Basic Mind Research Articles

Examining the Continuity between Life and Mind: Is There a Continuity between Autopoietic Intentionality and Representationality?

A weak version of the life-mind continuity thesis entails that every living system also has a basic mind (with a non-representational form of intentionality). The strong version entails that the same concepts that are sufficient to explain basic minds (with non-representational states) are also central to understanding non-basic minds (with representational states). We argue that recent work on the free energy principle supports the following claims with respect to the life-mind continuity thesis: (i) there is a strong continuity between life and mind; (ii) all living systems can be described as if they had representational states; (iii) the ’as-if representationality’ entailed by the free energy principle is central to understanding both basic forms of intentionality and intentionality in non-basic minds. In addition to this, we argue that the free energy principle also renders realism about computation and representation compatible with a strong life-mind continuity thesis (although the free energy principle does not entail computational and representational realism). In particular, we show how representationality proper can be grounded in ’as-if representationality’.

A Zen Meditative Reconciliation of Yeats’s Creative Torpors and Fornits

Yeats as a visionary poet displays the basic Kabalistic creative mind or the instinctual Zen self-reawakening insight; ignorant but wise, barbarian but civilized, beastly but non-intellectually spiritual, rough but pure, which can be compared with the mysterious power of the humming bird who experiences two conflicting states of torpor and freedom. To find his poetic “fornits” (mystic elves) or poetic expediency or visionary reality that enables him to get over such poetic blocks, I meditate on his poems in Words for Music Perhaps, so called Jane’s series (poems of madness), and “An Image for a Past Life.” I theoretically delve into his four epistemological categories to holistically understand his poetics. I take up the Zen meditational Way of hermeneutical insights

Oscillating Agent Model: Quantum Approach

Enabled by recent neuroscience and especially electroencephalogram (EEG) studies, this paper describes a conceptually novel modeling approach, based on quantum theory, to basic human mind states as systems of coherent oscillation. The aim is to bridge the gap between fundamental theory, experimental observation and the simulation of agents’ mind states. The proposed approach, i.e. an oscillating agent model (OAM), reveals possibilities of employing wave functions and quantum operators for a stylized description of basic mind states and the transitions between them. In the OAM the basic mind states are defined using experimentally observed EEG spectra, i.e. brainwaves (delta, theta, alpha, beta and gamma), which reveal an oscillatory nature of agents’ mind states. Such an approach provides an opportunity to model the dynamics of basic mind states by employing stylized oscillation-based representations of the characteristic EEG power spectral density (PSD) distributions of brainwaves observed in experiments. In other words, the proposed OAM describes a probabilistic mechanism for transitions between basic mind states characterized by unique sets of brainwaves. The instantiated theoretical framework is pertinent not only for the simulation of the individual cognitive and behavioral patterns observed in experiments, but also for the prospective development of OAM-based multi-agent systems.

Information without content: A Gibsonian reply to enactivists’ worries

In this article, we aim to strengthen the emerging radical, non-representational, approaches to cognitive science by defusing the worries radical enactivists have with the use of information in the ecological approaches – namely the worry that information carries content. We show that Gibson’s later use of the concept is meant to allow for a content-less notion of information, but that the language surrounding information in ecological psychology has subsequently slipped into a more cognitivistic vocabulary. We argue that by considering ecological information not to be information about, but information for affordances, the notion of information can be fruitfully applied without invoking notions of content. Gibson’s later notion of information for perception, stresses the insight that in ecological theory there is no information in content, but only in use. It is suggested that radical cognition should embrace this notion of information without content, as doing so can help to situate the enactivist’s “basic mind” into large and complex scales of coordination.

From Data to Wisdom in the Global and Civilizational Context

The purpose of this study is to define what is information, mainly in terms of cognition units, and also find out its other perspectives and images. Once information is understood, then it is possible to define its role in wisdom development in general and in civilization. First information will be defined in terms of several perspectives. Secondly information will be defined in term of its images. The basic concept of information is in the cognitive perspective which recognizes cognition units. Among these units are perceived: data, information, concept, knowledge, and wisdom. Some global and civilizational impact upon the concept of wisdom is evaluated. Finally, the model of comprehensive wisdom is defined. Wisdom is defined in terms of the evolution of minds, from Basic Mind and Whole Mind, through Global Mind to Universal Mind. In conclusion, the wisdom of these minds is defined for each of eight current civilizations: Western, Eastern, Chinese, Japanese, Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, and African.