Computational and Dlmamical Languages for Autonomous Agents

Mat chapters in this baak foars on sone aspect ol spuifcally |dnnan costtilion. Raruly Ben, by conbast, here takes as his imnediLle taryet the behapiors of sinple' a*ifcidl, ircectlike creatufts.'Yet the issues nised and the ltsights gained go ditectly to the hea* of what it is to r derctanl krma cogtlitiott itself The latto parL of this chaptet contai s a discttssion af detailai nadelins Hele Beet stuAies the behaoior of hDo ki ds af creature, one tha! perfatms chanotaris (orientins to u so'rc af chenical stin!\atia , such as t'ood) and anothu siLlessed nilkifls crcal re. Both crentwes haue "bnirc" that are netral netwa* rlynamical systens uhose panmeters were obtai ed bv at1 atlilicial eooLttionarv process Bul shaws in detail hou to deploy the tools and cancepts af d4anics in nderstlndllls these crcat res as dynannal svstens conptised of ltn agent coupled uilh its erci nntwnL Thk disctqsian 15 an elesnnt case study in how compler behaaiors can be 'nddslood Avnannallv, and will be useful to anyone uonlning how dynanical approaches might be bro sht ta beat in thinkihg abo t asPects of h1lna11 casnitian. I'1 a bider percpectioe, Beer's wark can be sem as rculting fron his sLanis on hDa deep theafttical issues; these ate dkcussed in the earliel sectia s. The lirst iss'e is whethd tust utqrress is to be made fu stuAying the kind of hish lexel, "dismbodied" nsnitipe processes on uhich a*ilicial intellisence (AI) has tnditio ally focvsed at ntheL a tononolre, enbodied asents irt actioe participrtian with s t*l enoinn' nent. The second iss e is wheLher comp ttttionalin al dv ltm cs prooids Lhe best genual frameworL within which Lo underctand cos"itire prccesses. Bet i5 especiaLlv conemed Lo enphasize that canpstaLiaflalism the ckin that cosnilipe systans arc isterull! dganized as conp httiotul svstems is an emPincal hwothesis thzt is subject to scientifc eunlulitian ard possible rcfuIlttian. Beer charfu situs ulth Lhe stuAv of autonolnous asents and with dywltlics as the prefuable fnneuark. Now, kmans ate autanamo s agmh, but arc nrrently much too conpler ta be scientifcltlly destibable as such in thei en neL! Fot thts rezson, Beer foc'f,es on simplet aftilcial svste"E t'ot uhich it is posslble to detelop detailed and lisarous scientilic theaties. These svstens and rhe uhdeEtandins they prcmole constit te sLeppinssto es in the racess af understanding how huma s neSotiite lheir oun, lrtsllv morc compLer enonantnents.