SYSTEM (Conscious)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3346 ▶ |
| Object type | Epistemology, ontology or semantics |
Following A Harry KLOPF, to be conscious, a system must possess two characteristics:
1. It must include a model of itself, of its environment and of the relationship between both
2. The information included in the model must be encoded in terms of physical variables that are identical with the psychic variables we introspectively know (after KLOPF, 1972, p.35).
He adds: “Should the system's information be encoded in terms of some other set of physical phenomena, the system could behave as we do but not necessarily feel as we do. This is a way of observing that systems may be isomorphic with respect to their behavior and still differ with respect to their psychic existence” (Ibid, p.37).
One may wonder what precisely the author means by physical variables “identical” to psychic variables and, even, what is exactly a “psychic variable”. However his hypothesis about the psychism of eventual non human conscious systems — as for example electronic ones — is arresting.