This book centers around a dialogue between Roger Penrose and Emanuele
Severino about one of most intriguing topics of our times, the
comparison of artificial intelligence and natural intelligence, as well
as its extension to the notions of human and machine consciousness.
Additional insightful essays by Mauro D'Ariano, Federico Faggin, Ines
Testoni, Giuseppe Vitiello and an introduction of Fabio Scardigli
complete the book and illuminate different aspects of the debate.
Although from completely different points of view, all the authors seem
to converge on the idea that it is almost impossible to have real
"intelligence" without a form of "consciousness". In fact,
consciousness, often conceived as an enigmatic "mirror" of reality (but
is it really a mirror?), is a phenomenon under intense investigation by
science and technology, particularly in recent decades. Where does this
phenomenon originate from (in humans, and perhaps also in animals)? Is
it reproducible on some "device"? Do we have a theory of consciousness
today? Will we arrive to build thinking or conscious machines, as
machine learning, or cognitive computing, seem to promise?
These questions and other related issues are discussed in the pages of
this work, which provides stimulating reading to both specialists and
general readers.
The Chapter "Hard Problem and Free Will: An Information-Theoretical
Approach" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
