Embodiment is an approach to Artificial Intelligence that maintains that the only way to create general intelligence is to use programs with 'bodies' in the real world (i.e. robots). According to R. Brooks we function in the world simply by being part of it. He implements these ideas in his robots in the form of the subsumption architecture. George Lakoff says that:” Anything we can think or understand is shaped by, made possible by, and limited by our bodies, brains, and our embodied interactions in the world."
Yet what are these ‘bodies’ which control our reasoning? For neuroscientists embodiment means the central nervous system (CNS) and its sensory organs. Some include also the autonomous nervous system which among other conveys our emotions. Which leaves out myriad processes in the body. Yet true embodiment includes all of them. It involves the entire complexity of the organism
Such an embodiment seems difficult to imagine and even implement. Nevertheless it can be illustrated (modeled) with cellular automata. The CA[rule = 600] oscillates at a period of 46. When one of its bits is switched (injured) the entire CA responds. In other words its response is embodied in its entire structure.
You may explore CA embodiment
in an applet.
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