Embodying Cognition: A Morphological Perspective

After several decades of success in different areas and numerous effective applications, algorithmic Artificial Intelligence has revealed its limitations. If in our quest for artificial intelligence we want to understand natural forms of intelligence, we need to shift/move from platform-free algorithms to embodied and embedded agents. Under the embodied perspective, intelligence is not so much a matter of algorithms, but of the continuous interactions of an embodied agent with the real world. In this chapter we adhere to a specific reading of the embodied view usually known as enactivism, to argue that (1) It is a more reasonable model of how the mind really works; (2) It has both theoretical and empirical benefits for Artificial Intelligence and (3) Can be easily implemented in simple robotic sets like Lego Mindstorms (TM). In particular, the authors will explore the computational role that morphology can play in artificial systems. They will illustrate their ideas presenting several Lego Mindstorms robots where morphology is critical for the robot’s behaviour. 1. FROM SYMBOLS TO BODIES Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be approached just with an engineering frame of mind, looking for algorithms that work and are able to solve a problem. However, one can settle to a philosophical one too, and consider AI a conceptual tool to get better insight on what the mind is and how it works. Within this frame of mind, just solving problems is not enough: we want our theory to have, to a certain degree, psychological reality. We want our model to embed some of the earthly David Casacuberta Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain Saray Ayala Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain Jordi Vallverdú Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain Embodying Cognition: A Morphological Perspective DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-818-7.ch7.7