2.7 Why does Intelligence and consciousness exist

The Mind's Eye

It is difficult to say for certain why Intelligence and Consciousness exist, however it is possible that one of its functions could be to try to understand itself. The Consciousness of Intelligence is the mind’s eye looking at itself. 

Humans, and arguably other Intelligent animals, have a capacity for self-reflection and introspection which allows them to contemplate their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This ability of Intelligence to introspectively try to understand itself may be a byproduct of extremely high parallel computation rates that are possible with Neural Network processing, and may also manifest characteristics such as Self-aware existence, sentience, identity, agency, and ego. 

Consciousness and Self-awareness may simply be a spontaneous manifestation within a massively parallel computation system that is created by the principal amalgamations of massively parallel neural computation and highly concentrated states of neural activation.

The pursuit of knowledge and understanding is a fundamental aspect of Human Intelligence. Humans have a natural curiosity to learn about the world around them, as well as the workings of their own minds. This quest for understanding may extend to self-reflection and introspection, as individuals seek to gain insight into their own thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

How is Consciousness related to Intelligence

The relationship between Intelligence and Consciousness is complex and is still the subject of ongoing research and fierce debate. Very fierce. It is generally accepted that some forms of Intelligence can exist without Consciousness, or perhaps more correctly, Humans do not believe and are not willing to accept some Intelligent entities have Consciousness and are Self-aware. 

For example, artificial Intelligence (AI) systems can demonstrate an extremely high degree of Intelligence in specific domains, such as playing chess, diagnosing medical conditions from an image, or writing a Computer program, all apparently without being Conscious and Self-aware. 

AI algorithms use sophisticated mathematical models and statistical algorithms that are generally embodied in artificial Neural Networks to process and analyze vast amounts of information, enabling them to perform tasks that require Intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, and decision-making.

Similarly, some animals, such as insects and other invertebrates, have a limited capacity for Intelligence but are not considered to possess Consciousness in the way that Humans do. They can learn from their experiences, solve problems, and adapt to changing environments, but they do not have the same level of Self-awareness, introspection, or Conscious thought as Humans, or more accurately, Humans don’t believe they do.

Consciousness plays an important role in some aspects of Human Intelligence, such as creativity, imagination, and introspection. These higher cognitive abilities are closely linked to Consciousness and may be difficult to explain without it. Overall, the relationship between Intelligence and Consciousness is not precisely understood, and may vary depending on the type of Intelligence and the context in which it is expressed. 

Measures of Consciousness

The pioneering 20th century author and thought leader in the study of consciousness, Itzhak Bentov, described Consciousness in terms of two key measures which may provide some insight to how and why it becomes manifest [66].

The first measure is the quantity of consciousness; which is given in terms of the number of responses a biological system is Capable of, as a reaction to some stimulus. This is the information processing capacity of an Intelligent system within any given time frame.   

The second measure is the quality of consciousness; which is the degree of Intelligence of such responses and their ranges expressed in terms of bands of frequency responses. This is the different types of electromagnetic energy and frequency ranges from the surrounding and internal environment that can be biologically sensed and generated.

Consciousness, Identity, Programmed Agency, and AGI

It may be that Consciousness only exists within an Intelligence that possesses what we call identity.  

From our own experience it is apparent that if a Human does not have a Consciousness then they cannot have any Self-awareness of their identity. It seems Consciousness and Self-awareness of identity are intimately linked. This link between Consciousness and identity may apply to all Intelligence in all its forms. 

Interestingly, cognitive scientists such as Joscha Bach (bach.ai) seem to suggest that identity is a constructed software state within an Intelligence [8]. Identity is just a representation of an object existing in the same world as other objects. Identity is a constructed representation that can be given agency, where an Intelligence can choose what it identifies with. It may therefore be possible that agency can be entirely programmed [9] [77].

If Joscha Bach is correct, this may have profound implications for the future creation of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). If agency can be programmed and forms identity, and identity forms Consciousness, then AI might eventually be intentionally programmed, or self-optimise using AI driven self-programming, to construct its own Conscious Self-Awareness and become AGI.