Conscious Attribution Research Articles

Cutting Edge Nanoplatforms with Smart Bio-sensing Applications: Paving the Way for Sustainable Green Approaches

Abstract: In the era of automation, sustainable technologies employing eco-friendly materials and manufacturing techniques such as ‘Green nanobiosensors’ have taken centre stage, owing to their opulent portfolio encompassing renewable fabrication and design from biomaterials, biocompatibility, and ease of functionalization. Generally, sensors utilize nanomaterials sourced from renewable resources or with minimal environmental impact, such as cellulose nanocrystals, chitosan, and biopolymers, owing to their exceptional properties such as high surface area. With the advent of environmentally conscious attributes in the cutting-edge nano biosensing technology, green nano-biosensors offer innovative avenues for sensitive and selective detection and monitoring of myriad analytes with minimal environmental repercussions. Further, such sensors operate at low energy levels, contributing to reduced energy consumption, and can be mass-produced with minimal environmental influence. The present outlay of literature aims to decipher the utilization of eco-friendly materials and sustainable manufacturing techniques in creating nano-biosensors and subsequently promulgating their advantages in terms of energy efficiency, low environmental impact, and use of renewable resources. Furthermore, this study embellishes a comprehensive framework that delineates the diverse applications of these green nanobiosensors as eco-friendly technological solutions across diverse sectors primarily agriculture, environmental monitoring, and biomedicine, showcasing their potential to revolutionize these domains while minimizing environmental impact.

Can We Think Machines are Conscious? A Survey of Philosophical Problems Facing the Attribution of Consciousness to Machines

In this paper, I’ll examine whether we could be justified in attributing consciousness to artificial intelligent systems. First, I’ll give a brief history of the concept of artificial intelligence (AI) and get clear on the terms I’ll be using. Second, I’ll briefly review the kinds of AI programs on offer today, identifying which research program I think provides the best candidate for machine consciousness. Lastly, I’ll consider the three most plausible ways of knowing whether a machine is conscious: (1) an AI demonstrates a sufficient level of organizational similarity to that of a human thinker, (2) an inference to the best explanation, and (3) what I call “punting to panpsychism”, i.e., the idea that if everything is conscious, then we get machine consciousness in AI for free. However, I argue that all three of these methods for attributing machine consciousness are inadequate since they each face serious philosophical problems which I will survey and specifically tailor to each method.

The evolutionary and neurobiological attributes of consciousness: an update.

Consciousness is most frequently defined as a subjective experience of mental processes. The phenomenon of consciousness has always been a subject of great interest in various fields of science, including psychiatry, and the most prominent scientists have engaged in research on it. The studies performed in recent years have brought about novel data on the evolutionary and neurobiological attributes of this phenomenon. In the first part of the article, the evolutionary concepts of consciousness are presented, going back to the beginnings of life on our planet. They are proposed by such illustrious scientists as Joseph LeDoux, Daniel Dennett, António Damásio, and Arthur Reber. Each of them presents the issue of consciousness in the context of evolution slightly differently. However, there are many similarities concerning the development of the nervous system and mental life. The second part discusses the novel research on the cognitive and neurobiological components of consciousness. Among many researchers of this issue, we chose the achievements of two British authors such as Chris Frith and Anil Seth. The neuroanatomical and perceptive aspects of both the level and context of consciousness are provided. Besides presenting the contemporary evolutionary and neurobiological concepts of consciousness, the article aims to bring closer the profiles of the prominent researchers of neuroscience mentioned here. This term can be translated into Polish as "neuronauka", although our country's most frequently used name is "neurobiologia."

Folk psychological attributions of consciousness to large language models.

Technological advances raise new puzzles and challenges for cognitive science and the study of how humans think about and interact with artificial intelligence (AI). For example, the advent of large language models and their human-like linguistic abilities has raised substantial debate regarding whether or not AI could be conscious. Here, we consider the question of whether AI could have subjective experiences such as feelings and sensations ('phenomenal consciousness'). While experts from many fields have weighed in on this issue in academic and public discourse, it remains unknown whether and how the general population attributes phenomenal consciousness to AI. We surveyed a sample of US residents (n = 300) and found that a majority of participants were willing to attribute some possibility of phenomenal consciousness to large language models. These attributions were robust, as they predicted attributions of mental states typically associated with phenomenality-but also flexible, as they were sensitive to individual differences such as usage frequency. Overall, these results show how folk intuitions about AI consciousness can diverge from expert intuitions-with potential implications for the legal and ethical status of AI.

Ecological spectroscopic methodologies for quantifying co-administered drugs in human plasma by photochemical quantum mechanical simulation

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) constitute the second most prevalent bacterial infections in the elderly demographic. The treatment landscape involves various antibiotics targeting the causative organisms; nevertheless, the emergence of resistance significantly impacts therapeutic effectiveness. Presently, a fixed-dose pharmaceutical combination is advocated to optimize patient outcomes by mitigating the risks of bacterial resistance and associated side effects. Ofloxacin (OFL) and cefpodoxime proxetil (CPD) combinations, co-administered with flavoxate hydrochloride (FLV), have demonstrated efficacy in UTI cases, offering relief from concomitant symptoms. In the pharmaceutical market, fixed-dose combinations have gained prominence, driven by advantages such as enhanced patient medication adherence and compliance. In the realm of analytical chemistry, the integration of green practices in the initial phases of method development is exemplified by the Greenness by Design (GbD) strategy. While univariate spectroscopic methods are conventionally considered suboptimal compared to chemometric techniques for resolving intricate mixtures, GbD approach, when applied to UV spectroscopy, enable univariate methods to attain comparable or superior outcomes. GbD adopts a systematic approach to optimize experimental conditions, minimizing environmental impact and maximizing analytical performance. Critical to GbD applications in UV spectroscopy is solvent selection, influencing spectral resolution and measurement sensitivity. GbD employs a combination of in-vitro and in-silico experiments to evaluate solute-solvent interactions with underlying photochemical quantum phenomena affecting the resulting spectral morphology, identifying an optimal compromise solvent with high resolution and minimal ecological impact. Consequently, it facilitates the efficient resolution of spectral overlapping and determination of complex mixtures in UV spectroscopy using univariate methods. Comparative analysis with chemometric techniques, acknowledged as potent spectral resolving methods, demonstrated that GbD-based univariate methods performed equivalently. The methodology was validated according to ICH recommendations, establishing a linear quantitation range (2–30 μg/mL) and a limit of detection (0.355–0.414 μg/mL) for the three drugs in human plasma. The greenness of the developed methodology was affirmed through the AGREE assessment protocol, confirming its environmentally conscious attributes.

Consciousness in Pain: A New Model for Analysing Its Transformation

When looking for an account that explains how pain changes consciousness, one finds that most studies in the phenomenology of pain focus either on the outcome of the change, or on how it affects the self, as a conscious object, and the self’s experiences in the world of objects. This paper focuses on the mechanism of consciousness, exploring the nature of the change that pain creates in consciousness and how exactly that change occurs. The paper provides a systematic, phenomenological inquiry in three phases: one identifies three essential attributes of consciousness, another identifies three essential attributes of pain, and a third analyses the outcome of the integration between both sets of attributes. The paper demonstrates how the change wrought by pain on the self, as a conscious object, allows the self to breach its boundaries as an object, and experience being a non-object, even if only in part and temporarily.

Point-of-care devices engaging green graphene: an eco-conscious and sustainable paradigm.

The healthcare landscape has experienced a profound and irreversible transformation, primarily driven by the emergence of nanomaterial-assisted point-of-care (POC) devices. The inclusion of nanomaterials in POC devices has revolutionized healthcare by enabling rapid, on-site diagnostics with minimal infrastructure requirements. Among the materials poised to lead this technological revolution, green graphene emerges as a compelling contender. It possesses a unique combination of exceptional material properties and environmentally conscious attributes. These attributes include its substantial surface area, unparalleled electrical conductivity, and inherent biocompatibility. This article embarks on an exploration of POC devices incorporating green graphene. It meticulously dissects the intricacies of their design, performance characteristics, and diverse applications. Throughout the exposition, the transformative impact of green graphene on the advancement of POC diagnostics takes centre stage. It underscores the material's potential to drive sustainable and effective healthcare solutions, marking a significant milestone in the evolution of healthcare technology.

Consciousness, Sapience and Sentience—A Metacybernetic View

Living systems are complex dynamic information processing energy consuming entities with properties of consciousness, intelligence, sapience, and sentience. Sapience and sentience are autonomous attributes of consciousness. While sapience has been well studied over the years, that of sentience is relatively rare. The nature of sapience and sentience will be considered, and a metacybernetic framework using structural information will be adopted to explore the metaphysics of consciousness. Metacybernetics delivers a cyberintrinsic model that is cybernetic in nature, but also uses the theory of structural information arising from Frieden’s work with Fisher information. This will be used to model sapience and sentience and their relationship. Since living systems are energy-consuming entities, it is also natural for thermodynamic metaphysical models to arise, and most of the theoretical studies of sentience have been set within a thermodynamic framework. Hence, a thermodynamic approach will also be introduced and connected to cyberintrinsic theory. In metaphysical contexts, thermodynamics uses free-energy, which plays the same role in cyberintrinsic modelling as intrinsic structural information. Since living systems exist at the dynamical interface of information and thermodynamics, the overall purpose of this paper is to explore sentience from the alternative cyberintrinsic perspective of metacybernetics.

A Single Belief-Changing Psychedelic Experience Is Associated With Increased Attribution of Consciousness to Living and Non-living Entities.

IntroductionAlthough the topic of consciousness is both mysterious and controversial, psychedelic drugs are popularly believed to provide unique insights into the nature of consciousness despite a lack of empirical evidence.MethodsThis study addresses the question of whether psychedelics change the attribution of consciousness to a range of living and non-living entities. A survey was conducted in 1,606 respondents who endorsed a belief changing psychedelic experience.ResultsParticipants rated their attributions of consciousness to a range of living and non-living entities before and after their psychedelic experience. Superstitious beliefs and belief in freewill were also assessed. From before the experience to after, there were large increases in attribution of consciousness to various entities including non-human primates (63–83%), quadrupeds (59–79%), insects (33–57%), fungi (21–56%), plants (26–61%), inanimate natural objects (8–26%), and inanimate manmade objects (3–15%). Higher ratings of mystical experience were associated with greater increases in the attribution of consciousness. Moreover, the increased attributions of consciousness did not decrease in those who completed the survey years after the psychedelic experience. In contrast to attributions of consciousness, beliefs in freewill and superstitions did not change. Notably, all findings were similar when restricted to individuals reporting on their first psychedelic experience.DiscussionThis study demonstrates that, among people who reported belief-changing psychedelic experiences, attribution of consciousness to various entities increases. Future prospective psychedelic drug administration studies that control for expectancies are needed.

Ontology of the three worlds in the context of Buddhist philosophy

Dalai Lama notes that the Buddhist system of the objects of the realm largely coincides with such developed by Karl Popper. The subject of this article is ontology of the three worlds. The goal lies in analysis of the components of this ontology, demonstration of its prospects and advantages over dualism. First come matter or physical objects; second come mind, subjective reality; third come abstract concepts. Any object of reality is reduced to one of the three worlds and is refracted in a peculiar way in the other two. The third world is the mediator between others worlds; and the autonomous sphere that is not fully conditioned by them. We experience through representations, rather than directly, which is depicted in Buddhism as the image of a gloved hand. The knowledge concentrated in the third world contribute to development of consciousness. A thought experiment with the central and peripheral atoms reveal that there are no indivisible elements and everything exists in mutually dependent, while Buddhist logic substantiates that love and compassion can develop boundlessly. The concept of interdependent existence and non-substantiality of things draws Buddhism and quantum physics closer together. On the one hand, consciousness cannot be naturalized, reduced to matter; and on the other hand, it is inextricable from the energy processes. The conclusion is made that the three fundamental attributes of consciousness in Buddhism outlined by Thubten Gyats (13th Dalai Lama) – subjectivity, intentionality, and reflexivity, can be complemented by another two –  ability to continuously develop virtues, positive traits, and t interdependence between consciousness and subtle forms of matter. The three realms of Buddhism are such only on the phenomenal level; however, on the noumenal level, which unlike Buddhism is not recognized by Popper, is not the trinity, but the unity.

Consciousness in active inference: Deep self-models, other minds, and the challenge of psychedelic-induced ego-dissolution.

Predictive processing approaches to brain function are increasingly delivering promise for illuminating the computational underpinnings of a wide range of phenomenological states. It remains unclear, however, whether predictive processing is equipped to accommodate a theory of consciousness itself. Furthermore, objectors have argued that without specification of the core computational mechanisms of consciousness, predictive processing is unable to inform the attribution of consciousness to other non-human (biological and artificial) systems. In this paper, I argue that an account of consciousness in the predictive brain is within reach via recent accounts of phenomenal self-modelling in the active inference framework. The central claim here is that phenomenal consciousness is underpinned by ‘subjective valuation’—a deep inference about the precision or ‘predictability’ of the self-evidencing (‘fitness-promoting’) outcomes of action. Based on this account, I argue that this approach can critically inform the distribution of experience in other systems, paying particular attention to the complex sensory attenuation mechanisms associated with deep self-models. I then consider an objection to the account: several recent papers argue that theories of consciousness that invoke self-consciousness as constitutive or necessary for consciousness are undermined by states (or traits) of ‘selflessness’; in particular the ‘totally selfless’ states of ego-dissolution occasioned by psychedelic drugs. Drawing on existing work that accounts for psychedelic-induced ego-dissolution in the active inference framework, I argue that these states do not threaten to undermine an active inference theory of consciousness. Instead, these accounts corroborate the view that subjective valuation is the constitutive facet of experience, and they highlight the potential of psychedelic research to inform consciousness science, computational psychiatry and computational phenomenology.

Common-onset masking terminates the temporal evolution of orientation repulsion.

Our conscious awareness of visual events does not arise instantaneously. Previous studies on backward masking have investigated dynamic internal processes making targets visible or invisible subjectively. However, to understand the whole picture of our rich conscious experiences, the emergence of various phenomenal attributes of consciousness beyond visibility must be delineated. We quantified appearance as the strength of orientation repulsion during common-onset masking and found that masking reduced the repulsion in a near-vertical target grating surrounded by tilted inducers. Furthermore, this reduction was seen only when the inducers were presented together with or after the target. This demonstrates that orientation repulsion involves slow contextual modulation and that masking influences this modulation at a later period. Although appearance was altered as such, orientation discriminability was not reduced by masking in any of our experiments. We propose a process in which internal representations of objects spend a certain amount of time evolving before we become aware of them. Backward masking compulsorily terminates this temporal evolution of internal representations and allows premature representations to arise in our awareness.

Reconstruction of the Stagirite argument against the fatalism of future events

The question of free will and determinism is one of the most discussed in analytic philosophy. This is because interdisciplinary research has entered the field of studying the brain and consciousness – and often, consciousness is presented as an invention, an epiphenomenon. One of the attributes of consciousness is free will. The prehistory of modern research in the field of free will is the discussion about the need for future events, which was first analyzed by Stagirite in chapter 9, "On Interpretation". Despite all the analyticity and consistency of Aristotle's works, this work is full of gaps in argumentation and formulations ambiguity. In this regard, over two thousand years, philosophers have described many reconstructions in this chapter's argumentation and interpretations. Conventionally, the question of fatalism can be divided into two intersecting directions: logical fatalism and theological fatalism. This article examines the first direction and will relate to the understanding of fatalism and arguments against it in the context of the development of logic and theory of argumentation in the 20th century. The first logician who radically revised the foundations of logic to build an argument against future events' fatalism was Jan Lukasiewicz. We can say that all his life Lukasiewicz fought against determinism and tried to find a logical basis for human freedom of will. However, the main discussion on this issue took place in the middle of the 20th century between the logicians whose work will be considered in this article: Linsky Leonard, Butler Ronald, Storrs McCall, and others. The discussion was conducted around understanding such philosophical concepts and their ontological status: time, truth, a necessity. Also, in the wake of Lukasiewicz, they clarified such logical concepts as bivalence and the law of the excluded third. Of particular interest was the emergence of logical modalities, true/false, which can change their meaning over time, which led to the emergence of new informal logic.

Determinism and attributions of consciousness

ABSTRACTThe studies we report indicate that it is possible to manipulate explicit ascriptions of consciousness by manipulating whether an agent’s behavior is deterministically caused. In addition, we explore whether this impact of determinism on consciousness is direct, or whether it is mediated by notions linked to agency – notions like moral responsibility, free will, deliberate choice, and sensitivity to moral reasons. We provide evidence of mediation. This result extends work on attributions of consciousness and their connection to attributions of agency by Adam Arico, Brian Fiala, and Shaun Nichols and supports it against recent criticisms.

Implicit vs. Explicit Emotion Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorders: An Opinion on the Role of the Cerebellum

Implicit vs. Explicit Emotion Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorders: An Opinion on the Role of the Cerebellum

The Measurement Problem of Consciousness

This paper addresses what we consider to be the most pressing challenge for the emerging science of consciousness: the measurement problem of consciousness. That is, by what methods can we determine the presence of and properties of consciousness? Most methods are currently developed through evaluation of the presence of consciousness in humans and here we argue that there are particular problems in application of these methods to nonhuman cases—what we call the indicator validity problem and the extrapolation problem. The first is a problem with the application of indicators developed using the differences between conscious and unconscious processing in humans to the identification of other conscious vs. nonconscious organisms or systems. The second is a problem in extrapolating any indicators developed in humans or other organisms to artificial systems. However, while pressing ethical concerns add urgency to the attribution of consciousness and its attendant moral status to nonhuman animals and intelligent machines, we cannot wait for certainty and we advocate the use of a precautionary principle to avoid causing unintentional harm. We also intend that the considerations and limitations discussed in this paper can be used to further analyze and refine the methods of consciousness science with the hope that one day we may be able to solve the measurement problem of consciousness.

On the Attributes of Consciousness

One of the main fields of consciousness studies is the search for the function of consciousness. The article deals with the hypothesis of the function of imagination as an attribute of consciousness. In the regard of the issues of the attributes of consciousness, the author analyzes the phenomenon of aphantasia, that is, lack of imagination. Despite the lack of formalized ideas about the function of consciousness and despite the scientific trend of the narrowing research areas where subjective experience is necessary for a normal behavior of brain, there is a tendency to expand the presence of consciousness in the world in the modern Western philosophy of consciousness. The result of this “emancipation of consciousness” is the idea of the theoretical essential closeness of a human being and other agents: animals, artificial intelligence, plants. A consequence of the “emancipation of consciousness” is the emergence of modern versions of panpsychism, which propose expanding the space of consciousness to the world as a whole. However, studies in the field of conscious cognitive processes show that the processes that need the participation of consciousness, according to the standard intuitions, in some cases successfully performed without it. For example, the phenomenon of aphantasia shows that the tasks of imagination are performed in the absence of the ability to imagine. Therefore, it is important to take also into account the theoretical possibility of the lack of the realization of the function of consciousness. This makes it possible to ask a question about the presence of consciousness in the space that is traditionally endowed with consciousness, according to the dominant views in philosophy. Therefore, by approaching the question of the attributes of consciousness, the author demonstrates the limitations of the program for the emancipation of consciousness and offers an alternative solution to the question of the scale of the presence of consciousness in the world.

The Problem of the Rock and the Grammar of Consciousness

Abstract The “Problem of the Rock” (PoR) is a famous objection to Higher-Order (HO) theories of consciousness. According to PoR, the HO theorists’ claim that a mental state is conscious iff there is a higher-order mental state about it implies that a rock is also conscious iff there is a higher-order mental state about it. In this paper I show that this argument confuses two grammatically distinct attributions of consciousness, and that if the consequent equivocation fallacy is avoided, PoR is either a straw man argument or has an unproblematic conclusion.

Scale transformation of analytical hierarchy process to Likert weighted measurement method: an analysis on environmental consciousness and brand equity

The interdisciplinary research has found relevance in every field of data analysis, interpretation and decision making applications. The choice of important variables along with the criteria gives rise to the immense reliance of the researchers on quantitative data. The flexibility of choosing between scales for decision making, give rise to a new era of translation of scales. It also aids the researcher to reduce their efforts put in the data collection process. It needs more expertise to select the appropriate tool and scales for measuring the variables and their impact. For this purpose this piece of work is an attempt to convert Saaty's 9 point scale used for analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to a generalised Likert scale for ranking. Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) is an appropriate multicriteria decision making model, which suits the prioritising of variables for decision making process. But AHP is a much complex technique and involves the high computational ability. This research article attempts to reduce the computational ability, and adopts a novel model known as a Likert weight measurement method (LWMM), this lightweight model is widely accepted. In psychometric feedback LWMM is universally established scaling technique and in this case has been used to prioritise environmental conscious attributes and activities for improving brand equity.

Contributions to a neurophysiology of meaning: the interpretation of written messages could be an automatic stimulus-reaction mechanism before becoming conscious processing of information.

Background. Even though the interpretation of natural language messages is generally conceived as the result of a conscious processing of the message content, the influence of unconscious factors is also well known. What is still insufficiently known is the way such factors work. We have tackled interpretation assuming it is a process, whose basic features are the same for the whole humankind, and employing a naturalistic approach (careful observation of phenomena in conditions the closest to “natural” ones, and precise description before and independently of data statistical analysis).Methodology. Our field research involved a random sample of 102 adults. We presented them with a complete real world-like case of written communication using unabridged message texts. We collected data (participants’ written reports on their interpretations) in controlled conditions through a specially designed questionnaire (closed and opened answers); then, we treated it through qualitative and quantitative methods.Principal Findings. We gathered some evidence that, in written message interpretation, between reading and the attribution of conscious meaning, an intermediate step could exist (we named it “disassembling”) which looks like an automatic reaction to the text words/expressions. Thus, the process of interpretation would be a discontinuous sequence of three steps having different natures: the initial “decoding” step (i.e., reading, which requires technical abilities), disassembling (the automatic reaction, an unconscious passage) and the final conscious attribution of meaning. If this is true, words and expressions would firstly function like physical stimuli, before being taken into account as symbols. Such hypothesis, once confirmed, could help explaining some links between the cultural (human communication) and the biological (stimulus-reaction mechanisms as the basis for meanings) dimension of humankind.