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What is consciousness, and could machines have it?

Overview of attention for article published in Science, October 2017
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (97th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
45 news outlets
blogs
12 blogs
policy
2 policy sources
twitter
566 X users
facebook
6 Facebook pages
googleplus
8 Google+ users
reddit
3 Redditors
q&a
1 Q&A thread

Citations

dimensions_citation
446 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
1059 Mendeley
citeulike
2 CiteULike
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Title
What is consciousness, and could machines have it?
Published in
Science, October 2017
DOI 10.1126/science.aan8871
Pubmed ID
Authors

Stanislas Dehaene, Hakwan Lau, Sid Kouider

Abstract

The controversial question of whether machines may ever be conscious must be based on a careful consideration of how consciousness arises in the only physical system that undoubtedly possesses it: the human brain. We suggest that the word "consciousness" conflates two different types of information-processing computations in the brain: the selection of information for global broadcasting, thus making it flexibly available for computation and report (C1, consciousness in the first sense), and the self-monitoring of those computations, leading to a subjective sense of certainty or error (C2, consciousness in the second sense). We argue that despite their recent successes, current machines are still mostly implementing computations that reflect unconscious processing (C0) in the human brain. We review the psychological and neural science of unconscious (C0) and conscious computations (C1 and C2) and outline how they may inspire novel machine architectures.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 566 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 1,059 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 1059 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 231 22%
Researcher 155 15%
Student > Master 150 14%
Student > Bachelor 120 11%
Student > Doctoral Student 55 5%
Other 181 17%
Unknown 167 16%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Neuroscience 193 18%
Psychology 180 17%
Computer Science 107 10%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 80 8%
Engineering 48 5%
Other 222 21%
Unknown 229 22%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 811. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 23 March 2024.
All research outputs
#23,217
of 25,584,565 outputs
Outputs from Science
#1,079
of 83,124 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#397
of 339,755 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Science
#32
of 1,323 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,584,565 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 83,124 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 65.8. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 339,755 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 1,323 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.