Goertzel

Abstract

In Chaotic Logic (1994), Ben Goertzel puts together neural network theory, dynamical systems theory, and information theory so that “we can begin to understand significant aspects of the mind and brain” (p. 263). He also synthesizes insights from mathematics, biology, and physics so that “we can begin to understand biological evolution” (p. 264). His specific goal in this book is to see whether, “by combining current ideas regarding complex system dynamics with the pattern-theoretic psychology developed in my earlier books, it might not be possible to work out a dynamics of mind” (p.264).

To that end, he constructs a mathematical model of mind on the level of structure, not the level of details. He does this because “complex self-organizing systems, while unpredictable on the level of detail, are increasingly predictable on the level of structure” (p. 2). He shifts the “focus from numerical iterations to structure dynamics” (p. 2). More specifically, he shifts “up from the level of physical parameters, and take[s] a ‘process perspective’ in which the mind and brain are viewed as networks of interacting, inter-creating processes” (p. 2).