Triune–brain Inspired Unifying View of Intelligent Computation

Paul MacLean, following the evolutionary scheme, proposed the idea of “triune–brain,” in which the cortex is organised into three layers. He proposed that the three layers are responsible for instinctual behaviour, the motivational and emotional influences, and the rational influences on decision making, respectively. We borrow this metaphor of triune–brain to propose a unifying viewpoint for bringing together disparate themes of intelligent computation. In this framework, quantitative methods of statistics are the equivalent of behaviours at the instinctual layer, rule–based approaches of the symbol processing–kind, being rational and logical, sit at the top and methods of soft computing (neural networks, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms, etc.) operate at the intermediate level. It is argued that just as all the levels are important for a functioning organism, this threelevel interaction is crucial for theories of intelligent computation.