Autonomous Mental Development: A New Interdisciplinary Transactions for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

A LTHOUGH some baby animals can get up and walk within hours after birth, what a human child learns during the first two years of life easily exceeds what those animals learn in their entire lifetime. Furthermore, besides the explosive growth that occurs during this period, it is now well documented that a human brain continues its lifelong development and learning [1]. The human brain is one of the most complex systems we know of in the world, composed of about 100 billion strongly interconnected neurons. A single neuron may have more than 10 000 connections to other neurons. For thousands of years, the mind has been the center of myths and human beings have endeavored to understand our own brain and the mind arising from it. With the recent advances in cognitive science and neuro-science, e.g., with the help of brain imaging technologies such as the fMRI, EEG and PET, and many other direct observation and intervention techniques, more and deeper details of the brain's inner workings are being revealed. Together with the advances in computational intelligence, computer science, and robotics, these discoveries have stimulated the birth and rapid growth of a new interdisciplinary research field known as Autonomous Mental Development (AMD) [2]. Mental development is a process during which a brain-like natural or artificial embodied system, under the control of its intrinsic species-specific developmental program, develops mental capabilities through its real-time interactions with its environment (including the brain's own internal environment) using its own sensors and effectors. The mental capabilities that develop in this way include perceptual, cognitive, behavioral, motivational, and all other mental capabilities that are exhibited by humans, higher animals, and artificial systems. The intrinsic developmental program and the interaction with the environment are both important for normal mental development: The environment affects how the developmental program in the genes works, which in turn regulates how the environment and experience give rise to the brain's internal representations, mental capabilities, and internal and external behaviors. In recognition of the gains made in this field and to support its further development, the IEEE has approved this new IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AUTONOMOUS MENTAL DEVELOPMENT (TAMD). Published four times a year, it will serve as an archival repository for significant work on this subject. The scope of TAMD includes: — Computational modeling of mental development, including mental architecture, theories, algorithms, properties and experiments; — Experimental investigations relevant to the goal …