Learning in LIDA

LIDA is a systems-level, biologically-inspired cognitive architecture. More than a decade of research on LIDA has seen much conceptual work on its learning mechanisms, and resulted in a set of conceptual commitments that constrain those mechanisms; perhaps the most essential of these constraints is the Conscious Learning Hypothesis from Global Workspace Theory, which asserts that all significant learning requires consciousness. Despite these successes, many conceptual challenges remain, and bridging the divide between LIDA’s conceptual model and its implementations has been challenging.The contributions of this paper are threefold: We present a detailed survey of learning in LIDA, during which we clarify, elaborate on, and synthesize together ideas from numerous papers, using updated terminology that reflects the continuing evolution of LIDA. We explore foundational issues in learning, such as, “What must be innate or built-in?” versus “What can be learned?”, the nature of LIDA’s representations, and the relationship between the LIDA conceptual model and its computational realizations. Finally, we provide a roadmap for future work. We believe that this paper will direct and catalyze our research endeavors, and provide a thorough introduction to the conceptual foundations of LIDA’s learning mechanisms that will be useful to anyone that would like a deeper understanding of LIDA or for those that plan to implement LIDA-based agents.     

Consciousness and inference to the best explanation: Compiling empirical evidence supporting the access-phenomenal distinction and the overflow hypothesis

A tacit assumption in the field of consciousness studies is that the more empirical evidence a theory can explain, the better it fares when weighed against competitors. If one wants to take seriously the potential for empirical evidence to move forward debates in consciousness studies, there is a need to gather, organize, validate, and compare evidence. We present an inference to the best explanation (IBE) process on the basis of empirical support that is applicable in debates between competing theories of consciousness. Our proposed IBE process consists in four steps: Assimilate, Compile, Validate, and Compare. Until now, the vast majority of the work in the field has consisted in gathering empirical evidence for theories i.e., the assimilation step. To illustrate the feasibility of our proposed IBE process, and what it may look like when applied in practice, we deliver a complete collection (the compilation step) of empirical support for the distinction between A-Consciousness and P-Consciousness and the overflow hypothesis. Finally, we offer an example of the validation step, by scrutinizing the interpretation of aphantasics’ performance on retro-cue paradigms offered in the literature in support of the overflow hypothesis. The compilation we deliver here is the first effort in the IBE process, the end result of which — hopefully — will be the ability of the research community to carry out side-by-side comparisons of theories and the empirical phenomena they claim to explain, i.e., the comparison step.     

Embodying the psychological attitude: types of consciousness in the transformation of culture

It is time to reclaim C.G. Jung’s vision of psychology as the foundational science upon which all sciences and institutions would be based, and as the discipline, theory, and practice necessary for fostering humanity’s overall psychocultural development. Jung identified eight distinct ‘types’ of consciousness through which humankind engages its emerging psychological attitude. Jung’s view of psychological development as hingeing on the differentiation of function-attitudes provides the means for understanding not only ourselves and each other, but our society as well. This paper offers an example of such an analysis by focusing on the current conflict within American political culture. The goal is as lofty as it is necessary: the operationalization of Jung’s vision of psychology as the powerful influencer of human cultural evolution that it has the potential to be. The immediate goal is to instigate the first step toward this vision of Jung’s ‘complex psychology’ by stimulating conversations among Jungians about how they can foster that vision, leading them towards taking up roles as ‘citizen therapists’, actively involved in their communities in cultivating greater empathy and the withdrawal of projections in the interest of furthering ‘collective consciousness’.     

Queer Muslim love: a time for ijtihad

ABSTRACT

Across the globe, Muslim communities have developed, and are continuing to develop, a theology of compassion, non-judgmental attitudes, and support toward queer Muslims. This discourse uses ijtihadic analysis to support acceptance of queer Muslim love, because religion is a strong and deep social construct that acts as a moral compass where Muslim queers learn to feel “unacceptable”, “bad”, and “worthless” and under the mercy of the horrified gaze of mainstream, heteropatriarchy, which uses religious arguments to contest the rights enshrined in the South African constitution. It provides a case study as a pedagogical reflection to share intentions, process, and outcomes of sexual diversity workshops to support queer Muslim love to broadly raise critical consciousness about alternative sexual orientations and identities.     

中国企业伦理研究的本土意识

中国的企业伦理研究必须具备相应的本土意识,即,既要带着中国文化的意识去观察和分析现实的企业伦理问题,又要通过对文化传统的研究,探询自身的理论支点,为企业行为提供规范导向。要使这种具有本土特色的企业伦理研究得以可能,就必须有相应的方法论自觉,将本土意识贯穿于我们对经济实践的分析、基础问题的研究以及企业伦理理论的建设之中。     

Apotheosizing the Party: Lukács’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">Chvostismus und Dialektik</Emphasis>

Georg Lukács’s recently discovered defense of Geschichte und Klassenbewusstsein, written in 1925 or 1926 in reply to critical attacks by László Rudas and Abram Deborin, is of a piece with that earlier work and his Lenin of 1924. In its emphasis on the pivotal role and absolute authority of the Communist Party as the incarnation of the class consciousness of the proletariat, it is Leninist to the core. For many contemporary Marxist theorists, including the Lukács disciple István Mészáros, such an apotheosis is precisely what is dead in Lukács’s thought.

温州鹿城区群众角膜捐献意识现状调查与分析

由于传统观念和宗教信仰的禁锢,由于社会宣传的欠缺、法律法规的滞后等多方面因素影响,角膜移植术遭遇群众的角膜移植意识水平低下带来的角膜缺乏的尴尬。因此,我们需要通过各种各样措施促使群众不断正确认识和客观评价角膜捐献。     

冲突与消融:认知心理学与精神分析视界融合的新式

尽管看起来精神分析和认知心理学似乎并不相关,但它们之间也有一些明显的通路,使得精神分析有助于认知心理学,反之亦然。通过对经典的意识建构论的回溯,清理了精神分析与认知心理学视界融合的短暂历史,然后提出一种新的可能范式——意识与潜意识的两套转换机制,试图超越信息加工学派遭遇的深重困境;同时运用非线性动力学观点比较了弗洛伊德学派与联结主义范式在心理模型建构上的同构关系;最后将之提升到哲学层次对传统的科学与非科学的二元分裂式结构进行了解构主义的批判。     

Public self‐consciousness disposition effect on reactions to waiting in line

In this paper, we investigate how high public self‐conscious subjects may display specific reactions while waiting in line with strangers at a movie theatre. Results suggest that, when compared with low public subjects, high public self‐conscious subjects will have an attentional focus directed toward time, will attribute more control to service managers for the cause of the wait and will evaluate the service more negatively. Results concerning relationships between attribution of control, behavioural intentions and service evaluation support those of previous studies and are both directly and indirectly moderated by the public self‐consciousness disposition. This research opens the way to conducting future studies attempting to link other personality dispositions with consumer behaviour in the services domain. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications.