Active materials: minimal models of cognition?. (December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McGivern, Patrick
• Other Names: Brancazio Nick guest-editor.; Segundo-Ortin Miguel guest-editor.; McGivern Patrick guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Adaptive behavior. Volume 28:Number 6(2020)
• Page Start: 441
• Page End: 451
• Publication Date: 2020-12
• Subjects: Minimal cognition -- active matter -- minimal models; Animal behavior -- Periodicals; Animals -- Adaptation -- Periodicals; Adaptability (Psychology) -- Periodicals; Adaptation, Psychological -- Periodicals; Artificial intelligence -- Periodicals; 591.5
• DOI: 10.1177/1059712319891742
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1741-2633

Abstract

Work on minimal cognition raises a variety of questions concerning the boundaries of cognition. Many discussions of minimal cognition assume that the domain of minimal cognition is a subset of the domain of the living. In this article, I consider whether non-living 'active materials' ought to be included as instances of minimal cognition. I argue that seeing such cases as 'minimal models' of (minimal) cognition requires recognising them as members of a class of systems sharing the same basic features and exhibiting the same general patterns of behaviour. Minimal cognition in this sense is a very inclusive concept: rather than specifying some threshold level of cognition or a type of cognition found only in very simple systems, it is a concept of cognition associated with very minimal criteria that pick out only the most essential requirements for a system to exhibit cognitive behaviour.