Final Draft For Essay3

QURESTION7：What is consciousness? Is a robot conscious?

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder
of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All
those...moments will be lost...in time. Like...tears...in rain. Time...to die.” The replica’s
death in the heavy rain from the movie Blade Runner has already become the most
famous scene in scientific movie. His last words shocked the audience because the robot
appeared to be so ferocious could share such profound feelings. Inspired by the movie,
a fundamental question should be asked: Why should we assume that only human can
have consciousness? Cognition, emotion and self-awareness, these are abilities that
constituted consciousness and once believed to be human’s exclusive gifts. Although
current robots are incapable of these abilities, this essay attempts to prove that nothing
can prevent robots from attaining them in the future.
First of all, the discussions of consciousness always refer to cognition. Such
propensity can be best presented in article Smart Robots: “Device that respond their
environment and learn from it-the basis intelligence-are key to everything…”(Bond,
2009) As he regarded cognition as the first priority, Bond then further maintained that
consciousness equals the ability to perform a procedure of searching, distinguishing
and processing information. However, even if we presume consciousness equals
cognition, it is obvious that instead of utterly understanding the external environment,
robots were just following orders. Since their mechanism of cognition was based on
interpretation of discernable reality to binary system, robots’ accomplishment barely
means the calculation of given data instead of human-like cognitive system. As a result,
it would be ungrounded to think robots have cognition. On the other hand, this
frustrating reality should not be conceived as an impediment of robots acquiring
cognition in the future. The recently invented algorithm “Deep Learning” can imitate
directly from human brains and analyze data by like neural network in our brain. Its
appearance suggests the possibility that robots can cognize the external world without
human supervision.
In addition, emotions have been considered as another important indicator of the
consciousness. Then, do robots have emotions? Bruemmer(2006) argued that the
emotions of robots are determined by social needs: “if we want useful, human-like
robots, we will have to give them some motivational system…humanoids are merely
simulating emotion using algorithms whose output controls facial degrees of freedom,
tones of voice, body posture, and other physical manifestations of emotion”. In other
words, robots are unlikely to have real emotions because profound emotions are
unnecessary when these elementary imitations are enough for our demands. This
explanation, however plausible, limit our imagination with contemporary social
realities. When the discussion comes to the future, what seems to be more crucial is
the technological possibility. Technically speaking, developing emotion is only a
problem of definition. After all, emotions are only words that connected to the
meaning they imply. As long as we can offer a suitable definition for emotions, it is
possible for future technology to realize it. Then, we can deduced from the historical
patterns that when the techniques are available, the emergence of emotional robots
will be only a matter of time.
Besides cognition and emotion, in the sense of ontology, consciousness is a synonym
as self-awareness. Martin Heidegger(1953) alleged that consciousness means a “jump”
from the ordinary world and then “inquiry” the meaning of life. Proposing such a
question requires suspicion and confrontation towards reality, and thus made human
consciousness extraordinarily from all other kinds of being. When this standard applied
to current robots, which are inherited inflexible and externally determined, are not
likely to satisfy these requirements. However, as the future of robots still seems to be
amorphous, they still have the potential to develop such awareness. In Out of Control,
Kevin Kelly(1995) claimed that perhaps the individual unconscious computer code can
evolve collective consciousness, the gap of awareness can be surmounted by an
organizational multi-layered structure. Though the hypothesis still need to be attested
in the future, it offers a theoretical formation of the robot’s self-awareness.
The question of consciousness has been harassing human for centuries since
consciousness was valued as part of our identity. As a response to this question,
throughout the three separated approaches presented above, a conclusion can be made
that: While the robot’s consciousness may still be an illusory fantasy today, it may be
realized by future technology.
However, we should also notice that the definition of consciousness is fluid and
flexible, which means whether robots have consciousness is not an unidimensional
problem of fulfilling certain requirements. The developing robots also constitute our
understanding and the purview of discussion, as a result, our answers of consciousness
are merely historically determined and will be invalidated through time. But if we
change the angle to observe the problem of consciousness, the questions are always
more important than the answers, because it will never be obsolete to ask the question
that will lead to a new understanding of ourselves.

Ronghao Wu
Examples Explanation/ details
Paraphrasing/Structure
In the first paragraph, I delete “This essay is trying to prove that although
some sentences, revise my attributed to their cognition incompetence,
expression and simplify the absence of emotion and ontological limitation,
statement. it would ungrounded to assume robots can be
conscious, however, existing conditions did not
Although some sentences are preclude the potential of robots to develop
related to the topic, they are not consciousness.”
absolutely necessary. As an Becomes
introduction, the words should be “Cognition, emotion and self-awareness, these
concise enough. are abilities that constituted consciousness and
In the last draft, my statement once believed to be human’s exclusive gifts.
was not direct enough. I changed Although current robots are incapable of these
the expression to be more reader- abilities, this essay attempts to prove that
friendly and related with the nothing can prevent robots from attaining them
introduction. in the future.”

In the body part of my essay, I “The development of robot’s emotions may

strengthen the connection not tally with current social needs, but as social
between sentence and avoid a needs are constantly changing, our demand for
series of logic detours. robot’s emotion may occurred in the process
with aged population. Therefore, it seems that
instead of whether do robots have emotions
now, it is more pertinent to ask whether can
robots have emotions?”
Becomes
“This explanation, however plausible, limit our
imagination with contemporary social realities.
When the discussion comes to the future, what
seems to be more crucial is the technological
possibility.”
I divided my conclusion into two “However, we should also notice that in one
parts and delete some verbose way or another, our understanding of
and repetitive explanations. consciousness was redefined by the
development of robots, the purview of current
claims about consciousness are located and
demarcated by that development, our answers
are also revised and judged by current
technological level.”
Becomes
“The developing robots also constitute our
understanding and the purview of
discussion…”
Collocations
Requirement(n.) “requirement” is a key word for discussing
V.+ requirement robot’s limit. I applied two ways to express the
Satisfy … requirements same meaning.
Fulfill …. requirements

Consciousness(n.) “Consciousness” is the most frequent word in

V + consciousness the whole essay. I tried to collocate it with
develop consciousness different topics to avoid repetition.
Adj+ consciousness
Collective consciousness
Conj.
of consciousness

Technology(n.) I use “advanced” to replace “future”, in the

Adj + technology sentence they mean the same thing.
Advanced technology
Future technology
Signal phrases/ reporting language
“Bruemmer, the founder of a 1. Meaningless to mention who Bruemmer is
robotics corporation, stated that” 2. Necessary to paraphrase his words before
Into quotation
“Bruemmer(2006) argued that the 3. Use “argue” to show that I may raise
emotions of robots are determined objections later
by social needs”

“Martin Heidegger stated that” 1. Use “stated” too frequently

Into 2. “alleged” is more proper for Heidegger’s
“Martin Heidegger(1953) alleged words
that”
“Kevin Kelly stated” 1. Once again, don’t know why I only used
Into “stated”, it sounds too formal
“Kevin Kelly(1995) claimed” 2. Kelly was only proposing a hypothesis,
“claimed” seem to be more suitable