Morphological Computing in Cognitive Systems, Connecting Data to Intelligent Agency

Abstract

This paper addresses some of the major controversies underlying the theme of the IS4SI 2019 Berkeley summit: “Where is the I in AI and the meaning of Information?”. It analyzes the relationship between cognition and intelligence in the light of the difference between old, abstract and the new embodied, embedded, enactive computationalism. It is questioning presuppositions of old computationalism which described the abstract ability of humans to construct knowledge as a symbol system, comparing it to the modern view of cognition found in various degrees in all living beings, with morphological/physical computational processes emerging at a variety of levels of organization. Cognitive computing based on natural/ physical/ morphological computation is used to explain the goal-directed behavior of an agent acting on its own behalf (the “I” as self-referential awareness) applicable to both living beings and machines with varying degrees of intelligence.