# Autocatalytic networks in cognition and the origin of culture

## TL;DR

This paper proposes a cognitive model based on autocatalytic networks, originally used in origin-of-life studies, to explain the transition from episodic to mimetic minds enabling cultural evolution.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel application of autocatalytic network models to cognition, illustrating how fine-grained representations catalyze streams of thought and cultural development.

## Key findings

- Representations become more fine-grained with increased cranial capacity.
- Autocatalytic networks facilitate the transition to a mimetic mind.
- Model explains the emergence of complex cultural cognition.

## Abstract

It has been proposed that cultural evolution was made possible by a cognitive transition brought about by onset of the capacity for self-triggered recall and rehearsal. Here we develop a novel idea that models of collectively autocatalytic networks, developed for understanding the origin and organization of life, may also help explain the origin of the kind of cognitive structure that makes cultural evolution possible. In our setting, mental representations (for example, memories, concepts, ideas) play the role of 'molecules', and 'reactions' involve the evoking of one representation by another through remindings, associations, and stimuli. In the 'episodic mind', representations are so coarse-grained (encode too few properties) that such reactions are catalyzed only by external stimuli. As cranial capacity increased, representations became more fine-grained (encoded more features), allowing them to act as catalysts, leading to streams of thought. At this point, the mind could combine representations and adapt them to specific needs and situations, and thereby contribute to cultural evolution. In this paper, we propose and study a simple and explicit cognitive model that gives rise naturally to autocatylatic networks, and thereby provides a possible mechanism for the transition from a pre-cultural episodic mind to a mimetic mind.