Design for a Darwinian Brain: Part 1. Philosophy and Neuroscience

TL;DR

This paper critically assesses current cognitive architectures and proposes that evolving symbol structures in the brain could be key to understanding open-ended cognition, linking philosophy, neuroscience, and computational models.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that a brain-evolving symbol architecture is a promising approach to explain open-ended cognition, bridging philosophy and neuroscience.

Findings

Current architectures lack evolving symbol structures

Evolving symbols in the brain could explain open-ended cognition

Comparison of thought to chemistry highlights systematicity and productivity

Abstract

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.