title: Reverse engineering for biologically inspired cognitive architectures: a critical analysis.
abstract: Research initiatives on both sides of the Atlantic try to utilize the operational principles of organisms and brains to develop biologically inspired, artificial cognitive systems. This paper describes the standard way bio-inspiration is gained, i.e. decompositional analysis or reverse engineering. The indisputable complexity of brain and mind raise the issue of whether they can be understood by applying the standard method. Using Robert Rosen's modeling relation, the scientific analysis method itself is made a subject of discussion. It is concluded that the fundamental assumption of cognitive science, i.e. complex cognitive systems are decomposable, must be abandoned. Implications for investigations of organisms and behavior as well as for engineering artificial cognitive systems are discussed.
authors: Institute for Computer Science, Intelligent Systems Department, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany. schierwa@informatik.uni-leipzig.de
authors: Andreas
authors: A
authors: Schierwagen
mesh_terms: D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition; D008962:Models, Theoretical