Action memory
The greatest challenge of modern science is complexity simplification. How
to extract the quintessence of a complex system. Or better what is the quintessence
representation of a complex system. Hitherto we have been busy
collecting information on complex systems and storing it in databases.
Yet how to transform this information into a model representing what actually
goes on? Scientists attempt to simplify by reducing information to elements
(atoms), yet databases are full of elements. Think of the myriad DNA sequences
stored in huge databases? Most of them deserve to be called “Junk
DNA” since they obscure the essence. Why not study how our organism
handles complexity?
The organism has two kinds of memory: Action memory and
orientation memory.
The newborn is equipped only with the first. It moves its extremities erratically,
yet even this movement is highly coordinated. When bending its arm some
muscles are contracting and others relaxing. This coordination is stored
in an action memory. Breathing requires a more refined coordination. The
heart adjusts its pumping rate to the breathing rate. Heart rate is adjusted
also to the erratic arm movements. Whatever the baby does has to be coordinated
by all systems in the body. This knowledge or action memory is called here
Wisdom of the Body (WOB).
WOB is stored in the entire baby and
not only in its brain. It is stored in its structure. This concept is nicely
illustrated by the proliferon.
An isolated CA oscillates through 46 states. Each state stores the information
how to generate the subsequent one. This information is stored in its entire
structure. Each state is an action memory. When interacting
with the environment, like following injury (infection), each state serves
as action memory generating a process which is triggered by the infection.
In the interacting CA, action memory is a doublet {CA structure,
trigger}.
When the brain of a frog is removed, it continues living
and displays many functions of the newborn. It may even jump when triggered.
This simple experiment illustrates that many action memories in our organism
do not require the brain and they are embodied.
The baby’s erratic movements indicate that it exerts its own will
(free will) otherwise it would not budge. Its will is stored in
its entire structure. It is embodied. The baby’s purpose is to coordinate
its senses and create its orientation memory.
Neuroscientists claim that our memory resides only in the brain. It stores
images like an ongoing movie and operates like a computer memory. These
naïve metaphors obviously do not apply to the brainless frog. Unlike these
metaphors the action memory concept may be applied to handle the “Junk
DNA which permeates our databases. Given a set of DNA sequences. How
to define an action memory that will generate them all?
More on CA memory:
Memory
Emerging memory
Immunity
The memory of a complex system
Orientation memory
Sisyphus' memory: An applet
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