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You are hereby invited to our twelfth "Evolution, Complexity and
Cognition (ECCO)" seminar of 2005:
The primacy of
context:
Framing the rational information
handling process of active externalism
by
(ECCO, VUB)
Place: room 3C204 (building C, 3rd floor), VUB campus
Oefenplein
Time: Friday, April 29, at 17:30 h.
Abstract:
In the philosophy of mind a compromise has been found between
externalism and individualism: active externalism, better known as
the extended mind. We propose an agent model with such an
extended mind. The simulation is about an agent learning to
make tools, as an investigation of the evolution of innovation or
creativity . From a biological naturalism and anthropology
background we came up with the capability of "external
context creation" (used to engineer the behaviour).
Although our design starts with the assumption that an agent always
is in a context, we show that the context is evolving and needs to be
redefined from time to time. In this way it is possible to define the
primacy of context, giving us more insight into constructivism and
the process of creativity. The design helps us to explain the
concrete psychological phenomenon of "change blindness",
while raising interesting questions about the interaction between
creativity, presence and awareness. While creativity seems to require
some kind of awareness, what happens in the model is clearly
different from the awareness we subjectively experience. As such the
main question of our current research is: can this model give us an
insight into awareness?
More info:
extended mind: http://consc.net/papers/extended.html
biological naturalism:
http://www.arrod.co.uk/essays/biological-naturalism.php
strong AI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_AI
change blindness: http://nivea.psycho.univ-paris5.fr/
ECCO seminar
programme coming weeks
6 May: Julien Libbrecht: Application of cybernetic
principles to the organization of health care
13 May: Johan Bollen: Self-organization of Document
Networks
20 May: Laetitia De Jaegher:
Towards sustainable development: the precautionary principle as a
call for a new theory of law to support multi-dimensional
governance
27 May: Lito Kyritsi: Systems
Modelling of Cancer
3 Jun: Gerard Jagers op Akkerhuis:
Closure and the modular evolution of matter
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 group
Free University of Brussels
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
Francis Heylighen
Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group
Free University of Brussels
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
--
Francis Heylighen
Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group
Free University of Brussels
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
Francis Heylighen
Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group
Free University of Brussels
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html