Machine Consciousness

A stimulating collection emerging from a conference held in 2001, where all but one of the 20 or so participants raised their hands affirmatively to the question 'can a machine be conscious?' Much depends, of course, on definitions, and the contributors to this volume are by no means unanimous. Susan Blackmore, for instance, begins from the assumption that self-consciousness is an illusion created by the memes that constitute our minds. And William Irwin Thompson voices his concern that 'in order to grant consciousness to machines, the engineers must first labour to subtract it from humans'. The book provides a good overview of contemporary debate.