Matter, materiality, and mind

Matter, materiality, and mind

Project 1

Members: David Harrison, Nischal Mainali, Alejandra Ciria, Urte Laukaityte, Dominic Sivitilli, Wiktor Rorot

Description:

Fields as wide ranging as condensed matter physics, affective neuroscience, and theoretical biology sketch a picture of materiality and its relation to (proto)-cognitive capacities that suggests an intimate link between an organism’s material constitution and its adaptive behaviours. Sometimes called the ‘biogenic account of cognition’—due to its emphasis on organizational and living processes that underpin cognitive processes—this approach is not restricted to standard classifications of living organisms, and has since been extended to understand adaptive, even ‘intelligent’, matter systems developed in the field of Soft Robotics: as we see with the modelling of an octopus arm capable of conformational change unavailable to ‘standard’ (read: hard part) robotics. This research suggests a close imbrication between mindedness, materiality, and the material environment.

Our project, then, proposes to explore how the mind manifests within the material world, seeking to go beyond the mechanistic study of intelligence focused on neurons or their analogues in artificial intelligence. Excitingly, there is a growing appreciation for how organismic form facilitates and mediates information processing, or indeed performs computation itself. We would like to investigate how cognitive processes might emerge from these various forms of embodiment and material interactions. Initially, we will aim for a perspectives/review piece with a long-term plan for modelling and simulation of possible soft-bodied robotic systems. Possible models for investigation include the octopus’s extremely flexible, computationally complex arms, to investigate how morphological compliance is exploited in generating intelligent behaviour.

Faculty members whom we'd also be interested in asking to join/for help are Michael Levin or Philip Kurian.

Relevant readings include:

Bongard, J., & Levin, M. (2021). Living things are not (20th Century) machines: updating mechanism metaphors in light of the modern science of machine behavior. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9, 147.

Fields, C., & Levin, M. (2020). How do living systems create meaning?. _Philosophies, 5_(4), 36.

Kaspar, C., Ravoo, B. J., van der Wiel, W. G., Wegner, S. V., & Pernice, W. H. P. (2021). The rise of intelligent matter. _Nature, 594_(7863), 345-355.

Man, K., & Damasio, A. (2019). Homeostasis and soft robotics in the design of feeling machines. _Nature Machine Intelligence, 1_(10), 446-452.