Joscha Bach

“[C]omputation is about doing the work... executing a transition function.”

“All our access to mathematics... is because we do computation. We can understand mathematics because our brain can compute some part of mathematics, very very little of it and to a very constrained complexity, but enough so we can map some of the infinite complexity and noncomputability of mathematics into computational patterns which we can explore.”

“Mathematics is the kingdom of specification and computation is the kingdom of implementation. It's very important to understand this difference.”

“Computation is different. Computation can exist. It starts with an initial state, and then you have a transition function. You do the work. You apply the transition function [and] you get into the next state. Computation is always finite.”

“[C]ausal models can be weakly deterministic, basically associative models, which tell you if this state [S1] happens, it is quite probable that this one [S2] comes afterwards. Or you can get to a strongly determined model... one which tells you, if you are in this state [S1], and this condition [c1] is met, you're going to go exactly in this state [S2]. If this state is not met, or a different condition [c2] is met, you go into this state [S3]. And this is what we call an algorithm. Now you're in the domain of computation.”

“[O]ur best bet is not just to have a single classification with filtering. ...[I]nstead... take the low level of input and get a whole universe of features that is interrelated. ...[W]e have different levels of determinations. At the lowest level we have percepts. At a slightly higher level we have simulations, and on an even higher level we have a concept landscape.”

“If you take the activation at different levels of these networks and you... enhance this activation a little... you get stuff that looks very psychadelic, which might be similar to what happens if you put certain illegal substances into people and enhance the activity on certain layers of their visual processing.”

“[E]verything that we're going to do is some approximation of Solomonoff Induction. ...[O]ur concepts cannot really refer to facts in the world out there. We do not get the truth by referring to stuff out there in the world. We get meaning by suitably encoding the patterns in our systemic interface.”

“What's the best algorithm that you should be using to fix your world model? ...This question ...has been answered for the first time by {{w|Ray Solomonoff}} in the 1960s. He discovered an algorithm that you can apply when you've discovered that you're a robot and all you've got is data. What is the world like? ...[H]is algorithm is... a combination of Bayesian Reasoning, Induction and Occam's Razor. ...[W]e can mathematically prove that we cannot do better than Solomonoff Induction. Unfortunately, Solomonoff Induction is not quite computable.”

“Just as the extensive theoretical bodies of physics, chemistry, [etc.]... unified theories of cognition are not isolated statements discarded when... predictions [are] refuted. Rather they are paradigms... that direct a research program...”

“Functionalist psychology is... compatible with... scientific positivism, because it makes emperically falsifiable predictions... The... model is capable of producing [or predicting] specific behavior [and] [t]he model is the sparsest, simplest one...”

“The goal of building cognitive architectures is to achieve an understanding of mental processes by constructing testable information processing models.”

“According to [the {{w|physical symbol system}} hypothesis]... an implemented {{w|Turing machine}}, has the necessary and sufficient means for general intelligent action. ...[A]ny system that exhibits general intelligence will ...be a physical symbol system. ...[A]ny physical symbol system of sufficient size can be organized further to exhibit general intelligence."”

“[A] functionalist model of cognitive processes might be implemented as a computer program (computationalism)... hand in hand with... Artificial Intelligence.”

“To understand... mind, we have to ask how a system capable of constructing has to be built...”

“[T]he notions we process... are systematically structured information, making up a dynamic system. The description of such... is the domain of cybernetics or systems science... constructive methods that allow the representation of functionality.”

“What the universe makes visible... to any observer... is... functionality.”

“Everything we know about ourselves is... ordering... over features available at the interface; we know of mental phenomena only insofar as they are patterns or constructed over patterns.”

“To perceive means... to find order over patterns; these orderings are what we call objects. ...[I]t amounts to ...identification of these objects by their related patterns ...intuitively ...its features ...”

“Functional constructivism is based on... philosophical constructivism... that all knowledge about the world is based on... our systematic interface. ...We do not ...recognize ...objects of our environment; we construct them over the regularities ...at the system interface of our cognitive system.”