Can a machine have a conscience - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages pic indicate that conscience is a complicate matter to be understood even in humans and hence cannot be replicated in machines no matter how intelligent they are or will be made to be. With the new technological innovations of this century that continue to shock even the inventors, there is possibility of them developing a machine that will have a conscience in the future.
One of the best brain scientists in the world Christof Koch who works for the Allen Institute for Brain Science located in Seattle is very positive of having a breakthrough in the scientific and technological industry which will lead to development of a conscious machine. He believes that it is only a matter of organizing the machine to work like a mammalian brain and the results will be epic (Regalado 2014). The institute he is working in has dedicated millions of dollars in neuroscience research of the mammalian brain studying its neurons and synapses and trying to find out about consciousness through the Human Genome Project. He vouches for the integrated information theory which will be able to explain about consciousness in detail which would in turn lead to development of a machine with the same components, neurons and synapses to enable it have a conscience.
According to the authors Tononi and Koch (2008), the concept of consciousness is as imperfect to understand and explain in detail as the law of physics and other sciences but it is there and can be explored further. If there is a theory to explain about consciousness no matter how complicated or vague it currently is, it means that there is hope that further research, development and expansion of the theory will lead to reproduction of machineries with inbuilt conscious and hence will act, think, feel and make decisions similarly to a human being. Detailed clinical study using sophisticated instruments have provided a basic understanding of the process of consciousness (Tononi and Koch 2008). These results are the basics of the ...Download file to see next pagesRead More