The philosophy of artificial consciousness in the first season of TV series 'Westworld'

Abstract

The study analyzes the philosophy of artificial consciousness presented in the first season of TV series 'Westworld' and as a result of the analysis shows the collision of two opposite philosophical views on consciousness and the possibility of creation of artificial consciousness from the standpoint of two characters of TV series - Arnold Weber and Robert Ford. Arnold Weber proceeds from two philosophical assumptions: consciousness really exists (1) and human consciousness can be a prototype for modeling consciousness in an artificial intelligence bearer (2). And he has to choose: either to pick out one of the already existing conceptions of consciousness to implement the emergence of artificial consciousness within artificial intelligence or to invent his own; Arnold Weber chooses the Julian Jaynes' conception of consciousness as a basis for artificial consciousness what means that artificial consciousness must have the following features: 1) artificial consciousness has to be the result of the breakdown of the bicameral mind (apparently, modeled within artificial intelligence), the state of mind in which cognitive functions are divided into two part, a 'speaking' part and 'hearing' ('obeying') part, until the breakdown that makes the bicameral mind the unified mind; 2) artificial consciousness has to be a mind-space based on language and characterized by introspection, concentration, suppression, consilience and an analog 'I' narratizing in the mind-space. Robert Ford believes that consciousness does not exist at all and that there are only stories (narratives) which human beings and artificial beings, modeled in the image and likeness of human beings, tell each other and always the basis of all those stories (narratives) is suffering.