INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON MACHINE CONSCIOUSNESS, Hong Kong 15th June 2009
This workshop organized by Gino Yu and Ben Goertzel will be co-colocated with Toward a Science of Consciousness conference (to be held 12th~-14th JUNE 2009). This workshop will explore issues at the intersection of consciousness studies with cognitive robotics and artificial general intelligence.
Among the many important questions lying in this intersection, are the following:
What do contemporary theories of consciousness say about the possibility and nature of consciousness that may be possible in intelligent robots and software programs?
Assuming machine consciousness is achievable, what are likely to be the similarities and differences between machine consciousness and human consciousness.
What can one say about the relationship between degree of consciousness and degree of intelligence, across the scope of potential intelligent systems including humans, robots and software programs.
How important is embodiment for the development of machine consciousness? How should "embodiment" be defined in this context?
What are some contemporary robotics or AGI (artificial general intelligence) architectures that have the potential to lead so significant degrees of machine consciousness? Why do they seem to have this potential?
Is consciousness (or advanced forms of consciousness) something that must emerge within a robotics or AGI system via the system's interaction with its environment, rather than being explicitly programmed in? If so, what are the conditions for its emergence?
What implications do the social, collective aspects of consciousness have for the possibility and nature of machine consciousness?
Investigating Inner Experience Brain, Mind, Technology Hong Kong, China, June 11-14, 2009 www.asiaconsciousness.org/TSC
Long a meeting place for Eastern and Western ideas and the media capital of Asia, Hong Kong, China hosts the 15th in a series of Toward a Science of Consciousness conferences held yearly since 1994. The conferences are known for broad, interdisciplinary and multi-faceted approaches to the age-old question of how the brain produces consciousness awareness
Subjective inner experience has long been approached through introspection, mysticism, and meditative contemplation, and revealed through art, mythology and ritual. In the past half century, science has found computation among neurons to explain brain functions, and promoted the possibility of conscious machines. Now, various media technologies attempt to communicate, simulate and re-create inner experience. In a spirit of synergy, the conference is organized along three entwined themes.
Lifenaut Project. Eternalizing Consciousness using a virtual avatar
A talk with Nick Mayer, Manager of Cyberbiological Systems at Terasem Movement Foundation.
The goal of the Lifenaut Project is to create an automated, user-friendly, and web accessible system that allows individuals around the globe to create significantly detailed personality archives.
Conscious-Robots.com pages for MSRS (Microsoft Robotics Studio)
These pages include information, MSRS services, C# sample code, and resources for the programming of real and simulated robots using MSRS. These pages can be of interest for anyone working on autonomous mobile robotics. Most of the code and applications included in this section is intended for its use in academic projects on robotics.
Frontpage 
Conscious Robots RSS Feed
Will Browne
Nokia Workshop on Machine Consciousness 2008 
International Journal of Machine Consciousness (IJMC)
Cognitive Computation
Cognitive Robotics and Machine Consciousness
INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON MACHINE CONSCIOUSNESS, Hong Kong 15th June 2009
Lifenaut Project. Eternalizing Consciousness using a virtual avatar
