I ran across a rather deep paper from the Ukraine on machine consciousness which includes quantum effects, emergent or self-organizing effects and levels of complexity. It is so inclusive that I suspect it may be an adequate model for natural (human) as well as artificial consciousness. It also reminds me of the recent discussions of Intelligent Design in relation to emergent of self-organizing systems at thresholds of complexity. I have not read this paper in depth yet. But I think some posters on this forum may find it quite interesting. Here is the link and the abstract:

Abstracts-Consciousness

http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0409140
Emerging Consciousness as a Result of Complex-Dynamical Interaction Process
Authors: Andrei P. Kirilyuk
Comments: 32 pages, 42 eqs, 54 refs; Report presented at the EXYSTENCE workshop Machine Consciousness: Complexity Aspects (Turin, 29 September - 1 October 2003), this http URL
Subj-class: General Physics
A quite general interaction process within a multi-component system is analysed by the extended effective potential method, liberated from usual limitations of perturbation theory or integrable model. The obtained causally complete solution of the many-body problem reveals the phenomenon of dynamic multivaluedness, or redundance, of emerging, incompatible system realisations and dynamic entanglement of system components within each realisation. The ensuing concept of dynamic complexity (and related intrinsic chaoticity) is absolutely universal and can be applied to the problem of consciousness that emerges now as a high enough, properly specified level of unreduced complexity of a suitable interaction process. This complexity level can be identified with the appearance of bound, permanently localised states in the multivalued brain dynamics from strongly chaotic states of unconscious intelligence, by analogy with classical behaviour emergence from quantum states at much lower levels of world dynamics. We show that the main properties of this dynamically emerging consciousness (and intelligence, at the preceding complexity level) correspond to empirically derived properties of natural versions and obtain causally substantiated conclusions about their artificial realisation, including the fundamentally justified paradigm of genuine machine consciousness. This rigorously defined machine consciousness is different from both natural consciousness and any mechanistic, dynamically single-valued imitation of the latter. We use then the same, truly universal concept of complexity to derive equally rigorous conclusions about mental and social implications of the machine consciousness paradigm, demonstrating its indispensable role in the next stage of civilisation development.

• Ran across it -- with a Panzer division? - carefuluniverse - October 2, 2004 - 02:05 UTC