Inner Virtual Reality
Towards Realistic Virtual Reality
Will Generative Models Pass the Subjective Test for Machine Consciousness?
Explaining Time Lags in Consciousness with the Generative Model
The Generative Model Explains Differential Subjective Experience Arising from Various Sensory Modalities
Dual Aspect Theory of Generative Process
Uploading Human Consciousness
Viable Method for Mind Uploading
Prospects for Machine Consciousness
Complications in Perfecting a Digital Copy of Our Brains
Constructing First a Neutrally Conscious Machine
Prospects for an Invasive Brain–Machine Interface
Possibilities for Machine–Brain Hemispheric Integration
The Problem of Writing Information
A New Type of BMI: Insertion of 2D Electrode Array into a Dissected Axonal Bundle
Integration Between Artificial and Biological Hemispheres
Waking Up in a Machine
Transfer of Memory
Bon Voyage!
Afterword
Appendix
The Generative Model in Its Simplest Form
Calculating Generative Error
Backward Propagation of Errors
Creating Rich Middle Layers Through Learning