Ship of Theseus – if you keep replacing one part of a ship at a time. Over time, is it still the same ship? What is a cyborg: • Cybernetic organism (part-human, part-machine) • sensor + world • feedback loop (A feedback loop is a common and powerful tool when designing a control system. Feedback loops take the system output into consideration, which enables the system to adjust its performance to meet a desired output response.) What is an organism: • A living (agency) creature that goes through the cycle of life • Natural object that requires energy • Genetic Materials • Respond to stimuli What makes an Arti cial organism: • Soft (software) • Hard (hardware) • Wet (biochemistry) DO THE READING ON CYBERNETICS (QUIZ + ASSIGNMENT) Cybernetic: • Control of any system that uses technology • self-governance (Greek de nition) • To steer, to adjust – loop acting sensing; cannot be intelligent unless it has those properties (self-correcting); (Paul Pangaro Cybernetics) Think of Thermostat example: • comparison of (desired vs ambient temperature) • control mechanism, sensor, activation • example of homeostasis fi fi ffi Claude Shannon: • responsible for calculating signal to noise ratio of telephone lines to improve e ciency • Information Theory fi Norbert Wiener: • automatic ring artillery systems Lecture 3 What is Cognition: • The way the brain comprehends stu and the way it reacts to it The Turing Machine: • Alan Turing – known for helping to decode Nazi messages in WWII • Invented the Turing Machine that could carry out any recursive function • System – symbol manipulation for information processing and computation Before Cognitive Science: • Behaviorism (John B Watson and BF Skinner) – Pavlov’s dog (Classical conditioning) Behaviorism as the primary explanation for high-level human cognition Claude Shannon: • responsible for calculating signal to noise ratio of telephone lines to improve e ciency • Information Theory (information can be represented as binary choices/ digits) • Computational Linguistics ff ffi John von Neumann: • developed a theory of automata • digital computers • processing unit that contains arithmetic logic unit (processing unit, control unit, memory, external mass storage) • Control unit, instructions, input/output Cybernetics: • Norbert Weiner • servo-mechanism (machines that correct themselves) • Ex: thermostat example • Scienti c study of control and communication in the animal and the machine McCulloch-Pitts Neurons: • neurons are logical units that carry information • brain is like a Turing machine (the mind is what the brain does) The Cognitive Revolution • George Armitage Miller • Miller said: the cognitive revolution in psychology was a counterrevolution. The rst revolution occurred earlier when a group of psychologists proposed to rede ne psychology as the science of behavior. • intellectual movement that began in the 1950s as an interdisciplinary study of the mind and its processes. It later became known collectively as cognitive science. Universal Grammar: • Noam Chomsky – rede ned linguistics • radically changed the arena of linguistics by assuming language as a uniquely human, biologically based cognitive capacity. • He suggested that innate traits in the human brain give birth to both language and grammar. Center for Cognitive Studies • Jerry Bruner; published a book on study of thinking (study of cognitive studies) Arti cial Intelligence: • conference at Dartmoth by McCarthy, Minsky, Shannon fi fi fi fi fi ff Cognitivism: • e ort to establish meaning-making as the central process of psychology • uses computational models as the primary metaphor for describing cognition • Rejects behaviorism because behaviorism cares about stimulus and response but no the middle black box. Cognitivism cares about the black box. Computationalism/Functionalism: • mental states are constituted solely by their functional role Functionalism: If the function is the same, then the mental state is functionality equivalent Same input -> gives the same result (results in the function working) Lecture 4 Is the Brain’s Mind a Computer Program: • software to hardware • mindware is to wetware Turing Test: • test of machine’s ability to exhibit intelligence John Searle: • a program merely manipulates symbols, whereas a brain attaches meaning to them • No distinction between brain and mind (because you need to have a brain to have a mind) Searle’s Thesis – Brains cause Minds • our brains are computers • however, it doesn’t follow that thinking is equivalent to formal symbol manipulation What is missing from Searle’s argument: • environment, culture, Searle leaves out everything else Syntax: • formal symbols (language) Semantics: • meaning (de nition) The Chinese Room: • meant to refute Strong AI • if the person in the room doesn’t understand Chinese on the basis of implementing the appropriate program for understanding Chinese then neither does any other digital computer solely on the basis because no computer, has anything the person does not have • Insu cient to account for thought fi ffi Strong AI • capable of learning - thinking like humans • Being able to use semantics to its bene t Weak AI • narrow intelligence; not capable of producing a fully functioning mind Sensors – Nervous Systems Thermostat (controls heating element) – Brain Body (Embodiment) – Interaction Enactive Framework – Cognition arises through dynamic interaction between acting organism and its environment Postcognitivism: • rejects the notion that cognition is something that happens in the brain • Human cognition cannot be accurately described without taking context, environment, embodiment, culture and artifacts into consideration Enactivism: • the manner in which a subject of perception creatively matches its actions to the requirements of the situation • cognition that arises to dynamic interaction between an acting organism and its environment Embodiment (what enables us to be enactive receivers) and coupling: • locks us into relations with our immediate environment fi Proprioception • perception or awareness of the position and movement of the body. A1 – two sources from class and two sources from outside Maravita and Iriki (2004) tool becomes part of the body (parallels with how mobile devices are in a way part of the human system) Extending our sensitive self. Q: How do tools change the pattern of neglect? Using a tool transforms previously “far space” into “near space”, thus extending the near space neglect. The brain cares about the relationship between your body and the environment, and tools mediate that relationship! Q: What is near vs. far space neglect? Near space neglect means the neglect (awareness de cit) concerns space near the body. Far space neglect means the neglect (awareness de cit) concerns space further away from the body. Visual system is activated Feedback-sensory loop A ordances • Gibsonian insight – perception. Is active and based on possibilities of animal-object or animal-environment interaction fi fi ff Constituency • if you take out something out of a something, it is not the same thing, • No action, no perception • Perception, then action Second Theme: COGS 100 Lecture I Beyond the Individual • Cognition extending beyond the individual organism • Causal and active way (Extended Mind) Swarm Intelligence in Physarum Polycephalum https://academic.oup.com/femsre/article/40/6/798/2400841 Does it seem reasonable to you to frame your smartphone as being a “part of” your mind? Yes because if we de ne the mind as a location which processes feelings and emotions then from research we can nd that smartphones remove empathetic characteristics from an individual, deteriorating their ability to have compassion and reason with other individuals. - Adam Hippocampal area in the brain grew after British taxi training/map memorization process. Otto and Inga: • Otto su ers from Alzheimer’s disease (forgets thinking) • Otto’s notebook parallels memory that plays for Inga fi fi ff Inga (Mind + Brain) – fast recall, Otto (Notebook) – slower recall,
