Design for a Darwinian Brain: Part 1. Philosophy and Neuroscience
This work addresses the problem of understanding open-ended cognition in neuroscience and philosophy, proposing a foundational approach that could impact cognitive architectures.
The paper argues that physical symbol systems are essential for open-ended cognition, comparing thought to chemistry based on systematicity, productivity, and compositionality, and concludes that a cognitive architecture evolving symbol structures in the brain is promising for explaining this phenomenon.
Physical symbol systems are needed for open-ended cognition. A good way to understand physical symbol systems is by comparison of thought to chemistry. Both have systematicity, productivity and compositionality. The state of the art in cognitive architectures for open-ended cognition is critically assessed. I conclude that a cognitive architecture that evolves symbol structures in the brain is a promising candidate to explain open-ended cognition. Part 2 of the paper presents such a cognitive architecture.