Susan Schneider

The arrival of artificial consciousness at a level capable of rivaling or exceeding our would be truly monumental. It may take us wholly by surprise, challenging our ethical and scientific frameworks. In this talk I provide a framework for understanding machine consciousness based on my Superpsychist position. I combine a resonance theory of consciousness, work on spacetime emergence, and a new understanding of how quantum entanglement and decoherence enable consciousness, drawn from Quantum Darwinism. I explore which AI systems are best able to exploit these conditions to achieve consciousness, at least in principle. Of special interest are certain forms of biological AIs, neuromorphic systems and quantum computation.

Susan Schneider: Dr. Susan Schneider is a philosopher who is the founding director of the Center for the Future of AI, Mind and Society and the William F. Dietrich Eminent Professor at Florida Atlantic University. She formerly held the NASA-Baruch Blumberg Chair with NASA and the Distinguished Scholar Chair at the Library of Congress. Her specializations include philosophy of mind, philosophy of AI, metaphysics and philosophy of science (astrobiology, philosophy of physics, cognitive science).  She holds a joint appointment in the Stiles-Nicholson Brain Institute and is a member of FAU’s Center for Complex Systems. In her book, Artificial You: AI and the Future of the Mind, she discusses the philosophical implications of AI, and, in particular, AI consciousness and the enterprise of "mind design." Schneider recently completed a three year project with NASA on the future of intelligence. She is a co-director of the MPCR Lab at FAU's new Gruber Sandbox, a large facility which builds AI systems drawing from neuroscience research and philosophical developments. She is also the editor of the Blackwell Companion to Consciousness (with Max Velmans, Wiley-Blackwell, 2008) and the author of The Language of Thought: a New Philosophical Direction (2011, MIT Press). She also appears frequently on television shows on stations such as PBS and The History Channel and writes opinion pieces for venues such as the New York Times, Scientific American, The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times.