Computational studies of consciousness

In this chapter we present a computational architecture intended to add clarity to the concept of consciousness. We briefly review some of the motivations of work done in this area in various institutes around the world and looks closely at our own work which specifically includes phenomenology, the sense of a self in a perceptual world. This breaks consciousness into five axioms: presence, imagination, attention, volition and emotions. It develops plausible mechanisms of each and how they interact to give a single sensation. An abstract architecture, the kernel architecture, is introduced as a starting point for building computational models. It is shown that through this architecture it is possible to discuss puzzling aspects of consciousness, for example are animals conscious? What happens when we dream? What goes on when we experience an illusion? This paper is intended to elucidate and update some concepts introduced in Aleksander (2005).