Human Consciousness: One of the keys to Artificial General Intelligence

We're getting closer to AGI guys and gals. To get there we need to like a song produce 3 pieces in harmony; Technology, The Senses and Consciousness. I wrote a previous article about giving AI our 5 senses linked below, if you would like to catch up. But for now, let's get stuck into - Human Consciousness: One of the keys to Artificial General Intelligence.

What is consciousness?

The dictionary defines consciousness as "aware of and responding to one's surroundings.", but honestly that doesn't tell you a lot. It is so much deeper than that. So deep that we have philosophers in every age trying to understand with the utmost diligence "What is Consciousness".

To give you some examples (and I highly recommend you read up on these, even if only 5 min a piece); Panpsychism, Dualism, Idealism, and Integrated Information Theory. There are many more, but these are what I have found most interesting.

I am actually writing my my own, "The Harriesian Sensory Theory" - a book I have been writing and researching for since 2023. Which will be ready for release in 2026.

The brick wall to AGI

For a while now I have been studying the 3 rings and of the 3, I believe with more depth and investment we can give technology our 5 senses, I further believe that with algorithms and optimization methods; we're closer than ever to nailing the technology ring. Which leaves us with in my opinion the hardest of them all; giving technology a conscious.

This is a difficult task because it requires more than "math & code", it requires philosophy and a deep internal abstraction of what makes consciousness.

After doing a lot of introspective observation and study of some main philosophies relating to consciousness, I have come up with 2 terms to help me try to break the wall to AGI; "Predefined Intentions" and "Internal Potential". I will fully elaborate in the next final article of this trilogy.

The difference between current AI and consciousness

The biggest difference between current AI and our conscious is that, all current software/technology has "Predefined Intentions" and our conscious or "consciousness" is more akin to "Internal Potential"

The concepts of predefined intentions and internal potential play a significant role in understanding the difference between current AI and consciousness. Predefined systems follow specific instructions or rules from the start. They are great at performing their tasks efficiently but are limited by their initial programming. They can't adapt beyond their original design. In contrast, systems with internal potential are built to grow and adapt, evolving through interactions with their environment.

Note: With advancing AI and algorithms like the Bayesian optimization method, we do have "systems changing them self", but its still predefined because we had to use an algorithm to update itself. Something the conscious doesn't require.

Ethical considerations and my fears

Once we crack this last ring and bind them all together, I do worry.

We will have finally defined consciousness and reality or at least proved we can completely replicate our own reality and put it in technology. This means we will have to seriously consider right and wrong, good and evil.

It's wrong to hurt an animal, it's wrong to hurt a human, if technology has the perception of reality, and a conscious, it is then also wrong to hurt that technology.

There are some bad people out here and if we give technology a conscious, I thoroughly believe anyone who "buys" one, must be registered and maltreatment of the technology must be punished by law.

Why? Because if not, why is anything wrong or right?