Representation in Dynamical Systems
This addresses a foundational issue in cognitive science and AI by proposing a non-digital framework for representation in dynamical systems.
The paper tackles the problem of whether dynamical systems like the brain can be said to use representations, arguing that they can through phenomena such as chaotic attractors, rather than in the digital computer sense.
The brain is often called a computer and likened to a Turing machine, in part because the mind can manipulate discrete symbols such as numbers. But the brain is a dynamical system, more like a Watt governor than a Turing machine. Can a dynamical system be said to operate using "representations"? This paper argues that it can, although not in the way a digital computer does. Instead, it uses phenomena best described using mathematic concepts such as chaotic attractors to stand in for aspects of the world.