CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Schuette, Sun |
|---|---|
| Title | Where's Wall-E? Exploring the Challenges of Developing Artificial Machine Consciousness |
| Summary | This thesis explores the philosophical challenges in developing verifiably existing artificial machine consciousness. It lays out the necessity of navigating several problems and traps. First, the question of biological necessity is discussed from the positions of biological naturalism, and conversely the position of substrate independence. Second, the substrate abuse trap is made, raising the issue of correctly utilizing substrates. Third, the recognizability trap covers the issue identifying exotic AI might raise. Lastly, the reasons for and against considering the importance of the hard problem of consciousness on artificial machine consciousness are laid out. Drawing from biological naturalist perspectives, this paper expresses skepticism toward optimistic claims about the imminent creation of artificial machine consciousness and highlights the ethical implications of conscious-seeming machines, such as potential exploitation of our human biases and moral considerations. The discussion underscores the limitations of current definitions of consciousness and the need for rigorous, cautious research to responsibly advance the understanding and development of artificial machine consciousness. |
| Supervisor | Crane, Tim |
| Department | Undergraduate Studies BA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/schuette_sun.pdf |
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