prof. roger k. moore - the university of sheffieldroger/publications/moore - extending...

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© 2012 The University of Sheffield

Extending Maturana & Varela’s symbols, FECS, Feb. 2012 slide 1

Extending Maturana & Varela's symbolic representation of autopoiesis to create a rich visual language for envisioning a wide range of enactive systems with

different degrees of complexity

Prof. Roger K. MooreProf. Roger K. Moore

Chair of Spoken Language Processing

Dept. Computer Science, University of Sheffield, UK

(Visiting Prof., Dept. Phonetics, University College London)

(Visiting Prof., Bristol Robotics Laboratory)



Maturana, H. R., & Varela, F. J. (1987). The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding. Boston, MA:

New Science Library/Shambhala Publications.

“knowing is doing”

“'enactive' … what is

known is brought forth”

“we maintain an ongoing

descriptive recursion

which we call 'I'”

“human linguistic behaviours are ...

in a domain of reciprocal

ontogenetic structural coupling”

“the phenomenon of communication

depends on not what is transmitted,

but on what happens to the person

who receives it”

“cognition is based on the

organism as a unity and on

the operational closure of

its nervous system”

“living beings are

autonomous unities”

“everything we do is a

structural dance in the

choreography of

coexistence”

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Maturana, H. R., & Varela, F. J. (1987). The Tree of Knowledge:

The Biological Roots of Human Understanding. Boston, MA:




1st-Order Unities (single cells)

physiologyorganism

behaviour

an ‘autopoietic unity’



environment

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1st-Order Unities (single cells)




organism

environment

organism

structural

coupling



2nd-Order Unities (metacellulars)

symbiosis

metacellularunity



2nd-order unity ≡ 1st-order unity

organism organism

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2nd-Order Unities (metacellulars)

physiologyorganism

a ‘cognitive’ unity

environment

behaviournervous

system






3rd-Order Unities (social systems)



coupling � coordination � communication � language

organism

environment

organism

3rd-order

coupling

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Maturana-Romesin, H., & Mpodozis, J. (2000).

The origin of species by means of natural drift.

Revista Chilena de Historia Natural, 73(2). Vernon, D., Metta, G., & Sandini, G. (2007). A survey of artificial cognitive systems: implications for the

autonomous development of mental capabilities in

computational agents. IEEE Transactions on

Evolutionary Computation, 11(2), 151-180.



Towards a Visual Language

self other

active signalling

passive signalling

passive

active

active sensing

passive sensing

active

passive

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livingorganism

non-livingmachine

facsimile

internalrepresentation

x




remotesignalling

remoteenvironments

direct messaging

reflective messaging

indirect messaging

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Societies - Networks - Swarms

fully connected clustered chain

random loop



Societies - Networks - Swarms

‘go-between’ inter-group

monarchy hierarchy

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Communications

radiation

broadcast

monocast

sending



Communications

radiation

broadcast

directional sensing

receiving

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Attention

joint attention

predator

prey



Internal Representationsspatio-temporal

memory

empathy

emulation

Theory of Mind

memory � prediction � planning � optimality

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Self-Awarenessphysical self cognitive self

self in context

imagination

consciousness



Interaction with Environment

action-perception

exploring

marking territory

pheromone trails

change state of world

change state of

self

change

state of other

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Interaction with Other

physical

communicative

empathic

linguistic



Language

declarative

imperative

interrogative

dialogue

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Language

telephone conversation



Non-Living Systems

autonomous

agent

cognitive

robot

self-aware robot

machine

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Hybrids

actor

actor

actor



Hybrids

cyborg

geminoid

cyborg

humanoid

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Human-Animal-Robot Interaction

human ⇔⇔⇔⇔ animal

human ⇔⇔⇔⇔ robot

animal ⇔⇔⇔⇔ robot



Language-Based HRI

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So What?

• The extended symbol set helps one comprehend important relationships between a variety of complex concepts (in just the same way as Maturana & Varela’s original symbols)

• The extended symbols have already been found to be useful in communicating such issues with others (e.g. in lectures/teaching)

• It’s hoped that others may find value in this approach (and will suggest further extensions and improvements)

• Any such suggestions gratefully received (now or after the workshop)



Thanks for Listening

http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/~roger

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Any Questions?

http://www.dcs.shef.ac.uk/~roger

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