Bilincin Karar Vermede Rolü

(The Role of Consciousness in Decisionmaking)

Bilinçsizce karar vermek mümkün mü? Otomobilinizle hızlı giderken önünüze aniden bir çocuk atlarsa enine boyuna düşünüp ‘bilinçle’ durmaya mı karar verirsiniz?

Bilinçaltı ile ya da otomatik süreçlerimizle de kararlar veririz, bilincimiz devreye girmeden. Baars’ın GWT-Global Workare Theory’si iddia eder ki; zihnimizde çok sayıda bilinçdışı çalışan süreç var. Bunların yanında ortak bir iş bellek alanı var. Bu ortak iş bellek alanına bütün bilinçdışı süreçler erişebilir. Tabii, karışıklık olmaması için öncelikleri belirleyen mekanizmalar da olmalı.

Otomatik süreç haline gelmiş işler artık bu ortak bellek alanını ve ortak mekanizmaları işgal etmez. Bu yüzden, ortak imkanlar için sıraya girmezler. İşte bu yüzden otomatik süreçler (ezberden yapılan işler) çok hızlı ve çabuk sonuçlanırlar.

Aynı anda bir tek işi bilinçli yapabiliriz. Bu yüzden bilinçle yapılacak işler ortak iş belleğinden faydalanamak için sıraya girmek zorundalar. Oysa otomatik süreçler bu sıraya girmeden paralel yani aynı anda işlerini görebilirler. Örneğin matematiksel hesap işlemlerini, okumayı otomatik olarak yaparız.

Buraya kadar sorun yok gibi…

Büyük sistem operatörleri gerek eğitim sırasında gerekse sonra neyi bilinçli neyi bilinçsiz yaptıklarının özel bir dengesini kurmak zorundadırlar. Hava Trafik Kontrolörleri, Nükleer Santral Operatörleri vb. eğitimleri sırasında genel olarak psikoloji, özel olarak bilinç (consciousness studies) konularında eğitilmelidir. Bu amaçla yapılacaklar en azından Systems Psychology dersi kapsamına alınabilir.

Not: Bu konuda çk geniş bir literatür ve araştırmalar var. Ben tekrar onları buraya almak istemedim.

Towards a Mathmetical Model of Consciousness

Consciousness is a function. Its output is awareness.

Awareness = Consciousness( … )

Consciousness may produce different awarenesses qualitatively or quantitatively depending on time. For example the awareness of self may change at different moments of the day. Consciousness depends on time.

Awareness = Consciousness( time, … )

Consciousness changes for different subjects. A person may be more cost aware while an other does not. Also we can talk about the consciousnesses of a single person or a group of person. For example, human rights consciousness of a country or nation.

Awareness = Consciousness( time, subject, … )

Consciousness may change based on the context. Different contexts may cause the consciousness function to produce different awarenesses. Seeing a piano carried may make you think the weight of it while listening a performance may make you think about the instrument quality of it. Consciousness depends on context.

Awareness = Consciousness( time, subject, context, … )

Consciousness may change according to the experience of the person it belongs to. An experienced engineer may handle a problem and estimate its difficulty much different than a novice. Experience helps form the consciousness indirectly and as part of the background. A collection of past awarenesses may help form the experience. Experience is more than a collection of awarenesses but it also includes their interactions with each other and with knowledge as a whole.

Awareness = Consciousness( time, subject, context, experience, … )

Consciousness may change according to the amount and quality of knowledge it belongs to.

Awareness = Consciousness( time, subject, context, experience, knowledge, … )

Consciousness is a function or a process. The outcome is awareness. Awareness must be calculated from the input parameters, time, subject, context, experience, knowledge and the last parameter. This calculation may be done with an algorithm. Actually this algorithm can be defined as Consciousness itself… This brings us to the conclusion that Conciousness is somewhat recursive.

Awareness = Consciousness( time, subject, context,
experience, knowledge, Consciousness(…) )

Thinking of the development process of a child, and taking consciousness function as a constant such as sleeping vs being awake, the formula given above can explain the accumulation of experience and knowledge.

The problem with this approach is Consciousness function itself is not constant even during a day and also it changes gradually through a longer period of time. Consciousness learns and improves itself. This can be seen in artificial neuralworks with a learning mechanism. If we make a change according to this point, a final formula could be:

Awareness = Consciousness( time, subject, context,
experience, knowledge, algorithm )
algoritm = Neural Network (previous Consciousnesses())

I admit that this may look quite subjective for some but it is possible to reduce this assertion to concrete examples and narrow the subjectivity to the point of objectivity.

For example, if we design a system which checks numbers in its input, and senses a sequence that increases by two, the context becomes absolute. Experience may be formulated as past sequences that comply with the increase by two rule. Knowledge becomes the mathmetical calculation. The biggest difficulty is simulating the evolution from experience to knowledge. Knowledge may be limited first as sensing a regular increase, than sensing a regular increase of two. Neural Network algorithm and its learning ability may be used to teach this to the system.

Again, the key thing here is application. This model may be useful, if only applied in a specific domain to handle a specific problem.