Intelligence vs Consciousness

Intelligence and consciousness are distinct ideas.  The definitions of both are debated today and have been debated for hundreds of years.  There is a difference between "human intelligence" and "machine intelligence".  Humans and machines are different. To understand some of the differences, have a read of Understanding vs Interpretation.

When it comes to a machine, this is my definition of intelligence: Intelligence is the ability to perceive or infer information and reason with respect to that information using a known logic and known reasoning approaches and to retain that information as knowledge to be applied towards achieving specified goals and objectives within a specified environment or context (a.k.a. formal defined system with specified and known boundaries agreed to by a known set of stakeholders).

Consciousness involves self awareness, awareness of one's surroundings, the ability to have a subjective experience, experience feelings, and have other sensations.  For example, the ability to feel pain, love, joy, happiness and having a sense of self would be examples of being conscious.

Is it possible for a machine to have human level consciousness?  Well, here is the deal; someone can probably come up with a definition of consciousness and make a machine do that and then be able to say that a machine has consciousness.  But the fact of the matter is that no one knows how to make a machine be conscious.  

Again I point out that computers are dumb beasts. To get them to do useful work is hard; but possible. Personally, my expectation is that you can get a computer to achieve "human task performance".  That is useful.


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