According to practopoietic theory, a T3-adaptive system is the only one that can fully account for human cognition and is necessary to implement general artificial intelligence. This system has two levels of organization that serve as flexible internal places for storage of cybernetic knowledge. This means that the system has the capability to store knowledge internally at two different levels of specificity—general and specific. Moreover, these two levels of organization are related by an internal traverse (see figure).
This internal traverse is unique. It enables a T3-system to store permanently certain knowledge only in a general abstract form. A T3-system does not need to remember veridically how to perform a certain action or how to deal with certain sensory inputs. It is sufficient to memorize only general principles on how to execute those operations. The specific knowledge, needed at a given moment in time, can be then reconstructed. That way, the system may possess a large amount of general knowledge (top-2 in the knowledge graph bellow) and “activate” a subset of that knowledge—whatever is required in a given situation. This process of knowledge reconstruction is referred to as anapoiesis, a term derived from Ancient Greek “ana” meaning over, again.
About anapoiesis it can be said that it:
… is the most important traverse for explaining mental phenomena.
… is responsible for activation of our long-term memories into working memory.
… brings mental contents into our inner screen.
… uses concepts stored in long-term memory to interpret the current sensory inputs.
… is the most important mechanisms for understanding our perceptions.
… directs our attention.
… can perform logical abduction.
Also, a result of anapoiesis are expectations and biases that necessarily build while interacting with the surrounding world.
Anapoiesis in T3-systems and a lack thereof in T2-systems makes a difference between systems that satisfy Searle’s demand for understanding and systems that perform a certain job well but do not have an understanding of what they are doing.
More can be read about anapoiesis in the following manuscript: .
The importance of anapoiesis for artificial intelligence is discussed here.
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