Conscious Intelligent Systems - Part 1 : I X I

TL;DR

This paper explores the evolutionary origins of consciousness and intelligence through a learning system perspective, linking natural factors to the development of self-awareness and complex behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces a novel evolutionary and learning system framework to explain consciousness and intelligent behavior in natural environments.

Findings

Natural factors influence the design of conscious systems

Evolutionary scenarios for human self-consciousness are proposed

A learning perspective unifies various natural phenomena related to consciousness

Abstract

Did natural consciousness and intelligent systems arise out of a path that was co-evolutionary to evolution? Can we explain human self-consciousness as having risen out of such an evolutionary path? If so how could it have been? In this first part of a two-part paper (titled IXI), we take a learning system perspective to the problem of consciousness and intelligent systems, an approach that may look unseasonable in this age of fMRI's and high tech neuroscience. We posit conscious intelligent systems in natural environments and wonder how natural factors influence their design paths. Such a perspective allows us to explain seamlessly a variety of natural factors, factors ranging from the rise and presence of the human mind, man's sense of I, his self-consciousness and his looping thought processes to factors like reproduction, incubation, extinction, sleep, the richness of natural behavior, etc. It even allows us to speculate on a possible human evolution scenario and other natural phenomena.