Machine consciousness by David Calverley
Abstract A spate of recent international workshops have demonstrated that machine consciousness i... more Abstract A spate of recent international workshops have demonstrated that machine consciousness is a swiftly emerging field of international presence. Independently, there have been several new developments in cognitive science and consciousness studies concerning the nature of experience and how it may best be investigated.
Papers by David Calverley
Proceedings of the AISB05 Symposium on Next Generation Approaches to Machine Consciousness: Imagination, Development, Intersubjectivity, and Embodiment, The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and the Simulation of Behaviour, UK, Apr 12, 2005
A spate of recent international workshops have demonstrated that machine consciousness is a swift... more A spate of recent international workshops have demonstrated that machine consciousness is a swiftly emerging field of international presence. Independently, there have been several new developments in cognitive science and consciousness studies concerning the nature of experience and how it may best be investigated. Synthesizing results from embodied AI, phenomenology and hermeneutics in Philosophy, Neuroscience and enactive Psychology (among others), new paradigms for research into natural ...
AI & SOCIETY, 2007
As non-biological machines come to be designed in ways which exhibit characteristics comparable t... more As non-biological machines come to be designed in ways which exhibit characteristics comparable to human mental states, the manner in which the law treats these entities will become increasingly important both to designers and to society at large. The direct question will become whether, given certain attributes, a non-biological machine could ever be viewed as a ''legal person.'' In order to begin to understand the ramifications of this question, this paper starts by exploring the distinction between the related concepts of ''human,'' ''person,'' and ''property.'' Once it is understood that person in the legal sense can apply to a non-biological entity such as a corporation, the inquiry then goes on to examine the folk psychology view of intentionality and the concept of autonomy. The conclusion reached is that these two attributes can support the view that a non-biological machine, at least in theory, can be viewed as a legal person.
Artificial Intelligence as a Legal Person
Law, as a pragmatic tool, provides us with a way to test, at a conceptual level, whether a humanl... more Law, as a pragmatic tool, provides us with a way to test, at a conceptual level, whether a humanly created non-biological machine could be considered a legal person. This paper looks first at the history of law in order to set the foundation for the suggestion that as a normative system it is based on a folk psychology model. Accepting this as a starting point allows us to look to empirical studies in this area to gather support for the idea that "intentionality", in the folk psychology sense, can give us a principled way to argue that non-biological machines can become legal persons. In support of this argument I also look at corporate law theory. However, as is often the case, because law has historically been viewed as a human endeavor, complications arise when we attempt to apply its concepts to non-human persons. The distinction between human, person and property is discussed in this regard, with particular note being taken of the concept of slavery. The conclusion dr...
Legal Rights for Machines
Machine Ethics, 2011
The day is already here when androids perform tasks and act in ways which seem to be human. Howev... more The day is already here when androids perform tasks and act in ways which seem to be human. However, as of now, no one is prepared to view these man-made creations as anything other than property to be used for our benefit or entertainment. As the systems become more sophisticated, and as engineers try harder to build "conscious" machines, I suggest that a number of moral, ethical, and legal issues could arise. By drawing upon the animal rights movement, an analogy can be drawn which suggests that, given the right degree of complexity, androids may have a claim to a certain level of moral status. However, to assert a claim that androids could become legal persons, something more is needed; the analogy is not perfect. Despite similarities there are significant differences between the animal and the android at levels deeper than the mere physical. Identifying these points of similarity and divergence may ultimately depend upon how we come to understand the concept of human c...
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Machine consciousness by David Calverley
Papers by David Calverley