title: Emergent models of supple dynamics in life and mind.
abstract: The dynamical patterns in mental phenomena have a characteristic suppleness--a looseness or softness that persistently resists precise formulation--which apparently underlies the frame problem of artificial intelligence. This suppleness also undermines contemporary philosophical functionalist attempts to define mental capacities. Living systems display an analogous from of supple dynamics. However, the supple dynamics of living systems have been captured in recent artificial life models, due to the emergent architecture of those models. This suggests that analogous emergent models might be able to explain supple dynamics of mental phenomena. These emergent models of the supple mind, if successful, would refashion the nature of contemporary functionalism in the philosophy of mind.
authors.affiliation: Department of Philosophy, Reed College, Portland, OR, USA. mab@reed.edu
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Bedau
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D006801:Humans; D008606:Mental Processes; D019222:Mind-Body Relations, Metaphysical; D010684:Philosophy