access consciousness
In plain wordsInformation in the mind that is available for use — for thinking, speaking and guiding behavior — whether or not any feeling comes with it.
A functional notion of consciousness: a mental state qualifies when its content is ready to be used directly — as a premise in reasoning, in what one says, and in deliberately guiding action. Ned Block introduced the notion to separate this availability from phenomenal consciousnessphenomenal consciousness, n.: The felt, experiential side of the mind — what it is like to taste coffee or to feel sad — as opposed to simply processing or reporting information., the felt quality of experience, arguing that conflating the two leads theories to explain access while claiming to explain experience. Disputed cases include blindsight, in which patients act on visual information they say they do not see, and 'overflow', the claim that we experience more than we can access and report. Because it is defined by information flow, access consciousness is the kind most clearly attributable to AI systems in principle; global workspace theoryglobal workspace theory, n.: A leading scientific theory holding that we become conscious of something when the brain broadcasts it widely — as if putting it on a stage where every part of the mind can use it. is often read as a theory of it.
Origin
Ned Block's term, set out in 'On a Confusion about a Function of Consciousness' (Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1995), the standard statement of the access/phenomenal distinction.
Usage note
Whether access and phenomenal consciousness really come apart is disputed: many global-workspace and higher-order theorists hold that phenomenal consciousness just is a kind of access, while Block and others cite overflow as evidence that it is not.
Related
- phenomenal consciousnessphenomenal consciousness, n.: The felt, experiential side of the mind — what it is like to taste coffee or to feel sad — as opposed to simply processing or reporting information.
- global workspace theoryglobal workspace theory, n.: A leading scientific theory holding that we become conscious of something when the brain broadcasts it widely — as if putting it on a stage where every part of the mind can use it.
- consciousnessconsciousness, n.: Having experiences: there being something it feels like to be you, as when you see red or feel pain. Whether any AI is or could become conscious is an open and fiercely debated question.
- introspectionintrospection, n.: Looking inward to observe your own thoughts and feelings. For AI, the question is whether a model can accurately report what is actually happening inside it, rather than guessing or making it up.
- machine consciousnessmachine consciousness, n.: Whether a machine such as an AI system could have genuine experiences of its own — and the research field that tries to find out, or to build such a machine.
- phenomenal consciousnessphenomenal consciousness, n.: The felt, experiential side of the mind — what it is like to taste coffee or to feel sad — as opposed to simply processing or reporting information.
Sources
- Block, N. (1995). On a Confusion about a Function of Consciousness. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 18(2), 227–247.
Mentioned in
consciousnessconsciousness, n.: Having experiences: there being something it feels like to be you, as when you see red or feel pain. Whether any AI is or could become conscious is an open and fiercely debated question., global workspace theoryglobal workspace theory, n.: A leading scientific theory holding that we become conscious of something when the brain broadcasts it widely — as if putting it on a stage where every part of the mind can use it., phenomenal consciousnessphenomenal consciousness, n.: The felt, experiential side of the mind — what it is like to taste coffee or to feel sad — as opposed to simply processing or reporting information., Ned BlockNed Block, prop. n.: An American philosopher who distinguished felt experience from information available for thinking, and who imagined a lookup-table machine to show that passing a conversation test need not mean intelligence., recurrent processing theoryrecurrent processing theory, n.: A theory that we consciously see something only when signals in the brain's visual areas loop back on themselves, not when they merely sweep forward once.