June 25, 2012 12:45 PSP Book - 9in x 6in 09-Junichi-Takeno-c09
Chapter 9
New Architecture of Robot
Consciousness and the Robot Mind
This chapter introduces the conscious robot that passed our mirror
image cognition tests for the first time in the world (Fig. 9.1). Mirror
image cognition means to “cognize the image of the self in a mirror.”
It is considered to be the source of self-consciousness.
What is the mechanism of human consciousness?
This chapter discusses this mechanism.
The electronic edition of the Discovery Channel in the United
States reported on this robot on December 21, 2005. Within two or
three weeks after the report, about 26,000 secondary articles and
references to this robot appeared on Web sites all over the world.
The robot was discussed on many Web forums, and the information
spread throughout the Internet, where many comments of both
praise and refutation were seen.
The effect of the publicity on the Discovery Channel was
enormous. Four months after its appearance, the conscious robot
was listed in the second place in Google search results for the
keyword “self aware,” which logged about 132 million hits. The
conscious robot was, of course, at the top of the list related to
scientific research.
Creation of a Conscious Robot: Mirror Image Cognition and Self-Awareness
Junichi Takeno
Copyright
c
2013 Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd.
ISBN 978-981-4364-49-2 (Hardcover), 978-981-4364-50-8 (eBook)
www.panstanford.com
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154 New Architecture of Robot Consciousness and the Robot Mind
Figure 9.1. Conscious robot that passed the mirror image cognition tests.
9.1 Introduction
What neural circuits are used, and how are they used, to make up the
mechanism of human reason? How is the mechanism of emotions
and feelings related to reason? What is consciousness and self-
consciousness? What is the difference between subconsciousness
and explicit consciousness? What is the meaning of “to feel?” What
is free will?
The author aims to answer these questions. I would like to
innovate conventional artificial intelligence (AI), which is presently
at a deadlock. I would also like to construct a totally new AI, which
I call artificial consciousness (AC). I am also trying to construct a
model of the human brain. I do not mean to use the risky anatomical
analysis of the brain, but I will construct a mechanism to represent
human consciousness in an embodied robot. The rich knowledge I
expect to derive from my research will help resolve the mysteries
of the brain. If we could uncover these mysteries, we could reap
immeasurable benefits from our efforts.
First, AC-based machines will be designed and developed to ever
higher levels. Conventional automobiles, for example, have been
designed to follow the driver’s instructions, whereas an AC-based
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Introduction 155
automobile will function as though a dedicated operator were
driving it in place of the human driver. The car runs automatically,
always checking its safety, and observing the instructions given by
the driver from time to time. Even if the driver were to faint for
some reason, the car would continue running safely until it slows
down and stops at a nearby safe place, or may continue on and
arrive at the destination if time is not a critical factor. The difference
from conventional vehicles is the intrinsic safety derived from the
autonomy of the car and enhanced comfort. The driver’s stress
would be greatly reduced.
Second, AC technology will create a simultaneous interpreter
robot that speaks natural languages. The robot interpreter will
engage in simultaneous interpretation, the quality of which would
surpass human interpreters. It understands homonyms from the
context and appreciates and returns with a joke and irony when
appropriate. In a hospital, the AC robot selects and avoids speaking
upsetting words and phrases that may touch on diseases.
Third, the AC robot will attend to old people in need of care and
physically handicapped persons and provide physical and mental
care for elderly living alone. The robot will take care of these people
while being conscious of their mental and physical conditions. It
reaches out and supports them to walk safely. The AC robots will
support people in wheelchairs and bedridden patients by speaking
with them gently, encouraging, listening and then advising, or
otherwise providing mental support.
Fourth, the AC robot will offer ideas for survival in the event that
a human is in trouble and continue to support the person as long as
its energy lasts.
Fifth, it is possible to develop artificial limbs that human users
will feel are a part of their own body.
Sixth, the AC robot has the function of self-consciousness in
principle and always monitors its own activities. When any problem
occurs in the AC system, the relevant information is used to
anticipate and prevent catastrophic breakdown of the robot’s overall
system to minimize damage. There is also the possibility of self-
repair. With all these features, AC robots will contribute to the safety
of people all over the world.
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156 New Architecture of Robot Consciousness and the Robot Mind
Lastly, it would be possible to discover a medical treatment for
people suffering from serious mental illnesses such as schizophre-
nia. If the mechanism of consciousness can be eventually elucidated,
a technology to resuscitate lost consciousness might be developed.
The author’s idea is that “consistency of cognition and behavior is
the origin of human consciousness.” Cognition means to understand.
The idea, therefore, means that the function of consciousness is
to behave and to understand the behavior to maintain consistent
information.
The author has developed, on the basis this idea, a module to
build consciousness on a robot, which is called Module of Nerves
for Advanced Dynamics (MoNAD). The consciousness system is
constructed by arranging multiple MoNADs in a layered fashion.
9.1.1 Research on Consciousness and Cognitism
The first thinker to be introduced when it comes to human
consciousness is French philosopher Rene Descartes (1596–1650),
who was briefly mentioned earlier. He was the first person to assert
the existence of the self on the grounds that “I feel myself” by saying,
“I think, therefore I am” (Descartes, 1997). His approach is called du-
alism, which asserts that the mind and the body are separate entities.
Later, German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz
(1646–1716) attempted to treat the body and the spirit integrally in
his Monadology (Leibnitz, 1714).
No scholar or researcher has ever reached a unified view of the
body and mind based on physical understanding.
When a human is conscious of something, he or she feels it by
himself or herself, and nobody else is involved. This is because to
be conscious is a subjective matter and, some may argue, rejects
analysis by science. To study consciousness through a scientific
approach, a technique was devised to describe the reactions of
humans to stimuli. The belief in this technique is called behaviorism.
Since about 1960, scientific findings have been announced one
after another showing that complex processing is going on in the
human brain. This made it necessary to explain brain activities and
stimulated researchers to this end. One of these scientific findings
reads like this: Assume, for example, a mathematical question of
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Introduction 157
whether certain numbers are included or not in a given set of
numbers. It was revealed that the time required to answer the
question became longer as the digits of the numbers increase
(Sternberg, 1966). The theory that accepts the existence of complex
processing in the brain is called cognitivism.
Later, many advanced scientific equipment and systems to
measure brain activities of humans were developed, including
electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI). These technical advances assisted in the discovery
of more scientific grounds for the existence of complex processing in
the brain.
As of today, it is known that
(1) The brain engages in complex processing when solving a
complex task.
(2) Specific areas of the brain are activated.
Behaviorism has evolved into cognitivism as a result of the
development of science. Specifically, the description of human
reactions to external stimuli has been gradually replaced by research
on the internal processing of the brain. There still exists, however,
criticism that subjective problems based on the sense of the self such
as consciousness and the mind still lack scientific grounds.
9.1.2 Husserl’s Phenomenology
Phenomenology proposed by Edmund Husserl (German philoso-
pher, 1859–1938), mentioned earlier, is introduced in this section
again (Husserl, Die Idee der Phaenomenologie). Phenomenology is
a difficult philosophical idea but is described here as the author
understands it.
Phenomenology is a philosophical method to establish a thought
that has not been established. Simply put, a hypothesis is first
proposed regarding an unknown world and studied by comparing
it with phenomena emerging in the real world. A new hypothesis,
agreeable to a larger number of people in the field, is presented on
the basis of the results of the study. The hypothesis may at first be a
subjective idea of a researcher, but by repeating the above process,
an agreement between subjectivity and objectivity is eventually
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