Please distribute...
You are hereby invited to our eighteenth "Evolution, Complexity and
Cognition (ECCO)" seminar of 2005:
Towards an
anticipation-control theory of mind
by
Place: room 3C204 (building C, 3rd floor), VUB campus
Oefenplein
Time: Friday, June 10, at 17:30 h.
Abstract:
After the failure of the symbolic approach to cognitive science
and AI, several alternative models of intelligence have been brought
forward: neural networks, situated and embodied cognition, and
dynamical systems. I will present the first sketch of a new
framework, inspired by evolutionary cybernetics and recent results in
neurology, that further integrates and extends these approaches,
while moreover addressing the problem of consciousness. Building on
the ideas of Hawkins, McCrone and Neisser, I call it the
"anticipation control theory of mind".
The basic idea is that the brain uses its stored experience of
covariation between phenomena to "fill in" as yet lacking
data, and anticipate phenomena that are likely to be perceived,
preparing or priming the neural circuits to detect them. The whole of
these implicit expectations triggered by a phenomenon constitutes our
"feel", "subjective experience", or
"understanding" of it. When anticipation does not match
perception, this "error" triggers a control signal, moving
up the hierarchy of abstraction to find more general, invariant
patterns that could explain the anomaly, and feeding back down the
hierarchy towards more concrete sensory-motor schemes to seek
additional information or stimulate reinterpretation of low-level
data.
References:
Hawkins J. (2005): On
Intelligence
McCrone J. (2000): Going Inside. A tour around a single moment
of consciousness (Faber and Faber, London)
Neisser U. (1976): Cognition and Reality, San Francisco:
Freeman.
ECCO seminar programme coming weeks
17 Jun: Carlos Gershenson: A methodology for designing
self-organizing systems
24 Jun: Tom Erez: Postext: a cognitively-apt formalism
for knowledge management
ECCO seminars normally take place each Friday at 17h30 in room
3C204 of the VUB Campus Etterbeek. Everyone interested is welcome.
The seminars are very interactive, with small groups (about 8-10
people). The intention is to discuss in depth the research being
proposed, and to look for interdisciplinary connections with other
ECCO-related themes. Seminars last about two hours, after which the
remaining participants go to take a drink or a snack in the Opinio
Café on the campus, to continue the discussion in a more relaxed
setting.
--
Francis Heylighen
"Evolution, Complexity and Cognition" research group
Free University of Brussels
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
