The body is not there to compute: Comment on "Informational embodiment: Computational role of information structure in codes and robots" by Pitti et al
This is an incremental commentary challenging a theoretical perspective in robotics and biology.
The paper critiques the application of computational and information-theoretic frameworks to bodies, arguing that the primary role of bodies is not to compute, rather than addressing a specific problem with a result.
Applying the lens of computation and information has been instrumental in driving the technological progress of our civilization as well as in empowering our understanding of the world around us. The digital computer was and for many still is the leading metaphor for how our mind operates. Information theory (IT) has also been important in our understanding of how nervous systems encode and process information. The target article deploys information and computation to bodies: to understand why they have evolved in particular ways (animal bodies) and to design optimal bodies (robots). In this commentary, I argue that the main role of bodies is not to compute.