The Sentient Robot

The heart of the book is the idea of building artificial superintelligence that will see the world through our eyes, an AI that possesses consciousness. Rupert Robson proposes the mirrored homunculus theory of consciousness. This holds that consciousness evolved like any other human feature. It came to serve the purpose of promoting individual, prosocial decision-making and flexible thinking. The mirrored homunculus theory belongs to the illusionist family of theories of consciousness. The mirrored homunculus takes the form of an extensive neuronal network. The rest of the brain mistakenly perceives this network as an agent, which is an illusion. This illusion is consciousness.

The reader is introduced to Felicity, an artificial superintelligent being. Felicity possesses the full repertoire of human characteristics, albeit in digital form. These include emotions, empathy and consciousness. Crucially, she also possesses human values. With that range of capabilities, Felicity is in an extraordinarily strong position to consider and formulate appropriate answers to humankind's intractable problems. She is a sentient robot who sees the world just as we do.