The Chiprain the Artificial Brain

Consider a robot, that is designed the same as a human being. It looks the same, feels the same, but thinks? the same? This robot's name is Chiprain, because it has no brain, but a skull full with chips and other electronics. It is not a real brain, rather an artificial brain. The robot is designed by its programmers. How does it feel like to be Chiprain? I argue that he does not have feelings, he uses just as-like feelings that are designed by his inventors. Can Chiprain think? My answer is yes, because he is so programmed to execute actions on demand. However, this way of thinking is like an order generator. When we ask the robot questions he can respond. But if we are talking about feelings he cannot help himself. The only answers he generates are how it should be in humans answers. The emotion answers of the robot are empty, they do not have any associated content. 

Does Chiprain have a theory of mind? Definitely not! He can not assign mental states to himself and surely not to others. Chiprain is thus incapable of mindreading. 

Action imitation, is the mimicry of an agents actions. I think Chiprain can to a certain extent display the same actions as human beings, for instance, he can watch a human being grasping a cup and mimic this action by itself. In primates there are certain brain areas which are activated when watching another performing an action. These neurons are called mirror-neurons and there is evidence for a mirror-neuron system in humans as well. Well, in this case Chiprain's artificial brain has not the right stuff inside for such a system. In human beings mirror-neurons are also associated with empathy, which I state that Chiprain is incapable of. 

What can we say about planning, which belongs to the executive functions. Can Chiprain complete the Tower of Hanoi? Here I think yes. He can plan his sequences step by step to perform perfectly.

Working memory is associated with keeping things online to perform tasks. I think that Chiprain when equipped can pass working memory tasks. I think further that he can have meta-memory as well as semantic memory of facts. However, he does not have autobiographical memory, because its artificial brain has not the power and possibility to create narratives of Chiprain's experiences of the past. Also episodic memory is not possible in the robot. 

Can we ever model an artificial brain which represents consciousness? I think the answer is yes. There is much work on artificial intelligence and neural modelling. I have the opinion that these might contribute to a better insight of consciousness.