Volition as a Key To Artificial General Intelligence

 Artificial Intelligence  

Volition, like intelligence, is an element of interest and utility to both philosophers and researchers in artificial intelligence. Could looking at the biological roots of volition help define a way to approach artificial general intelligence?

H uman thought is considered to be our greatest attribute, but looking back at the evolutionary triggers that helped bring it about do we need to look beyond just the brain?  Were our hands more instrumental in forming our intelligence than our neocortex?  If so what can such an understanding mean for the creation of intelligent machines?

Embodiment is an area of artificial intelligence research that is increasingly having an impact.  Partially based on the improvement of robotic systems, especially in humanoid robots, embodiment is essentially the idea that intelligence resides as much in the sensory-motor system of the body as in the brain.

The research is leading to systems where the artificial intelligence is not viewed so much as a black box, but rather as a system of physical inputs and outputs guided by a control system.

In the beginning of the twentieth century that philosophers such as Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger argued that cognition resides as much in the body as in the mind.  This contrasted the longstanding dualistic view of Plato which defined humans as dualistic beings where the mind was dominant over the body.

Related articles The Clever World of Artificial Intelligence  Jason Silva Looks At Artificial Intelligence  Ben Goertzel On Aspects of Artificial General Intelligence

Plants, for instance, do not have any of the hallmarks of what would generally be considered intelligence, despite the possibility that there may be some intelligence to their biology.  The plant does not move, apart from growing or being displaced by some factor out of it's own control. 

The famous case Heidegger makes is that when one wields a hammer, it isn’t really the mind telling the hand what to do. The hand, already familiar with the tool, that knows how to work the hammer. The grip, balance, sense of mass of the hammer and tactile sense of the handle are all elements that are not necessarily processed in the brain.  The knowledge is located in the body, the mind’s understanding of the act is only a secondary reflection.
However, the act of combining this physical facility with the purposefulness of volition is what really provides the spark of intelligence.

Volition, or will, is the cognitive process by which an individual decides on and commits to a particular task or course of action. As a purposive striving, it is one of the primary human psychological functions along with affection (affect or feeling), motivation (goals and expectations), and cognition (thinking). Volitional processes can be applied consciously or they can be automatized as habits over time.

Moreover it is the incredible design of the human hand that, unlike any other biological system in nature, that enabled our expanding brains to adapt.  A symbiosis of the hand and brain was therefore the most crucial element in the explosion of intelligence human evolution.  The hand is what makes the brain's volition possible.

The hand and brain combined to not only produce the most dexterous system in nature, but one that could produce something no other species has created to such a high degree - tool making.

Other species that are considered intelligent all have this dexterity combined with a larger brain: the great apes, elephants, octopus, corvids, and others all have the rudiments of the human tool-set, but not to the level we do.  In the case of elephants, lack of stereo vision and the restriction of a single trunk may be limiting factors.  For corvids, like the crow the beak and talon are not as manipulable as the human hand.   Dolphin intelligence, while widely accepted as at a high level in the animal kingdom does not have the faculty of a hand-like manipulator to aid in tool use.  The marine environment too plays a large factor.

Apes and humans moreover have two hands.  This advantage undoubtedly provided a push to a more intelligence-based lifestyle.  Of course, the opposable thumb separates us from our chimpanzee, gorilla, bonobo and orangutan cousins.  It would seem that the more precise our biological systems manipulate the physical world, the higher our intelligence.



Arguably, without the brain-hand system even language would be held back.  Consider gestures and pointing's importance to verbal communication.  Writing certainly would be difficult to develop without the necessary tool to carve, scribe or type with.

Programming volition into artificial intelligence is a complex undertaking with impacts on psychology and philosophy.  For the development of artificial general intelligence volition and embodiment could be paths to success.  By looking at the neurological and physical tools that have led to human intelligence, we may be able to duplicate those same tools in our machines.

Moreover, by including volition as a part of an artificial general intelligence system, it follows that such an intelligence requires a highly manipulable and mobile body.


Top Image - Shadow Robotics

By 33rd Square

Subscribe to 33rd Square