Embodiment

It’s easier to teach a robot to walk if it has legs.

January 3, 2015 — October 14, 2017

evolution

snarks

Is the body a necessary part of the mind?

Whether the abstractions used in our more obscure cognitive processes are constrained in a comprehensible way by the kind of experiences our bodies give us is… complicated. For an interesting (but infuriatingly overbearing) attempt to work this through, see Lakoff (1999). For a less ambitious and probably more defensible one, see Clark (1998). I don’t think Clark ultimately says anything that would surprise a control system engineer.

1 References

Arbib. 2002. “The Mirror System, Imitation, and the Evolution of Language.” In Imitation in Animals and Artifacts.

Barrett, and Henzi. 2005. “The Social Nature of Primate Cognition.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Berti, and Frassinetti. 2000. “When Far Becomes Near: Remapping of Space by Tool Use.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

Bolhuis, Tattersall, Chomsky, et al. 2014. “How Could Language Have Evolved?” PLoS Biol.

Borondo, Borondo, Rodriguez-Sickert, et al. 2014. “To Each According to Its Degree: The Meritocracy and Topocracy of Embedded Markets.” Scientific Reports.

Bustos, Gomez, Hausmann, et al. 2012. “The Dynamics of Nestedness Predicts the Evolution of Industrial Ecosystems.” PLoS One.

Christiansen, and Chater. 2008. “Language as Shaped by the Brain.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Clark. 1998. Being There: Putting Brain, Body, and World Together Again.

Elman. 1990. “Finding Structure in Time.” Cognitive Science.

Gershenson. 2007. Design and Control of Self-Organizing Systems.

Haken, Kelso, and Bunz. 1985. “A Theoretical Model of Phase Transitions in Human Hand Movements.” Biological Cybernetics.

Hidalgo, César A., and Hausmann. 2009. “The Building Blocks of Economic Complexity.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Hidalgo, C. A., Klinger, Barabási, et al. 2007. “The Product Space Conditions the Development of Nations.” Science.

Kelso. 1995. Dynamic Patterns: The Self-Organization of Brain and Behavior (Complex Adaptive Systems).

Lakoff. 1999. Philosophy In The Flesh.

Mcclelland, Botvinick, Noelle, et al. 2010. “Letting Structure Emerge: Connectionist and Dynamical Systems Approaches to Cognition.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

Rizzolatti, and Craighero. 2004. “The Mirror-Neuron System.” Annual Review of Neuroscience.

Semjen, Vorberg, and Schulze. 1998. “Getting Synchronized with the Metronome: Comparisons Between Phase and Period Correction.” Psychological Research.

Zahedi, Ay, and Der. 2010. “Higher Coordination With Less Control: A Result of Information Maximization in the Sensorimotor Loop.” Adaptive Behavior.