Talking about the “nervous system” in isolation from the rest of the body and its environment is like trying to figure out what is the automobile about by looking at its motor running on a stand. You need to look at where the “rubber hits the road” to really understand what’s going on.

Only “bodies can do things” not the isolated nervous systems. Of course, brains have a #function within the body, the same way that individual bodies (with their respective brains) have a function within a social organization.

The nervous “(sub)system” has no need to be in direct contact with the environment, but it also can’t function or even survive (is not viable) without the support of all the other body parts, some of which are and must be in direct contact with the #environment.

According to #HH_Pattee, The whole purpose of the nervous system and cognition is the survival of the body:

“The major function of the brain is actually not to sit around and discuss things like we are doing now, but it is to make decisions - it has to decide whether to fight or run or eat …”

https://www.academia.edu/6576779/Rosen_and_Pattee_on_Theoretical_Biology

Thinking about the nervous “system” in isolation is typical for #Cybernetics thinking which separates the #control (management) system from the #controlled system (the plant) and does not recognize the fact that they depend on each other and should be thought of as one system.

People are “social animals” and the emergent capability and knowledge of an #organization as a system of people are quite different from the collection of all the individual learning capabilities and knowledge of the individuals it is composed of, so it is, therefore, appropriate to treat the organization as another dynamical #learning system.

#HH_Pattee
“Evolving Self-reference: Mater, Symbols, and Semantic Closure”
https://www.academia.edu/2947945/Evolving_Self_reference_Matter_Symbols_and_Semantic_Closure

Paraphrased #HH_Pattee from the same source:

This “#error_duality” (error in the #descriptions or error in the #operation) can be identified at all organizational levels:

➡️ Computer programs may have either an error in the program itself (#software error) or an error may happen because of the machine (#hardware error) that executes an otherwise correct program.

➡️ At higher levels it is possible to make an error in the choice of algorithm which is being programmed or even make a mistake in the choice of problem that the developed algorithm is supposed to solve.

➡️ Similarly in social and political organizations we distinguish between a faulty policy and the failure to execute a policy properly.

In other words, we try to distinguish between the error in our #models of reality which leads to incorrect policies (#predictions and descriptions), and the error in #control #constraints which leads to a failure of a (good) policy implementation.

Biological physicist #HH_Pattee on the futility of the attempts to create artificial #intelligence by reverse engineering #language.

“No amount of #semiotic information, thought, or discourse alone can cause the body to move. It takes some #physics. As Waddington has pointed out, the first function of #language was to cause #actions, not to make #statements.”

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12304-009-9061-5

#LLMs #AGI #AI

According to #HH_Pattee there are

“two meanings for #machine and two meanings for #failure”:

“By the machinery of nature we mean the failure-proof #laws that we assume underlie the predictable behavior of matter. When we find certain types of #natural events unpredictable we assume that our description or theory of these events are failures, but not the events themselves.”

On the other hand, while we assume that the #rules of arithmetic are not subject to failure, it is clear that a physical machine #designed to execute these rules may fail all too often.”

https://www.academia.edu/863887/The_role_of_instabilities_in_the_evolution_of_control_hierarchies

According to #HH_Pattee there are

“two meanings for #machine and two meanings for #failure”:

“By the machinery of nature we mean the failure-proof #laws that we assume underlie the predictable behavior of matter. When we find certain types of #natural events unpredictable we assume that our description or theory of these events are failures, but not the events themselves.”

On the other hand, while we assume that the #rules of arithmetic are not subject to failure, it is clear that a physical machine #designed to execute these rules may fail all too often.”

Historical introduction to #LAWS, #LANGUAGE and #LIFE
#HH_Pattee's classic papers on the #physics of #symbols, #epistemology, #quantum_measurement, #complementarity, #hierarchy_theory, and #artificial_life, with contemporary commentaries by Howard Pattee and Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi.

https://www.academia.edu/2767702/Historical_introduction_to_LAWS_LANGUAGE_AND_LIFE