Radical Embodied Computation: Reproduction of Similarity by Analogy as an Order Generating Mechanism in Complex Systems

Abstract

About two decades ago, scholars from the scientific disciplines that study human behavior and cognition, suggested an era of post-cognitivism was imminent, in which the computer metaphor, computationalism and representationalism would be discarded as viable theoretical frameworks for explaining phenomena of the body and the mind. In the present paper I argue that explanations of complex adaptive behavior require a theory of meaning mechanics that explains how complex adaptive systems can use semantic information to coordinate their behavior. This calls for a unification of sorts between the insights obtained in ecological psychology and embodied embedded cognition with principles of natural computation (cf. Decastro, 2007) in the context of explaining the behavior and properties of complex adaptive systems and networks (see e.g., Freeman et al., 2001; Chialvo, 2010; Flack, 2017a; Scheffer et al., 2018). I will refer to this framework as Radical Embodied Computation (REC++) and discuss some of the philosophical and theoretical issues that have to be resolved. I conclude by suggesting a mechanism for the emergence of meaning that is based the conception of self-affine scaling as the reproduction of similarity by analogy.

Is love an abstract concept? A view of concepts from an interaction-based perspective

“…A more general interaction-based framework seems to have begun to coalesce as an alternative to the information-processing perspective on cognitive systems in their environments [74][75][76]. Despite their differences, action-first or interactionbased theories of cognition, such as ecological psychology, enactivism and interactivism collaborate, more or less intentionally, in the process of developing a novel approach, building on the foundation of the organism-world relation, process ontology, emergence and the forward-looking, anticipatory character of cognition, while converging on dynamical systems theory and methods as a common ground [14,16,17,[77][78][79]).…”

Association of Hospital Incentive Care Management Partnerships for Uninsured Patients With Emergency Department Utilization

“…Utilization level was identified based on ED use prior to enrollment: frequent utilizers (<3 ED visits), high utilizers (3-6 ED visits), and super utilizers (>6 ED visits). Findings from the 2013 Super-Utilizer Summit informed the cutoff points for the classification . Severity of ED visits prior to enrollment was also identified as limited or minor, low to moderate, moderate, significant threat, and high severity or life-threatening, using CPT codes 99281 to 99285.…”

“…Findings from the 2013 Super-Utilizer Summit informed the cutoff points for the classification. 9 Severity of ED visits prior to enrollment was also identified as limited or minor, low to moderate, moderate, significant threat, and high severity or life-threatening, using CPT codes 99281 to 99285. Hospitals were classified as rural-exempt if they met 1 or more of the exemption criteria based on type, ZCTA, persistent poverty, or number of licensed beds.…”