sentience

Tara Crisafulli

Prof. Harden

FYSM

                        The smell of fresh baked bread, cookies, or aroma of garlic instantly reminds me of my grandmother. The time I have spent with her in my early child, and recently is priceless, very few things can remind me of this.  Anyone who is human has some sort of memory trigger, whether it is a verbal saying, song, or smell. A traditional human can attain this aspect, but can an artificial human being do the same?

            The definition of sentience is a feeling or sensation as distinguished from perception and thought, according to merriam-webster.com. In lighter terms sentience is attained by memory triggers. A human being builds these memory triggers by learning from experiences. Experiences such as touching a hot stove, and burning yourself. After this experience one learns that the stove is hot, and not to touch it. The next time  this person sees a stove it will trigger their memory, reminding them that it will hurt if you touch it. This shows that traditional humans attain sentience by learning, and remembering. These acts are almost impossible to be attained by an artificial human being. An artificial human being is much like a computer, it has no control over how it is programed, causing to not have the power to question its programing. Artificial humans attain knowledge and store it, but do not know have the authority to apply it half of the time; much like the clip shown in class. The robot that comes across the rubber duckie, then throws it out. Within a minute later he is asked if he has seen this rubber duckie, he replies no. The robot at this time does not attain object permanence, or a mental representation of this duck. This is due to the fact that robots, much like artificial humans can not develop themselves like a traditional human.

             A traditional human can develop emotions, memory, mental representation, and object permanence as they grow. On the other hand artificial humans can not develop; they can only work off of what they are given. Making it impossible for artificial humans to attain sentience.