Genesis?). Reflections on the nature of the mind. Part I

• What is mind, consciousness.
• What is the difference between cognition and awareness?
• Consciousness, self-consciousness - one and the same?
• Thought - what is a thought?
• Creativity, imagination - something mysterious, inherent in man, or ...
• How the mind works.
• Motivation, goal setting - why do something at all.


Artificial intelligence is the Holy Grail of any person who has connected his life with IT. The crown of development of any automation, programming, design of mechanisms is the pinnacle of everything. However, until now the question "What is consciousness, intelligence?" remains open. I do not understand how a huge number of people can be engaged in a subject for which there is no definition, but I really did not find such a concept that would satisfy me. And I had to invent it myself.

Disclaimer: This opus does not claim to be a revolution in the AI ​​paradigm, or a revelation from above, it is simply the result of reflection on this topic and to some extent introspection. Also, I do not have any serious practical results, so the text is more philosophical than technical.

UPD: While preparing the article, I came across several very close concepts (For example, and even on habré). On the one hand, it’s a little disappointing that I “rediscovered the bicycle” anew. On the other hand, it’s not so scary to bring your thoughts to the public when they are no longer only mine!

Basic theory

I'm not going to beat around the bush, and give long lyrical digressions like "how did I get to this" (although it might be worth it). I'll start right away with the main thing: the wording.

Here she is:

Mind is the ability of a being to build a complete, adequate and consistent model of reality.

Of course, in its pure form, such a definition gives more questions than answers: how to build, where, what, in fact, does “complete” and “consistent” mean? Yes, and myselfreality given to us in sensation“(c) Lenin is the subject of many philosophical disputes. However, a start has been made - we have a definition of the mind. We will develop, supplement and expand the concept.

It was not in vain that I quoted a famous quote about reality: in order to build a model of anything, you need to “feel” something. Gotta be creatureIe exist and have ways of perceiving, data input channels, sensors - that's all. Those. our hypothetical AI exists in a certain world and interacts with this world. The main point of this paragraph is that it is foolish to expect a meaningful conversation about football with AI if all it interacts with is an indexed knowledge base like Wikipedia! However, this idea is not new: even the first experiments with a deterministic and understandable world were very impressive. And this is 50 years ago, by the way!

Let's start with the model. Which is complete, adequate and consistent. Definition from Wikipedia At this stage, we are fine with: Model is a system whose study serves as a means to obtain information about another system. Its fundamental structure is not so important, although I have some thoughts on this matter. It is important that on the basis of the available input data (that very “feeling of reality”), the mind forms some kind of abstract idea of ​​“how it really is”.

Critically important is completeness this model. It is important to understand what it is all: any knowledge is inscribed in a certain way in the global universal model of reality, or is unconscious!.. Rather, we can say that this is precisely the subtle difference between just knowledge (information) and awareness (unambiguous placement inside the model). You can memorize the text in Chinese, you can, according to the patterns given to you, find the appropriate piece ... What’s there - you, if you wish, you can also teach not such tricks - the Chinese will be shocked! But all this has nothing to do with intellectual activity of the first type.

Completeness does not necessarily imply maximum detail. The mistake of the people who tried go in that direction (creating comprehensive knowledge bases at an incredible cost of resources) in an attempt to describe everything at once. The simplest model of everything: <All>. By itself, one word implies an indivisible single description of the world. The next possible level of description of reality: (<something>, )=<All>. Those. there is something and everything else besides that. And together they are everything.

A newborn baby initially sees almost nothing. Light and shadow. Gradually, he begins to distinguish some dark spots on a light background and appears <something>. Almost immediately with the advent of this first element of the model, three more appear: <space>, <time> and idea <movement> - change in position (size?) in space over time. Pretty soon the idea of ​​extension is realized <existence> - there was nothing, then something appeared, it was and eventually disappeared (<birth> и <death>?). So far, we have an extremely simple model, but it already has a lot of things: existence and non-existence, beginning and end, movement, etc. And, most importantly: it still includes all perception available to the mind. This is a complete description of the world around.

By the way, the question is: how completely can you describe the world around you, having these concepts (objects, space, time, movement, beginning and end) and only them? 😉

With the advent of the concepts of color and shape, the number of model objects is growing. Other sense organs provide a field for the formation of associative links. And the built-in unconditioned reflexes form an evaluative function: some prerequisites form a model that in the future has a reality that is evaluated positively (tasty, warm, pleasant), others scare (it was bad last time). Again, unconditional mechanisms make us react positively to the “good” reality (we smile, rejoice) and negatively to the bad one (yell!).

And then it appears Feedback. Or, perhaps, it appears earlier, when unconditioned reflexes work according to the “object tracking” program and allow you not to let the object out of sight for as long as possible ... This is a critical point: the mind not only passively builds a model of reality, but is itself an active principle in her!

An important factor in model refinement is the ability to make hypotheses and the ability to test them. The basis of verification is an active perception of the world. Unlike simple perception (contemplation), verification of certain assumptions requires purposeful obtaining of information. It's a process knowledge. You ask the world a question - it answers ... One way or another.

It is important to understand that all the mind does is build a model. Consistent within itself and adequate to reality.

Adequate means corresponding to reality. If the input data does not fit into the model, then the model needs to be revised. But sometimes it requires too serious processing and temporarily some parts of the model may conflict with others, i.e. cause controversy. However, in most cases, in the future, such inconsistencies will provoke a new round reflections - the mechanism works elimination of contradictions. Those. the desire for completeness, adequacy and consistency of the model are the basic functions on which the mind is built.

Changing the model, refining it is the essence mental activity. Detailing the model if necessary and vice versa - generalization if possible. Example: an apple and a ball are approximately the same shape/color and up to a certain point are identified as one concept. However, the apple can be eaten, but the ball is not edible, which means that these are different objects and you need to introduce a parameter into the model that allows them to be distinguished during classification (tactile differences, shape nuances, possibly smell). On the other hand, an apple and a banana have very different external attributes, but obviously there must be ways to find a factor that generalizes them, because a number of general processes (eating) apply to them.

If you have experienced think, it doesn’t matter - caused by association, external influence, internal trigger to eliminate contradictions, then this is:

• or an attempt to classify and place new information in the model,
• or real modeling of some part of the general model (if from the past, then memory, if from the future, then forecast or planning, it is possible to search for the desired relationship, as answer to the question ),
• or search and elimination of contradictions (detailing / crushing, generalization, rebuilding and so on.).

I think in most cases it's all more or less one process, which is reasoning.

But not only the model can be changed. Reason is part of the world and is an active principle in the world. This means that it can initiate/participate in processes that will bring the world in line with the model. Those. First, there is a model of the world where conditionally “everything is fine” and in this model the mind takes certain steps to achieve the desired state of the system. Acting according to the model and having a sufficiently adequate model, the mind will get the correspondence. This действие и motivation to action.

If we talk about full models of the world - it should include the modeler himself. Awareness of one's own capabilities to know and change the world, plus an assessment of different versions of the model as positive or negative - motivation and motivation for action.

Inclusion of oneself in the final model is self-consciousness, otherwise it is self-awareness.

Model not static. It necessarily exists in time, with a clear moment "now" and as a result - the past and the future. A causal relationship, the perception of processes rather than objects, is also an important criterion for the "completeness" of the model. On the topic of process perception, a separate article should be done if it is of interest to the community. 😉 I’ll say right away that if this text seemed raw and heavy, it’s even worse there!

Thinking out loud

Reflections on the topic that came to mind later, or those that I could not fit into the main text ... Like a post-credits scene! ))

• Including yourself in a model smacks of recursion. However, we are IT specialists, we know what a link is! Yes, it is precisely the fact that somewhere in the model of the universe there is the model of the universe itself - it gives rise to a feeling of OGVM, and one's own exclusivity! The fact that each of us is a whole world turns out to be true.
• In fact, the implementation of all this in practice will be a very non-trivial task! “Model” is too general a concept, and this model should have a large number of properties that make it difficult to implement, if at all to the conclusion that this cannot be done). For example, a model should be characterized by rather great flexibility, multilevelness, invariance, often possessing the properties of quantum physics (this is “being in several states at the same time”).
• It's funny that there is a cognitive distortion among people when, instead of concrete steps that can be taken to bring the world and model into line, people simply plan for circumstances that have nothing to do with them - that they will turn out in the best way ... They say that they are dreamers and building castles in the air... Interesting, in theory, isn't it?
• Also, people's models of the world can often be quite at odds with reality.
• Such exclusively human qualities (most often considered inaccessible to a machine) as creativity and imagination are easily explained within the framework of this topic: everything is clear with imagination - these are model runs in different possible options, but with creativity it is more interesting! I believe that the creative process is an attempt to fix a part of your model in some material physical form, with the goal of either transferring it to another conscious being or getting the opportunity to more fully embrace the modeled (after all, the resource of the brain in this respect is finite).
• Offtopic, but in the continuation of the topic: magicians and seers. Tarot cards, runes and other divination on coffee grounds. I believe the pioneers in this business used these systems to visualize/physicalize the models that were in their heads. This makes them easier to work with. And the location of these in space was far from accidental. It’s just that ignorant people did not understand the essence of the process and thought that fortune tellers communicate with spirits through these magical objects. And over time, the fortune-tellers themselves became smaller and lost their original analysis skills.
• In general, I believe that due to the presence of mechanisms of generalization and classification, as well as the search for patterns, consciousness should strive to streamline the world. Those. something that has an internal structure should be perceived more positively than something that is chaotic and poorly predictable - that does not fit into the model. I fully admit that the feeling of beauty, harmony - the feeling of beauty - is a consequence of this desire (when it comes to a work of art). Moreover, the order can be quite complex - not necessarily a cube, but it can very well be - a fractal. And the higher the level of intelligence, the more complex categories of structure can be learned.
• Someone will object that, they say - what about the beauty of "wild nature", people, animals and the like ... Well, here it is rather appropriateness / correspondence / authenticity - that's all. The perception of other people in general can be based on nested instincts.
• And yet - the author puts some kind of message into his work. Those. it's part of his model. It is obvious that for those who directly perceive his work, different options are possible: from “it didn’t work”, when it is not possible to embed the author’s model into their model, to catharsis, insight and other states – when it’s not just “entered” and “coincided”, and also "put everything in its place" ...
• By the way, this article is also creativity… Has it gone? 😉

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Source: habr.com