Authors:
Ricardo Sanz
1
;
Manuel Rodríguez
1
;
Martín Molina
2
;
Esther Aguado
1
and
Virgilio Gómez
1
Affiliations:
1
Autonomous Systems Laboratory, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, c/ José Gutierrez. Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain
;
2
Artficial Intelligence Department, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Campus de Montegancedo, 28660 Boadilla del Monte, Madrid, Spain
Keyword(s):
Awareness, Theory, Autonomy, Cognitive Science, System Architecture, Engineering Methods, Science, Consciousness, Perception, Attention, Understanding.
Abstract:
Observation of humans and animals shows that awareness is a critical aspect of mental processes for those agents that operate in changing environments. Responding to potentially dangerous situations and leveraging environmental affordances are essential capabilities for autonomous agents’ ecological viability. Agents need to be aware of their situations. Artificial autonomous systems construction depend on using suitable system architectures and applying proven engineering methods. While current systems display a certain degree of awareness, it is unclear what principles shall be used in their design. We are in a pre-scientific, pre-technological situation concering awareness. Unfortunately, the scientific analysis of the awareness phenomena is quite difficult because its principles cannot be easily isolated in fully functioning human minds. We need a clean, formal theory of general awareness of universal nature. This theory should be applicable both to humans and machines, and not e
xclusively bound to the psychology and neurobiology of living animals. In this position paper, the authors argue for developing such a theory, state some requirements for it and propose an initial conceptual seed for a future theory of awareness that orbit around the idea that awareness is the real-time understanding of sensory flows.
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