Page 96 - Artificial Intelligence in the Age of Neural Networks and Brain Computing

84 CHAPTER 4 The Brain-Mind-Computer Trichotomy: Hermeneutic Approach

brain, the whole body, and of its environment. What does it mean to understand a
phenomenon? A pragmatic answer is to synthesize the behavior from elements.
Many scientists believe if they are able to build a mathematical model based on
the knowledge of the mechanism to reproduce a phenomenon and predict some other
phenomena by using the same model framework, they understand what is happening
in their system. Alternatively, instead of building a mathematical model one may
wish to construct a robot. Embodied cognitive science now seems to be an interface
between neuroscience and robotics: the features of embodied cognitive systems
should be built both into neural models, and robots, and the goal is to integrate
sensory, cognitive, and motor processes.
It is not yet clear whether there is any reason that a more general framework
of computational framework would not be able to integrate the dynamic inter-
action of mind with its environment, but there to build neuromorphic and
brain-based robots by combining computational neuroscience and traditional
robotics [24].

2. HERMENEUTICS
Hermeneutics is a branch of continental philosophy which treats the understanding
and interpretation of texts. For an introduction for nonphilosophers, please see
Ref. [25]. One of the most important concepts in hermeneutics is the hermeneutic
circle. This notion means that the definition or understanding of something employs
attributes which already presuppose a definition or understanding of that thing. The
method is in strong opposition to the classical methods of science, which do not
allow such circular explanations. Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900e2002) writes [26]:
“Understanding always implies a preunderstanding which is in turn prefigured by
the determinate tradition in which the interpreter lives and that shapes his
prejudices.” (The Nobel Prize winner physicist Steven Weinberg [27] wrote: “.
A physicist friend of mine once said that in facing death, he drew some consolation
from the reflection that he would never again have to look up the word ‘hermeneutic’
in the dictionary”).

2.1 SECOND-ORDER CYBERNETICS
The “second order cybernetics” (initiated by Heinz von Foerster and Roger Ashby)
considered that the observer and the observed are the parts of the same system, and
the result of the observation depends on the nature of their interaction.
Heinz von Foerster (1911e2002), born and raised in Vienna, served as the
secretary of the last five Macy conferences. (Between 1958 and 1975, he directed
the very influential Biological Computer Laboratory at the University of Illinois
at UrbanaeChampaign.) He constructed and defended the concept of second-
order cybernetics. As opposed to the new computer science and control engineering,