Scientific requirements for an engineered model of consciousness

The building of a non-natural conscious system requires more than the design of physical or virtual machines with intuitively conceived abilities, philosophically elucidated architecture or hardware homologous to an animal’s brain. Human society might one day treat a type of robot or computing system as an artificial person. Yet that would not answer scientific questions about the machine’s consciousness or otherwise. Indeed, empirical tests for consciousness are impossible because no such entity is denoted within the theoretical structure of the science of mind, i.e. psychology. However, contemporary experimental psychology can identify if a specific mental process is conscious in particular circumstances, by theory-based interpretation of the overt performance of human beings. Thus, if we are to build a conscious machine, the artificial systems must be used as a test-bed for theory developed from the existing science that distinguishes conscious from non-conscious causation in natural systems. Only such a rich and realistic account of hypothetical processes accounting for observed input/output relationships can establish whether or not an engineered system is a model of consciousness. It follows that any research project on machine consciousness needs a programme of psychological experiments on the demonstration systems and that the programme should be designed to deliver a fully detailed scientific theory of the type of artificial mind being developed – a Psychology of that Machine

Using Management Techniques to Solve Environmental Problems

Arguing that little effective progress is being made in solving problems of varying urgency, this paper suggests a leadership role for science and engineering societies. It proposes that such societies attempt to prioritize problems and attempt to focus public awareness (and calls to action) in a more systematic way

Spartan Daily, March 7, 2001

Volume 116, Issue 29https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/9665/thumbnail.jp

Multidisciplinary Engineering Systems 2nd and 3rd Year College-Wide Courses

Undergraduate engineering education today is ineffective in preparing students for multidisciplinary system integration and optimization - exactly what is needed by companies to become innovative and gain a competitive advantage in this global economy. While there is some movement in engineering education to change that, this change is not easy, as it involves a cultural change from the silo approach to a holistic approach. The ABET-required senior capstone multidisciplinary design course too often becomes a design-build-test exercise with the emphasis on just getting something done. Students rarely break out of their disciplinary comfort zone and thus fail to experience true multidisciplinary system design. What is needed are multidisciplinary systems courses, with a balance between theory and practice, between academic rigor and the best practices of industry, presented in an integrated way in the 2nd and 3rd years that prepares students for true multidisciplinary systems engineering at the senior level and beyond. The two courses presented here represent a significant curriculum improvement in response to this urgent need

Spartan Daily, March 7, 2001

Volume 116, Issue 29https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/9665/thumbnail.jp

The japanese technology system

L'obiettivo del seminario è stato quello di approfondire un tema di grande attualità quale è quello dei percorsi di sviluppo tecnologico seguiti dal sistema industriale giapponese; percorsi che hanno consentito a questo Paese di raggiungere in pochi lustri la leadership mondiale in termini di qualità e costi per molte produzioni/servizi