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Poster Session 1, 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM: Campus Center Auditorium [A14]

Presenter: Eli Avery Tripp

Faculty Sponsor: Jean Kennedy

School: Quinsigamond Community College

Research Area: Artificial Intelligence

ABSTRACT

Understanding consciousness has consistently proven to be an uphill battle among academics spanning numerous fields, from neuroscience to philosophy. Research has argued that popularized theories of consciousness are merely descriptive of the conditions in which consciousness can be present; however, approaches such as AST and QTC target the “why” behind its presence, but on two completely different levels that will be evaluated by this research. Within the rapid advancement of technology, such as advanced medicine, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, lays subtle foreshadowing into technology's possible adoption of consciousness. The purpose of this research is to survey both current and foreseeable advancements across disciplines that study psychological, philosophical, and neuroscientific approaches to consciousness, and how emerging technologies and computation methods will affect them in the future. The characteristics of AI hold the potential to simulate consciousness through its machine learning, capacity for running complex simulations, and advanced prediction capabilities. Weak AI, AGI, and strong AI are the known conceptual models for contemporary and speculative variations of artificial intelligence. While first considering the qualities of the commonly understood weak AI, this research will proceed to examine the possibility of consciousness, as we understand it in biological organisms, as both a potential objective and biproduct of AGI and strong AI development. By applying theoretical approaches of consciousness to machine thinking, we can look toward what the future of AI may hold for human interactions, as well as our own understanding of consciousness as a structure beyond the brain.