On the Functional Nature of Cognitive Systems

Abstract

The functional nature of cognitive systems is outlined as a general conceptual model where typical notions of cognition are analyzed apart from the physical realization (biological or artificial) of such systems. The notion of function, one of the main logical bases of mathematics, logic, linguistics, physics, and computer science, is shown to be a unifying concept in analyzing cognition components: learning, meaning, comprehension, language, knowledge, and consciousness are related to increasing levels in the functional organization of cognition.

Keywords

• neural networks
• cognitive systems
• learning
• machine learning
• large language models
• transformers