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Analyzing the Explanatory Power of Bionic Systems With the Minimal Cognitive Grid

In this article, I argue that the artificial components of hybrid bionic systems do not play a direct explanatory role, i.e., in simulative terms, in the overall context of the systems in which they are embedded in. More precisely, I claim that the internal procedures determining the output of such...

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Autor principal: Lieto, Antonio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9189370/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35707550
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2022.888199
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author Lieto, Antonio
author_facet Lieto, Antonio
author_sort Lieto, Antonio
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description In this article, I argue that the artificial components of hybrid bionic systems do not play a direct explanatory role, i.e., in simulative terms, in the overall context of the systems in which they are embedded in. More precisely, I claim that the internal procedures determining the output of such artificial devices, replacing biological tissues and connected to other biological tissues, cannot be used to directly explain the corresponding mechanisms of the biological component(s) they substitute (and therefore cannot be used to explain the local mechanisms determining an overall biological or cognitive function replicated by such bionic models). I ground this analysis on the use of the Minimal Cognitive Grid (MCG), a novel framework proposed in Lieto (Cognitive design for artificial minds, 2021) to rank the epistemological and explanatory status of biologically and cognitively inspred artificial systems. Despite the lack of such a direct mechanistic explanation from the artificial component, however, I also argue that the hybrid bionic systems can have an indirect explanatory role similar to the one played by some AI systems built by using an overall structural design approach (but including the partial adoption of functional components). In particular, the artificial replacement of part(s) of a biological system can provide i) a local functional account of that part(s) in the context of the overall functioning of the hybrid biological–artificial system and ii) global insights about the structural mechanisms of the biological elements connected to such artificial devices.
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spelling pubmed-91893702022-06-14 Analyzing the Explanatory Power of Bionic Systems With the Minimal Cognitive Grid Lieto, Antonio Front Robot AI Robotics and AI In this article, I argue that the artificial components of hybrid bionic systems do not play a direct explanatory role, i.e., in simulative terms, in the overall context of the systems in which they are embedded in. More precisely, I claim that the internal procedures determining the output of such artificial devices, replacing biological tissues and connected to other biological tissues, cannot be used to directly explain the corresponding mechanisms of the biological component(s) they substitute (and therefore cannot be used to explain the local mechanisms determining an overall biological or cognitive function replicated by such bionic models). I ground this analysis on the use of the Minimal Cognitive Grid (MCG), a novel framework proposed in Lieto (Cognitive design for artificial minds, 2021) to rank the epistemological and explanatory status of biologically and cognitively inspred artificial systems. Despite the lack of such a direct mechanistic explanation from the artificial component, however, I also argue that the hybrid bionic systems can have an indirect explanatory role similar to the one played by some AI systems built by using an overall structural design approach (but including the partial adoption of functional components). In particular, the artificial replacement of part(s) of a biological system can provide i) a local functional account of that part(s) in the context of the overall functioning of the hybrid biological–artificial system and ii) global insights about the structural mechanisms of the biological elements connected to such artificial devices. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-05-30 /pmc/articles/PMC9189370/ /pubmed/35707550 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2022.888199 Text en Copyright © 2022 Lieto. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Robotics and AI
Lieto, Antonio
Analyzing the Explanatory Power of Bionic Systems With the Minimal Cognitive Grid
title Analyzing the Explanatory Power of Bionic Systems With the Minimal Cognitive Grid
title_full Analyzing the Explanatory Power of Bionic Systems With the Minimal Cognitive Grid
title_fullStr Analyzing the Explanatory Power of Bionic Systems With the Minimal Cognitive Grid
title_full_unstemmed Analyzing the Explanatory Power of Bionic Systems With the Minimal Cognitive Grid
title_short Analyzing the Explanatory Power of Bionic Systems With the Minimal Cognitive Grid
title_sort analyzing the explanatory power of bionic systems with the minimal cognitive grid
topic Robotics and AI
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9189370/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35707550
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2022.888199
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