Colloquium Nov 18th: What sort of network is a world-model?

A mind figures out not just ‘what is’ (world-tracking) but ‘what is possible’ (world-shaping). I propose that to achieve this, its primary task is not just to reduce mismatch between expectation and observation, but to increase internal coherence through abstract thought, imagination, and experimentation. It must synthesize discrete fragments of knowledge and experience into an integrated whole, generating new realizations and perspectives, as needed. The result is a world-model capable of prioritizing, adapting old solutions to new situations, and synthesizing concepts from different domains. I show how autocatalytic networks are uniquely suited to model such a structure. While originally applied to the origin of life (and the genesis of biological evolution), they are equally well-suited to model the origin creative minds (and the genesis of cultural evolution). They are simply an abstract formal setting for modeling self-organization and emergence, and for analyzing how complex networks are decomposable into smaller units. A unique feature of autocatalytic networks is that elements both external and internal to the system can catalyze, or trigger, the generation of new elements that ‘connect the dots.’

In cognitive autocatalytic networks, the elements are mental representations of concepts, memories, and ideas. I show how autocatalytic networks have been used to model the origin and evolution of creative cognition, the emergence of integrated conceptual structure in the mind of a child, cultural lineages and discontinuities, and even psychotherapeutic interactions between a therapist and a client.

Dr. Liane Gabora is an interdisciplinary cognitive scientist and Full Professor at the University of British Columbia, (Okanagan). Her research investigates how creativity works, how minds organize knowledge into coherent worldviews, and how these processes drive cultural evolution, using computational and mathematical models as well as empirical studies with human participants. She has given invited talks internationally and has over 200 scholarly publications. She has a book forthcoming from Cambridge University Press entitled Dawn of the Creative Mind: The Origin and Evolution of Culture and Innovation. In addition to her academic work, she has published eight short stories and recently completed a novel, Quilandria: A Novel about Minds, Ideas, and Other Worlds.

Zoom link: https://carleton-ca.zoom.us/j/94567415550