Abstract

Keywords: Sentience, Neosentience, autonomous robotics, combinatoric bio-algorithm, Insight Engine, transdisciplinary

Definition: pragmatic benchmarks are used to define neosentient robotic entities: the system could exhibit well defined functionalities: It learns; it intelligently navigates; it interacts via natural language; it generates simulations of behavior (it thinks about potential behaviors) before acting in physical space; it is creative in some manner; it comes to have a deep situated knowledge of context through multimodal sensing; and it displays mirror competence. Seaman and Rössler have entitled this robotic entity The Benevolence Engine. They state that the interfunctionality of such a system is complex enough to operationally mimic human sentience. Benevolence can in principle arise in the interaction of two such systems. Synthetic emotions would be part of the system. The System would be benevolent in nature.
The concept of Neosentence (coined by Seaman) was first articulated in the book Neosentience / The Benevolence Engine by Seaman and Rössler. This talk will have four sections:
1) Providing a definition of Neosentience;
2) The concept of developing a new combinatoric n-dimensional bio-algorithm — employing a transdisciplinary database and search engine enabling distributed research;

3) the recruitment of a transdisciplinary research team to populate this database;
4) The ethics surrounding the generation of a new, selfaware autonomous techno-species.

• William Seaman, Professor, Graduate Program Director, Computational Media, Arts and Cultures, Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Duke University, Co-director Emergence Lab. Seaman’s work often explores an expanded media-oriented poetics through various technological means — Recombinant Poetics. Such works often explore the combination and recombination of media elements and processes in interactive and generative works of art. Seaman enfolds image /music/ text relations in these works, often creating all of the media elements and articulating the operative media-processes involved. He is self-taught as a musician/composer. He “composes” computationally, in particular using the audio program Ableton Live. He often collaborates with others in terms of his musical output. He has been articulating a new field – Neosentience (with scientist Otto Rössler). He is deeply interested in Computational Creativity and Emergence, co-directs the Emergence Lab, and is Graduate Program Director, Computational Media, Arts and Cultures, Duke University. He is a professor in the Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies there. Current research includes a transdisciplinary search engine related to Neosentience and AI – The Insight Engine. URL to ADA: bit.ly/3iFab9q billseaman.com