Introduction to GOLEM- a Strong-AI model

This website describes the technical and functional requirements needed to make a mind, implemented as a computer program. In case the reader is unaware, this level of technology is currently open to fiercely argued debate, with both sides equally sure that they are correct. I believe that the naysayers have given in to excessive levels of pessimism, while the naysayers are equally adamant that I have massively underestimated the philosophical, scientific and/or technological barriers to be overcome.

This monograph is an extension of the author's Honors Thesis, obtained in 2012 at Flinders University in South Australia. I also delivered a public lecture in 2012, announcing my intention to climb the cognitive science equivalent of Mount Everest. After a shaky start, the lecture picked up, and I was chuffed to receive widespread applause from my audience, whose general attitude seemed to be summed up by 'well, its about time that someone clever gave it a go!' 

Ideally, I should be allowed to deliver a second public lecture. This is not just a fine nineteenth century tradition a la Royal Society, but a darn good way of placing one's ideas in a robust public forum, where they may stand or fall on their merits. Hecklers do have their uses!

In 'Novacene', his latest (and final) book, author of the Gaia theory, James Lovelock predicts that human intelligence will give birth to digital, electronic Hyperintelligence. I suggest that GOLEM theory is a necessary building block for that ultimate stage. 

Allow me to cut to the chase. Minds are noted for possessing two amazing, and widely misunderstood features, consciousness and emotions-
(i) they use something we call 'consciousness' to understand situations and plan behavior
(ii) they are empowered by emotions, ranging from simple drives such as motivation (I'm hungry) all the way up to 'higher' emotional states such as those used to make aesthetic decisions (I like the metal flake paint). 

There is a long-standing paradox attributed to Benjamin Libet. The only solution which works is one in which conscious states and emotional vectors are properly viewed as separate, but interconnected mechanisms.

Any proposed solution to the problem of making a synthetic mind must squarely and unambiguously address these two issues. Therein lies the rub. In 1991, Daniel Dennett published 'Consciousness Explained'. Most commentators agreed that whatever parts of the topic of consciousness he successfully described, a satisfying, globally complete, explanation was not one of them. His theories failed to lead to significant advances in the field. Ultimately, the litmus test of any theory is whether it advances the state of the art, ie the explanatory power of the discipline it is a part of. GOLEM theory is no different. If it advances the state of understanding of our minds, it has been worthwhile, and judged a successful enterprise. 

The author's theoretical work to date can be divided into cognology...

https://artificial-consciousness.webnode.co.uk/

NB: The website above records one of the the author's key insights, comparing consciousness perception of oneself in the world to reading and comprehending a body of text such as a book. Yet this insight was written several years prior to Microsoft's Chat-GPT-x family of intelligent programs. 

..and cosmology...

https://neoverse.webnode.page/

NB: The website above records another of the the author's key insights, in which an alternative, wave-based theory of quarks is developed. This alternative produces identical predictions to Murray Gell-Mann's more mainstream, particle based derivation. Before devoting his time to the problem of machine intelligence, the author addressed another scientific conundrum, the issue of the unification of the four forces of the standard model of physics.