title: Can a machine be conscious? How? creator: Harnad, Stevan subject: Neural Modelling subject: Cognitive Psychology subject: Philosophy of Mind subject: Robotics subject: Theoretical Biology description: A "machine" is any causal physical system, hence we are machines, hence machines can be conscious. The question is: which kinds of machines can be conscious? Chances are that robots that can pass the Turing Test -- completely indistinguishable from us in their behavioral capacities -- can be conscious (i.e. feel), but we can never be sure (because of the "other-minds" problem). And we can never know HOW they have minds, because of the "mind/body" problem. We can only know how they pass the Turing Test, but not how, why or whether that makes them feel. date: 2003 type: Journal (Paginated) type: PeerReviewed format: text/html identifier: http://cogprints.org/2460/1/machine.htm identifier: Harnad, Stevan (2003) Can a machine be conscious? How? [Journal (Paginated)] relation: http://cogprints.org/2460/