Morphologically Computing Embodied, Embedded, Enactive, Extended Cognition

Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic
Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg
[email protected]

Abstract (short, 120 words) Cognitive science in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is considered to be the study of
mind and intelligence, developed through interdisciplinary collaboration between psychology and philosophy of mind,
linguistics, neuroscience, anthropology and artificial intelligence (Thagard, 2014). Under such narrow definition of cognitive
science variety of unsolved/unsolvable problems appear. Much can be won by broadening the definition of cognition, to
include sub-symbolic processes in humans (i.e. feelings, intuitions), to involve cognition in other living beings and
distributed social cognition. This is done by connecting cognitivists and EEEE (embodied, embedded, enactive, extended)
approaches through the idea of morphological computation as info-computational processing in cognizing agents at variety of
levels of organisation, emerging through evolution of organisms in interaction with the environment.

Abstract (extended, 1000 words) Cognitive science is currently defined as a study of processes of knowledge
generation through perception, thinking (reasoning), memory, learning, problem solving, and similar. In his
article for Britannica.com Thagard makes an extension of the idea of “thinking” to include emotional experience:
“The term cognition, as used by cognitive scientists, refers to many kinds of thinking, including those involved
in perception, problem solving, learning, decision making, language use, and emotional experience.” This move
bridges some of the distance between cognition as thinking and its (sub-)processes but the fundamental problems
of generative mechanisms that can dynamically overarch the chasm between matter and mind remain. Thagard
(2014) definition of cognitive science does not mention biology, chemistry, (quantum- nano-, etc.) physics or
chaos theory, self-organisation, and artificial life or data science, extended mind, distributed cognition as studied
with help of network science, sociology or ecology.

On the current view, cognition is about high-level processes remote from physical-chemical-biological substrate.
It is modeled by classical sequential computation, understood as symbol manipulation. On the other hand,
historically, behaviorism offered an alternative view of cognition with the focus on the observable behavior of a
subject. This divide is mirrored in the present day schism between cognitivism/computationalism and EEEE
(embodied, embedded, enactive, extended) cognition. There have been numerous attempts to bridge this gap
made by (Clark 1997, 1989, 2013), (Scheutz, 2002), (Pfeifer et al. 2005, 2006, 2007) and others, offering
connection between sub-symbolic (signal processing) and symbolic (higher level) notions of cognition.

Yet, the most frequent view of cognition is still human-centric and not evolutionary, generative model. Thagard
lists open philosophical problems relevant for cognition: innateness, language of thought, mental imagery, folk
psychology, meaning, mind-brain identity, free will, moral psychology, meaning of life, emotions, mental
illness, appearance and reality and social aspects. However, majority of those problems (save meaning of life)
can only be solved on the basis of empirical data, experiments and adequate generative models and simulations –
thus in the realms of domain-specific research.

Recently, the idea of morphological computing has been proposed, (Paul, 2004) (Pfeifer et al. 2005, 2006, 2007),
(Hauser, Füchslin and Pfeifer, 2014) (Müller & Hoffmann, 2017a, 2017b) defining computing in a more general
way than the traditional symbol manipulation, taking into account physical embodiment of computational
mechanisms, in that way presenting suitable tool for modeling of broader range of cognitive phenomena.

In this talk I will give a short account of my view of the process of cognition in a cognitive agent through
morphological computation, within the framework of info-computational constructivism as generative modeling
scheme (Dodig-Crnkovic 2012, 2014). Cognition in this framework is capacity possessed by every living
organism in different forms and degrees of complexity, as (Maturana and Varela, 1980) and (Stewart, 1996).
famously argued. It is entirety of processes going on in an organism that keeps it alive. Every single cell while
alive constantly cognizes. It registers inputs from the world and its own body, ensures its own continuous
existence through food procurement and metabolic production of energy. It is avoiding dangers that could cause
its damage or disintegration, at simultaneously adapting its own morphology to the environmental constraints.
Physico-chemical-biological processes depend on the morphology of the organism, where morphology is meant
as the material, form and structure. Morphological computing can be defined on a structure of nodes (agents) that
exchange (communicate) information. Unicellular organisms such as bacteria communicate and build swarms or
films with far more advanced capabilities than individual organisms, through social/distributed cognition. In
general, in nature groups of smaller organisms (cells) cluster into bigger ones (multicellular assemblies) with
specific control mechanisms for the cell level to the tissue, organ, organism and groups of organisms, and this
layered organization provides information processing benefits (information processing speed-up).

With the development of specific nervous system, multicellular organisms acquire ability of self-representation,
which enables distinction between “me” and the “other” and presents basic functionality that will support
locomotion. Plants that do not move freely in space, have control implemented on the level of chemical signals,
while animals possess nervous systems with centralized control in brains which is connected to sensors and
actuators that enable locomotion and increase probability of survival of an organism. Brains in animals consist of
large number of cells mutually communicating. A single neuron is a relatively simple information processor,
while the whole brain possesses advanced information processing/computational capacities.

Besides the ability to model cognition as embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended through interactions with
the environment, morphological computing provides means of understanding how this capacity evolved in
humans and how it develops during the life of an organism. As (Dobzhansky, 1973) argued, "Nothing in biology
makes sense except in the light of evolution", for our understanding of cognition possibility to address those
questions is essential.

As a conclusion, here is the list of unsolved/unsolvable problems of cognitive science, identified by Thagard
(2014) within the current narrow view of cognition. All problems from the list have solutions emerging from the
more general understanding of cognition as natural/morphological computing, as follows:

The emotion challenge: Morphological computing of embodied cognition is layered architecture with sub-
symbolic electro-chemical information processing. (von Haugwitz and Dodig-Crnkovic, 2015)

The consciousness challenge: Consciousness is proposed as information integration on the organismic level
and has central role in the control of behavior. (Tononi, 2004, 2008, 2015) (Freeman, 2009)

The world challenge: Distributed morphological computation processes representing hierarchies of

The body challenge: Explicit modeling of a body through the inclusion of computational processes in the
physical substrate as an integral part of cognition. (Matsushita, Lungarella, Paul, Yokoi, 2005) (Pfeifer and
Bongard, 2006) (Stepney, 2008) (MacLennan, 2010, 2011)

The dynamical systems challenge: Here there is a common misunderstanding that dynamical systems are not
computational. Dynamical systems are an important class of computational systems. (van Leeuwen and
Wiedermann, 2017)( Burgin and Dodig-Crnkovic, 2015).

The social challenge: Done through social computing, agent-based models and networks. (Newman, Barabasi,
Watts, 2006) (Epstein, 2007) (Barabasi, 2010)

The mathematics challenge: Morphological computing in living beings starts at quantum level and propagates
to higher levels of organisation by different kinds of physical, chemical, biological, cognitive and social
computing (Cooper, 2012) (Zenil, 2012)
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