dewey@sequoia.UUCP (Dewey Henize) (04/26/89)
This is posted for a friend who's net access is, um, flakey at best. She has
asked me to post this and I'll add that if you can't contact her with the
paths she has included, let me know and I'll try to pass things on to her.
Included message follows:
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I have been happily lurking on comp.ai for about a year. This is my
first Usenet post so please go gently on me. Requests for information are
often not the most exciting or wanted postings, but I could use some help.
I am trying to formulate a paper on a very rough topic, that of
anticipation (elaboration of definition at end of message). I have been
intrigued by Hofstadter's musings on feedback loops and their relation to
consciousness, and the idea of "self-symbols" and self-referencing.
(Dennett, "the soul as the center of narrative gravity" and so forth).
Self-monitoring is not limited to biological systems but it is also found
in computational systems.
My initial forays into possible sources of information has ranged from
animal ecology, control systems (and related areas), to biological control
systems and feedback, and mathematical modelling on the above. This is
much too scattered for a short (15 pg) paper.
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It seems that intelligence and anticipation can occur in warning
systems (computers, vervet monkeys) without there being consciousness of a
high-level sort.
So, I have two requests:
1. Good sources of information on the above mention stuff that can help me
say something about consciousness.
2. If there are any opinions on the relationship between intelligence and
anticipation and whether consciousness need be there at any high level I
wouldn't mind a discussion or opinions.
Thank you. Please reply (if appropriate) to me at the addresses below.
My site receives probably <20% of all posts to usenet, so I appreciate any
direct replies because I may never see them on the net.
Internet(/arpa/csnet): JJoy@Lucy.Wellesley.edu
Bitnet: JJoy%Lucy.Wellesley.edu@relay.cs.net
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(reprinted from _The Oxford Companion to the Mind_ without permission:)
ANTICIPATION (or Prediction)
The development of the nervous system though the evolution of species
is characterized by increasing powers of anticipation -- the ability to
survive against nature and predators. Anticipatory behaviour is not
initiated by stimuli; so a stimulus-response account of the behaviour of
higher animals is essentially inadequate. Intelligent anticipation requires
stored knowledge, and the ability to draw analogies from past situations,
which may be in many ways different from the current situation. This
ability is uniquely developed in humans. Its neural localization is
essentially in the frontal lobes of the cerebral cortex; but it may be case
that damage to the frontal lobes produces personality changes such that the
future is judged less important.
Anticipation allows organisms and societies to avoid danger before
disaster strikes; it allows strategies to be devised and individual and
communal plans to be made for overcoming nature and enemies, and for
achieving goals. Such abilities are quite foreign to inanimate matter, and
are beyond the capacity of many living things; anticipation requires a
mind. Some would argue, however, that computers may reasonably be said to
have the ability to anticipate and warn of situations and events, and hence
to be 'mindful'.
--
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| ...!cs.utexas.edu!execu!dewey or | "If you will just quit shouting at me, I |
| ...!natinst!sequoia!dewey | will try to hear what you are saying" |
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| If I so often disagree with my company, of course these ideas are mine |
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn) (04/27/89)
Let me suggest that your friend check out _Anticipatory Systems_ by Robert Rosen. Also, try posting to alt.cyb-sys or joining the Systems and Cybernetics mailing list and posting there. Send the command 'SUB CYBSYS-L your_full_name' to LISTSERV@BINGVMB.BITNET. -- O----------------------------------------------------------------------> | Cliff Joslyn, Cybernetician at Large | Systems Science, SUNY Binghamton, vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu V All the world is biscuit shaped. . .