| Sumario: | A physicist at the Danish Technical University in Lyngby, Rodney Cotterill, who believes that he has discovered the quintessence of consciousness, has applied for a patent covering a circuit design for conscious computers and is examining possible applications with a number of companies. Cotterill is intrigued by how artificial neural networks, which are vast arrays of interconnected electronic processors, might mimic the real networks of nerve cells in the brain. Many neural-network enthusiasts hope that consciousness will emerge automatically if their machines become sufficiently complex, but Cotterill contends that something fundamental that is linked to the particular way in which brains communicate with muscles is still missing in such machines. It is his opinion that the efference copy that warns the brain's sensory-receptor areas about what muscles are about to do is the crucial ingredient of consciousness.
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