Cognitive Neuroscience Meets the Community of Knowledge

Cognitive neuroscience seeks to discover the biological foundations of the human mind. One goal is to explain how mental operations are generated by the information processing architecture of the human brain. Our aim is to assess whether this is a well-defined objective. Our contention will be that it is not because the information processing of any given individual is not contained entirely within that individual’s brain. Rather, it typically includes components situated in the heads of others, in addition to being distributed across parts of the individual’s body and physical environment. Our focus here will be on cognition distributed across individuals, or on what we call the “community of knowledge,” the challenge that poses for reduction of cognition to neurobiology and the contribution of cognitive neuroscience to the study of communal processes.

Cognitive Neuroscience Meets the Community of Knowledge

Cognitive neuroscience seeks to discover the biological foundations of the human mind. One goal is to explain how mental operations are generated by the information processing architecture of the human brain. Our aim is to assess whether this is a well-defined objective. Our contention will be that it is not because the information processing of any given individual is not contained entirely within that individual’s brain. Rather, it typically includes components situated in the heads of others, in addition to being distributed across parts of the individual’s body and physical environment. Our focus here will be on cognition distributed across individuals, or on what we call the “community of knowledge,” the challenge that poses for reduction of cognition to neurobiology, the contribution of cognitive neuroscience to the study of communal processes, and the positive role of neuroscience in a pluralistic account of human cognition.

Information Processing, Information Networking, Cognitive Apparatuses and Sentient Software Systems

In the physical world, computing processes, message communication networks and cognitive apparatuses are the building blocks of sentient beings. Genes and neural networks provide complementary information processing models that enable execution of mechanisms dealing with “life” using physical, chemical and biological processes. A cognizing agent architecture (mind) provides the orchestration of body and the brain to manage the “life” processes to deal with fluctuations and maintain survival and sustenance. We present a new information processing architecture that enables “digital genes” and “digital neurons” with cognizing agent architecture to design and implement sentient, resilient and intelligent systems in the digital world.

Information Processing, Information Networking, Cognitive Apparatuses and Sentient Software Systems

In the physical world, computing processes, message communication networks and cognitive apparatuses are the building blocks of sentient beings. Genes and neural networks provide complementary information processing models that enable execution of mechanisms dealing with “life” using physical, chemical and biological processes. A cognizing agent architecture (mind) provides the orchestration of body and the brain to manage the “life” processes to deal with fluctuations and maintain survival and sustenance. We present a new information processing architecture that enables “digital genes” and “digital neurons” with cognizing agent architecture to design and implement sentient, resilient and intelligent systems in the digital world.

A porphyrin-centred fullerene tetramer containing an N@C 60 substituent

An N@C 60 -containing C 60 tetramer was synthesized by quadruple 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition (Prato) reaction. This molecule demonstrates the N@C 60 qubit's ability to form covalently linked arrays. Furthermore, it provides a promising scaffold with which to measure multiple qubit–qubit interactions; which must be well characterized for a functioning quantum information processing architecture.