Qualia Learning?: Innerbodiment Construction and Machine Self-Learning by (Emotional) Imitation

1.1. Defining Qualia

One of the most elusive and complex concepts in cognitive sciences is that of ‘qualia’´. The MITECS define them as:

By ‘qualia’ we mean those qualities that are accessible to you introspectively and that together make up the phenomenal character of the experience². In a simple way to explain it: our feelings about things. As you can see, the qualia has to do with internal and non-verifiable state and for these reasons you could conclude that there is nothing to be understood, nor useful. But there is one case, propioception, in which qualia shows us a way to understand brain subsumption architectures in order to improve to our HRI models. Other qualia experiences, like empathy have shown to have a neural correlate and can be located into human brains (Keysers and Gazzola, 2010). Therefore, perhaps there is a realm of dark and occult intern experiences but at the same time qualia must be neural processes and consequently, we should be able at least to figure out their functional and evolutionary meaning. It has also been said that propioception is the sixth sense: taste, smell, touch, sound, hearing, sight…and propioception (Abbott, 2006; Smetacek and Mechsner, 2004).

After this brief introduction to the nature of qualia, we could ask ourselves if do exist different kinds of them, something that becomes a priori a nonsensical debate. The reasons are easy to understand: if qualia are internal and private states, then their classification cannot be objective (except in the case of latest fMRI studies on objective pain measurement, a truly debatable topic; see Brown et al 2011)³. Perhaps we could talk about internal or external inducers of the emergence of qualia, as our own thoughts or other people interaction, just as an example of internal and external inputs. They could also be naively classified by the source of the information (sound, touch,….) but we must to remember that the cognitive processes are multidimensional, and that they are the result of an evaluation processing. After all these explanations, we conclude that qualia exist, but that we cannot map them clearly. Four practical purposes, we’ll talk only about the feeling of having a body that obeys us. A limit example, the dicephalus twins (as a specific type of conjoined or Siamese twins): Abigail and Brittany Hensel, now 21, have two spines, which join at the pelvis, two hearts and stomachs, three kidneys, two gall bladders and four lungs. Below the waist all organs including intestines, bladder and reproductive organs are shared. Each twin controls her half of their body, operating one of the arms and one of the legs. This means that as infants, the initial learning of physical processes that required bodily coordination, such as clapping, crawling, and walking required the cooperation of both children. While each is able to eat and write separately and simultaneously, activities such as running and swimming must be coordinated and alternate symmetrically. Other activities as diverse as brushing hair and driving a car require that each twin perform a sequence of quite separate actions that coordinate with the other. As a curiosity: Hensel twins both successfully passed their drivers license exams, both the written and driving tests. They had to take the tests twice, once for each twin. Abby controls the pedals, radio, heat, defogger, and other devices located to the right of the driver's seat, while Brittany controls the turn signal and lights; together, they control the steering wheel⁴. This example shows us several things about mind, body and propioception, basically the intertwined nature of:

• 1.

  Body coordination.

• 2.

  Plasticity: Human mind is open to embrace more parts or to share actions.

• 3.

  Propioceptive Skills Enables Shared Tasks (Very Useful for Human-Robot Interaction): Allows the creation of a common working map to be solved with several bodies or parts of the body working together.