Consciousness, Qualia and Robot Minds: A New Book by Pentti Haikonen

Pentti Haikonen has announced his upcoming book, Consciousness, Qualia and Robot Minds, which he describes as the apex of his work on human and machine consciousness—and a book that may prove to be a game changer in the field.

The book offers an integrated treatment of the philosophical and technical foundations of the self, mind, consciousness, and qualia. It addresses long-standing questions about machine consciousness, inner speech, and related mental phenomena, bringing philosophical analysis together with concrete engineering approaches.

Topics include the mind–body problem, the observer problem, neural coding, emotions, symbol grounding, associative processing, inner speech, and situational awareness. The book also develops these ideas through Haikonen’s HCA associative architecture and its hardware proofs, demonstrating precursors of conscious perception in robotic systems.

The monograph will be of particular interest to researchers, graduate students, engineers, and cognitive scientists working in advanced robotics and AI, as well as philosophers of mind exploring machine consciousness.

Pentti has published a short promotional video for Consciousness, Qualia and Robot Minds on his YouTube channel:

On a personal note, I am delighted and honored to be credited in the book. I look forward to its publication and to seeing how these ideas contribute to the continuing discussion around human and machine consciousness.