Artificial Mind

Abstract

The advances of artificial intelligence (AI) have renewed the interest in the mind-body problem, the ancient philosophical debate on the nature of mind and its relationship with the brain. The new version of the mind-body problem concerns the relationship between computational complexity and self-aware thought. The traditional controversy between strong and weak AI will not be settled until we are able in the future to build a robot so evolved to give us the possibility to verify its perceptions, its qualitative sensations, and its introspective thoughts. However, an alternative way can be followed: The progresses of micro-, nano-, and biotechnologies allow us to create the first bionic creatures, composed of biological cells connected to electronic devices. Creating an artificial brain with a biological structure could allow verifying if it possesses peculiar properties with respect to an electronic one, comparing them at the same level of complexity.