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

Back to complexity index