Abstract

Here is examined the work done in many laboratories on the proposition that the mechanisms underlying consciousness in living organisms can be studied using computational theories. This follows an agreement at a 2001 multi‐disciplinary meeting of philosophers, neuroscientists and computer scientists that such a research programme was feasible and worthwhile. Here this effort is reviewed both as a historical statement and for the positions held at the time of going to print of this volume. The approaches cover diverse techniques ranging from the machine modeling of neural structures in the brain to abstract models based on the type of logic found in computer programming. Purely theoretical approaches based on hypotheses of what kind of information constitutes a mental state are included.