Cars, Compositionality, and Consciousness

compositional and dynamic management of behavior. Continuing some earlier discussions about the link between this kind of neural models and the conscious appraisal of time (Tani 2004), Tani suggests that when anticipation successively predicts the sensorimotor flow during the execution of a familiar behavioral sequence (e.g. driving on a familiar road), there is nothing to be “conscious” about. However, when a “breakdown” occurs, i.e., when there is a gap between the anticipation of the topdown system and the actual sensorimotor flow (e.g. a child crossing the street), the system has to perform intensive regression, which is an adjustment of the “self”. This bottom-up process may result in the conscious experience associated with the unexpected event. Compositionality and consciousness are likely to be intrinsically linked. The experience of driving a car is made of continuous shifts between unconscious “incorporated” sequences and small moments of awareness. To understand these bottom-up and topdown dynamics, we need plausible neural models of the emergence of compositional behavior. Tani’s neurorobotic experiments are important steps in this direction.