Which Unconscious for Complex Cognitive Systems?

For over a century, numerous studies have shown that human behaviour is influenced by unconscious dynamics. It is only recently that some partial neural correlates of these processes have been highlighted. Understanding the basic mechanisms involved in the complementary interplay of conscious and unconscious activity and their dynamic interactions means clarifying the nature of higher integrative functions and, more generally, the fundamental structure of our relational life. At present, this is a distant goal. However, the impressive rate of new discoveries and applications in the Artificial Intelligence field encourage the idea of the creation of real conscious and unconscious activity in artificial agents, even if devoid of their peculiar evolutionary functions. If so, it is likely to model psychic processes even before they can be understood through the scientific study of consciousness. Of course, modelling and describing these processes through AI does not mean to understand their inner nature. In this paper, we will attempt to show how the existence of a hypothetical artificial unconscious may constitute a fundamental milestone towards a science of consciousness and a redefinition of its natural determinations.