“Philosopher’s Zombie” Thought Experiment
The Zombie Philosopher follows a man who, after acquiring a robotic assistant, must navigate the complex journey of machine consciousness and the ethical implications of artificial intelligence. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I wanted to convey some of the subtleties involved in the concepts of mind. To distinguish, for example, mental structure from consciousness. The technical issues with robots are ongoing, so putting the story in the future, far enough to have those issues resolved, but not so far that the technology seems magical, seemed a good way to deal with the problems, ethical and otherwise. My target future is 150 years, by the way. There are many hints in the books. I wanted the story to be accessible to the interested but non-technical reader, so putting it in the first person seemed like a good move. The sequels are in the third person, so the reader has access to the minds of more than one actor. That makes them, I suppose, both harder to write and to read, but makes them, in my opinion, better books overall.
How did you approach the challenge of making complex philosophical concepts accessible and engaging for your readers?
Having been thinking for some time about the issues of human and robot consciousness, I thought that an interaction between two examples of those beings would be a fun way to get those ideas across. Having read the Jeeves books (P. G. Wodehouse) some time ago, I thought that a humorous relationship between a young man and his perhaps wiser valet would be a good vehicle. I also considered that some action in the form of a life-saving event and an attempted assassination would also help to move the story along.
Can you discuss any real-world technological advancements or philosophical theories that influenced the development of the character Brent and his journey?
Having obtained my PhD in robotics and AI, I had frequently thought about the limits and potentials for the future and that humans and machines both have physical constraints. I had been engaged in philosophy as well and had personal interactions with academically trained philosophers. I became interested in the philosophy of mind and had read works by David Chalmers who had, in the 1990s, proposed the so-called “philosopher’s zombie” thought experiment: is it conceivable that there could be a person who acted much as everyone else but who had no internal experience at all? That is exactly what roboticists are setting out to do. If a scientist attempted to create an artificial consciousness, how would she know when or if she had succeeded?
What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Brent and Edward Go to Mars (Page Publishing, 336 pages) is the sequel to The Zombie Philosopher. As you may recall, the first book ends with Brent and Edward thinking about a trip to Mars (because Edward has visited every continent on earth). In the Mars book, their adventures and philosophical discussions continue, and upon their return to earth they resume their residence in Edward’s country home with a young lady they met on the space liner to and from Mars. In the latest book, she leaves after a few weeks to resume her career commitments, and Brent and Edward decide to take a holiday in Hawaii to escape the winter cold. More adventures ensue, including new love affairs for both Edward and Brent. I am finishing the last chapter now and Brent and Edward Back on Earth will be out later this year. That will be my fifth book, altogether.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website
— Ken Goldberg
Posted on January 24, 2024, in Interviews and tagged author, book, book recommendations, book review, book reviews, book shelf, bookblogger, books, books to read, ebook, fiction, goodreads, indie author, kindle, kobo, literature, nook, novel, read, reader, reading, Richard Wagner, short story, story, The Zombie Philosopher, writer, writing. Bookmark the permalink. 1 Comment.
LITERARY TITAN 
It’s becoming clear that with all the brain and consciousness theories out there, the proof will be in the pudding. By this I mean, can any particular theory be used to create a human adult level conscious machine. My bet is on the late Gerald Edelman’s Extended Theory of Neuronal Group Selection. The lead group in robotics based on this theory is the Neurorobotics Lab at UC at Irvine. Dr. Edelman distinguished between primary consciousness, which came first in evolution, and that humans share with other conscious animals, and higher order consciousness, which came to only humans with the acquisition of language. A machine with only primary consciousness will probably have to come first.
What I find special about the TNGS is the Darwin series of automata created at the Neurosciences Institute by Dr. Edelman and his colleagues in the 1990’s and 2000’s. These machines perform in the real world, not in a restricted simulated world, and display convincing physical behavior indicative of higher psychological functions necessary for consciousness, such as perceptual categorization, memory, and learning. They are based on realistic models of the parts of the biological brain that the theory claims subserve these functions. The extended TNGS allows for the emergence of consciousness based only on further evolutionary development of the brain areas responsible for these functions, in a parsimonious way. No other research I’ve encountered is anywhere near as convincing.
I post because on almost every video and article about the brain and consciousness that I encounter, the attitude seems to be that we still know next to nothing about how the brain and consciousness work; that there’s lots of data but no unifying theory. I believe the extended TNGS is that theory. My motivation is to keep that theory in front of the public. And obviously, I consider it the route to a truly conscious machine, primary and higher-order.
My advice to people who want to create a conscious machine is to seriously ground themselves in the extended TNGS and the Darwin automata first, and proceed from there, by applying to Jeff Krichmar’s lab at UC Irvine, possibly. Dr. Edelman’s roadmap to a conscious machine is at https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.10461