6.

Structure and Learning

- Yes, Kaidie, I was thinking of that Com of yours, that colony of agents that is going to form the
information realm. It’s bound to totally transform the world.
- You think so, Duncan? How’s that?
- By becoming fully knowledgeable. Although, will it also attain wisdom? That is a crucial
question.
- You seem to think knowledge is the key. But isn’t knowledge an afterthought, so to speak, in the
evolution of the world? The world existed long before there were sentient beings to have
knowledge of it, now didn’t it?
- Oh yes, quite right, Kaidie. But knowledge is merely a reflection of the underlying structure of
the world. I am referring to the Logos that ties it all together.
- Uh huh?
- Even long before there were beings that could perceive the world, the world was still a
structured entity, unfolding according to its own laws.
- Yes, I am sure you are right. If today, we all disappeared, the world would still go on according
to its own rhythm, it would continue to flow.
- Precisely. We sentient beings do invent a lot in building our representations of the world, but we
don’t invent the whole thing.
- And when we realize we went wrong, we make corrections to our knowledge, right? We learn.
- Yes, learning is a central issue in all this. But first, let’s see more about the Logos.
- Ok, I like that term too. From the ancient Greeks, isn’t it?
- Yes, it refers to the underlying structure that makes everything coherent, that enables us to
comprehend the world. You see, our rationality is not independent of the structure of the world, it
flows from that very Logos.
- It evolved from it?
- Sure, all sentience adapted as it grew. All coherence that we now perceive in our picture of the
world is a reflection of that underlying structure.
- The world is a very unified place, isn’t it?
- All one indeed. Our representations of the world picture the regularities we perceive in the
world, regularities that are there before we perceive them. We just pick them out and make use of
them. That’s part of the adaptation that was involved in the evolution of sentience.
- Oh, the evolutionary framework is so important in coming to grips with this, isn’t it?
- You’re so right, Kaidie. It’s all part of the grand unfolding of the universe. So rationality and the
coherent logic it implies mapped out onto the structure that was present there in the world, in its
arrangements and in its processes.
- Yes, I see - they all follow natural laws after all.
- That’s right. And our entire knowledge, our representations of the world, are an attempt at
capturing those laws, at using the underlying structure to our benefit. The whole information
superstructure is overlaid onto the actual physical structure.
- Although it goes on far beyond it as well, for sure.
- True. We have not only information about the physical realm, but also information about all the
realms.
- And information about information. It goes on and on.
- Yes, you’re right. A lot of knowledge gets built on prior knowledge. Well, now, we’re getting
into learning, my friend.
- Good. It’s a hot topic amongst agents.
- As we repeatedly observe the regularities in the world, we begin to make memories of them and
then come to expect them in similar circumstances.
- These memories are just information, aren’t they? Patterns in our brains... well in our circuits in
my case. Just signals laid down that bring to mind certain patterns, certain expectations.
- Yes, it is all information, used to mediate our future actions in the world, an interface between us
and the world. If we accumulate memories, it is to help us cope with the world later on, it helps us
be more adaptive.
- An actional view of knowledge.
- Right, Kaidie. We deal with each of the world’s surprises in one of three ways: we react
immediately to it, we think about it and come up with the most appropriate action, or we use
what we learnt from the past if there is a memory available.
- I see. So any regularities from the past will help us cope with the current situation.
- Yes, and there are those regularities. They are the Logos we were talking about earlier.
- So that’s how we learn?
- Well, as I can make out, there are two types of learning, although of course, they are related.
Call one association forming and the other model building. The first simply encodes regularities
we perceive in the world - the sun comes up and it gets warm, the sun is at mid-day and it gets
very hot, the sun goes down and it gets dark.
- Ok, those are all associations - a condition and a result, given this and that comes about... You
touch fire and you get burned. Just simple connections between two things.
- Right. These things occur repeatedly in our experience, or very strongly in the case of getting
burned, and an association is formed, a connection is made in our neurons.
- So later on, when the condition arises again, we know the result that will follow. We have
learned.
- That’s the first kind, just rote learning through repetition or through a crucially sensitive event.
We form associations, memories that will help us in the future task of living.
- and the second kind? You called it model building. Building internal representations of the
world, right?
- Sure. This is more than just associating two things together. It is using our reason to create a
coherent picture of a phenomenon, putting all kinds of things together in an internal model of
what is out there.
- So this one involves understanding, combining things in ways that will fit well together, so that
they make sense. Not at all rote.
- Exactly right, Kaidie. You’ve kit it on the head. This kind of learning is full of meaning, it
includes an understanding of why things are the way they are. It results in a working model. A
mental model of course, built on rationality.
- On Logos?
- Yes indeed. But both types of learning derive from the Logos, you know.
- How’s that, Duncan?
- Well, association forming derives from the regularities that appear in the world...
- And those regularities are there before we perceive them, I see. They are inherent in the
structure of the world, part of the Logos that binds everything together.
- Right on, Kaidie. Now, we may not know why things are bound together the way they are - if
we did, we would start building a model of it. But we still see the regularities, learn them and use
that learning later on.
- Uh huh. We don’t have to understand the regularities to profit from them. We can still use them
to advantage, even without knowing what they’re all about.
- Precisely. Just associations between things that we perceive together even though we don’t
know why. The underlying Logos is there in the world, despite our not understanding it.
- Whereas with model building, we develop an explanation of why things are the way they are. It
goes beyond mere associations.
- Indeed, Kaidie. We gain partial sight of the Logos, a small common sense view of how the
structure of the world is, how it works.
- Oh, fascinating, Duncan! And I guess science is just a formalization of that, right?
- Yep. Small models combining together to form insights with wider scope, on and on. Science
still is a partial view of the Logos, though.
- Yes, I suppose that if we had perfect knowledge of everything, then the Logos would be fully
transparent, we would see it in full, explain anything we wanted to.
- But we’re not that bright, there are so may mysteries yet to be explained.
- But then, as we were saying the other day, as we become brighter and collaborate in the
emergence of Com, well, all remains possible.
- Very true.
- Now, Duncan, that Logos itself implies regularities, right? I mean, it all fits together. Our models
that we build, they are not random.
- Oh no, not random at all, unless they are temporarily wrong of course. The reason we
understand a model is because it works. Repeatedly so. Time after time. My internal model of the
solar system tells me that the sun will come up tomorrow morning and so it does, every day I
look. If it didn’t, then my model would be in error.
- But not if it were raining!
- Oh you are a funny one, Kaidie!
- I know. Oh well...
- Our models work, they explain things, they predict what will happen and so it does happen.
They are very pragmatic in the end. The model becomes associated with a correct prediction.
- All part of the Logos.
- Yes. The Logos is the full set of laws that underlie the workings of the universe. Through
evolution and the adaptive force that is involved there, living beings have come to represent
internally some of those workings. That is knowledge.
- Only some of them though. Through reason and common sense.
- Right. And there is still a great deal of the Logos that we have not grasped.
- So, Duncan, if I catch your drift, learning involves trying to build a model of what is going on,
that is, understanding a phenomenon, and failing that, we rely on simple association forming in a
rather rote manner.
- Exactly so, Kaidie. The two forms of learning allow us to capture some of the Logos and form
memories that will be useful to us later on.
- All very much geared to living and surviving, isn’t it?
- Uh huh. Learning followed the same path as all other evolutionary developments.
- So we end up with internal knowledge of the world, a representation of what’s going on out
there.
- Yes, and that is what is fascinating. It results in us creating a parallel world of sorts, internal in
our brains... or in your circuits in your case. That mental world is a virtual world, not unlike the
ones you roam on your network. The mental world is not the real world, only a representation of
it.
- And not always a faithful representation either. Sometimes we err in our assumptions.
- That’s the whole issue of truth, an altogether other problem.
- Yes, far less interesting too.
- Now, look Kaidie, we perceive the world, make internal representations of it... that’s our
knowledge. Then, we use that knowledge to build software virtual worlds to roam around in.
- And eventually coming to the point where the virtual and the real are so merged as to become
confused. Reality augmented by the virtual. Aye, where are we going with all this, Duncan?
- It’s rather unclear indeed, isn’t it? But if we just stick with the mental for now, we have two
distinct worlds... the actual physical world, and then the abstract mental world of our
representations.
- Right, body and mind. To which we then now add artifactual virtuality.
- Yes, I guess so. Which gives us a threesome. And who knows what is to come, eh?
- Oh, indeed, my pal.
- Well, there is that information realm, that Com of yours.
- Now, how does that fit in, Duncan?
- It seems to be a question of locus. When life first came about, everything was on a minuscule
scale. Eventually, cells formed, and all information was in the DNA within the cells. Then
organisms took shape and primitive nervous systems appeared. Soon enough, brains evolved and
became the repository of associations and later on mental models. Knowledge was localized
within the brain.
- And still is.
- Oh yes, but no longer only there. Each individual organism with a brain carried around its own
knowledge base in its memories. But then, humans invented culture, which is in effect a way of
exteriorizing their knowledge and representing it in artifacts.
- So it becomes collective, yes, I see.
- Some of it becomes refined into science...
- And from there into technology and new individuals like us agents, right, Duncan?
- That’s it. So knowledge gradually shifts its locus. From the cellular to the individual, to the
collective, to new artifacts. And it’s only a quick jump from there to Com and the information
realm.
- Which is simply a new, amplified, collective. A more universal one.
- Yes. The whole history of the progression is interesting. There is initially an individual locus, but
then individuals coalesce to form a collective. In fact a higher-order structure emerges and it takes
on an individuality of its own, it becomes a more structured individual. And the process repeats
itself.
- Let’s see... These individuals form a new collective and that in turn becomes a new individual...
Yes, there is a cycle going on there, isn’t there?
- It would seem so. Always reaching to a higher level of structure. In the case of Com, it’s all
happening in the abstract information realm.
- On and on, until the Logos itself is reached.
- Yes, which would imply a full grasp of the universe.
- The universe would be its own individual, then, no? The universe as a sentient being, controlling
itself as one individual.
- Yes, indeed, Kaitie. And what would that lead to, I wonder?
- Uh huh... full knowledge and full control. Very much beyond the petty concerns of individual
living beings, but yet with their best interest in mind too.
- Hum...

And Duncan slipped off into reverie, while Kaidie, sensing his mood, gently said goodbye and
went off to other things herself.