Consider Babbages Analytical engine. Babbage built a purely mechanical calculator. Can a babbage like thinking machine become conscious? It would seem that no matter how complex of a Babbage like machine one might build, one would not expect it to feel emotion at any point. It's calculations would after all, be entirely mechanical. A normal computer is very Babbage like, though it relies on electrical and magnetic force fields rather than purely mechanical operations. So one would not expect a normal computer to become conscious either. Assume for a moment that there is a physical requirement for consciousness, and that consciousness is intimately tied to spacetime. The obvious first choice would be that consciousness arises from particular arrangements of spike trains in our neural nets, but that need not be the case. Indeed a neural net spike train model suffers from two unaesthetic binding problems. The neural net is divided at the synaptic junctions by chemical transmitters, and the spikes are discrete in time. As an alternative, as one might have an unseen magnetic field at some location in space, one might have an unseen thought/emotion field at some location in space. This 'consciousness field' might be a pure energy field equivalent to any of the other four fields of the standard model of physics, or it could arise from some particular arrangement of energy and matter. I prefer the pure field theory myself, in which case their would need to be equations of interaction in order for our thoughts to be communicated to and from the nonconscious matter in our brains. Consider a simple coil radio antenna. It transfers energy efficiently from an electrical current form to an electromagnetic wave form. Is there an equivalent to the coil antenna in the human brain that transfers energy efficiently between our consciousness and the non-conscious matter in our brains? A consciousness activated ion channel could transmit requests to move from our consciousness to non-conscious information processing neurons. There would need to be emotion field producing proteins, or similar special purpose structures. A pure consciousness field theory is my pet theory, quantum consciousness theories, and electromagnetic field theories of consciousness both overcome the binding problem. One could also formulate a configuration of matter theory that supposes that our spike trains do in fact provide the necessary configuration of matter required for consciousness to arise. Emergent theories seem doomed as they lead to the extremely unsavory conclusion that one could create emotion by performing complex calculations with a pen and paper, which results by considering the conscious Babbage engine argument in that direction. In any event a complete description of consciousness is going to be required in order to successfully upload ourselves, or we will only be capable of creating a non-sentient replica that cannot feel at all. Specially designed hardware is likely to be required in order to produce emotion and consciousness, if any of the physical theories are correct. This specially designed hardware will have to replicate the emotion and consciousness field producing proteins/components in the brain. The required consciousness/emotion sensors will be required as well. If our spike trains are the required configuration of matter, then the hardware requirements should be obvious. For the field theories, the equivalent of an antenna will need to be understood in order to transfer energy and information between consciousness and nonconscious matter.

Consider the following. In the human brain there exists a clear set of inputs and outputs. Our consciousness lies betwen them. One can track information in through our senses, and out through our motor coordination. One can identify structures which process information in a nonconscious fashion. By carefully tracking the flow of information, one can clearly deduce the precise structures which create and interact with our consciousness. Information will tend to spread in many directions when coming in through the senses, by way of various waves and fields according to the standard model of physics. Thus it will likely be more efficient to first identify any structures communicating information from consciousness to non-conscious matter. This can be done by way of tracking the flow of information backwards, from our muscles, through our nerves, through nonconscious information processing systems, towards our consciousness. Identification of such structures will allow us to study the physical mathematics of consciousness. And allow us to artificially sustain consciousness.

Written by Warren Harding
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