Nathaniel Virgo - University of Hertfordshire, UK
Biography
Title: Goal-directed behaviour and meaningfulness: towards a mathematical framework
Abstract: A system and its environment can always be regarded as merely two coupled physical/dynamical systems. However, if our system is performing some kind of task - an organism staying alive, for example, or a robot solving a maze - then we often regard it as more than that: its internal states seem, sometimes, to carry meaning about the environment. The nature of this 'meaning' has been hotly debated for decades. Here we propose a simple mathematical framework that relates (i) the idea of a _viability boundary_ as found in the works of Ashby, Maturana and Varela, Beer, and others, with (ii) the notion of an _interpretation map_ from our own previous work, which can be regarded as assigning meaning to the states of a system. Our goal is not to take a strong philosophical position but to unpick the subtle relationship between viability and meaning; we believe that the mathematical insights are useful regardless of what philosophical position one takes. This is joint work with Martin Biehl, Manuel Baltieri and Matteo Capucci, although any philosophical opinions expressed are mine.
