Cognition as Morphological/Morphogenetic Embodied Computation In Vivo
Entropy November 10, 2022 Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic 40 citations
Cognition is not unique to humans but is a property of all living organisms, from single cells upward. Viewed through an info-computational lens, structures in nature are information and their dynamics are computation from an agent's perspective. Cognition arises from networks of morphological and morphogenetic computations driven by self-assembly, self-organization, and autopoiesis. This article critiques the prevailing human-centric view of cognition, which faces unresolved problems, and reviews recent work on morphological computation, agency, basal cognition, and the free energy principle. It argues that older computational models, based on abstract symbol processing, ignored physical constraints and embodiment. Better understanding cognition is crucial for advancing artificial intelligence, robotics, and medicine.