Artificial Consciousness/Linguistics
Linguistics
And how it Impacts on Consciousness
Linguistics is the study of Language and how it is used. Although it is not considered necessary for primary consciousness to have the ability to implement language, the study of Linguistics has opened up a number of issues based on the development of language that are important enough to indicate a natural order to the development of language that implies a natural order to the processing within the brain.
In her book Beyond Modularity Annette Karmiloff-Smith, explored the nature of development as a force in the growth of so called innate knowledge as suggested by Jerry A. Fodor's Modularity of Mind. As a result of her work, scientists today routinely look for three types of knowledge when analyzing neural structures, Innate, or DNA defined knowledge, Knowledge developed as a result of Development, and Learned knowledge.
Another interesting element in Annette's book, was the mentioning of a theory called Representational Redescription (RR), Although Representation has been considered controversial up until now, recent work based on Neural Group Mapping in the individual has allowed scientists to prove that while the actual neuron in a Neural Group often changes over time, the activation of a Neural Group, can be consistently associated with a specific piece of data. Using this theory monkeys have consistently been able to activate robotic arms simply by thinking of moving their own arms. A special module that is trained on the individual monkeys nervous system, translates the unique representation of the movement into a command for the robotic arm to move in the same direction as the monkeys arm moved. This strongly suggests that representation at the Neural Group level is consistent. Annette's research was into the developmental aspects of language development which she abstracted and found in other developmental situations involving the growth of knowledge. Her theory is that the representation flows through a number of phases, and each phase corresponds to a redescription of the data, into another form.
It is important to realize that this pattern of learning might have an impact on the nature of consciousness, by impacting on the structure of the brain needed to achieve specific functions.