JOINT EVOLUTION OF COGNITION, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND MUSIC

1
JOINT EVOLUTION OF COGNITION, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND
MUSIC
Ohio State University Columbus 24 April 2006
Leonid Perlovsky Technical Advisor Air Force
Research Lab
2
2500 years old QUESTION

• Aristotle, 2300 ya
• Why music, being just sounds, reminds states of
  soul?
• Kant, 1790s
• Among fine arts, in their aiding our cognitive
  abilities, music will have the lowest place it
  merely plays with senses
• Steven Pinker, 1990s
• The icing on the cake, it merely plays with some
  sensitive spots

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OUTLINE

• Algorithms neural net-s for Cog. and Lang. gt
  combinatorial complexity (CC)
• Similar to Gödels incompleteness of logic
• Mathematics of Dynamic logic overcomes CC
• Evolves from vague and fuzzy gt crisp
• Psychologically the knowledge instinct
• Cognitive role of music, brain neural mechanisms
• Language differentiates concepts
• Music differentiates emotions
• Music creates synthesis (wholeness) of psyche
  (soul)
• Cultural evolution
• Differentiation and synthesis symbiotic and
  antagonistic
• In Eastern cultures synthesis dominates
• In Western cultures differentiation dominates
• Synthesis of differentiated consciousness is
  maintained by music
• History examples from Isaiah to rap

4
ALGORITHMIC DIFFICULTIES of computational
intelligence

• Cognition and language evaluate large numbers of
  combinations
• Combinatorial Complexity (CC)
• A general problem (since the 1950s)
• Pattern recognition, rule systems, AI, neural
  networks,
• Combinations of 100 elements are 100100
• This number the size of the Universe
• gt all the events in the Universe during its
  entire life

5
COMBINATORIAL COMPLEXITY SINCE the 1950s

• CC was encountered for over 50 years
• Statistical pattern recognition and neural
  networks CC of learning requirements
• Rule systems and AI, in the presence of
  variability CC of rules
• Minsky 1960s Artificial Intelligence
• Chomsky 1957 language mechanisms are rule
  systems
• Model-based systems, with adaptive models CC of
  computations
• Chomsky 1981 language mechanisms are model-based
  (rules and parameters)
• Current ontologies, semantic web are
  rule-systems
• Evolvable ontologies present challenge

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CC AND TYPES OF LOGIC

• CC is related to formal logic
• Law of excluded middle (or excluded third)
• every logical statement is either true or false
• Gödel proved that logic is illogical,
  incomplete, the 1930s
• CC is Gödel's incompleteness in a finite system
  
• Multivalued logic eliminated the law of excluded
  third
• Excluded 3rd -gt excluded (n1), CC not resolved
• Fuzzy logic eliminated the law of excluded
  third
• Fuzzy logic systems are either too fuzzy or too
  crisp
• Adapt fuzziness for every statement at every step
  gt CC
• Logic pervades all algorithms and neural networks
  
• rule systems, fuzzy systems (degree of
  fuzziness), pattern recognition, neural networks
  (training uses logical statements)

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OUTLINE

• Combinatorial complexity (CC) of algorithms
• Mathematics of Dynamic logic overcomes CC
• Psychologically the knowledge instinct
• Higher cognitive functions
• Cognitive role of music, brain neural mechanisms
• Cultural evolution

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DYNAMIC LOGIC

• Dynamic Logic unifies formal and fuzzy logic
• initial vague or fuzzy concepts dynamically
  evolve into formal-logic or crisp concepts
• Dynamic logic
• based on a similarity between models and signals
• Overcomes CC of model-based recognition
• fast algorithms

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ARISTOTLE VS. GÖDEL logic, mind, and language

• Aristotle
• Logic a supreme way of argument (rhetoric for
  Alexander)
• Forms representations in the mind
• Form-as-potentiality evolves into
  form-as-actuality
• Logic is valid for actualities, not for
  potentialities (Dynamic Logic)
• Thought language and thinking are closely linked
• Warned not to use overly precise statements in
  logic
• Language contains the necessary uncertainty
• From Boole to Russell formalization of logic
• Logicians eliminated from logic uncertainty of
  language
• Hilbert formalize rules of mathematical proofs
  forever
• Gödel (the 1930s)
• Logic is not consistent
• Any statement can be proved true and false
• Aristotle and Alexander the Great

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STRUCTURE OF THE MIND

• Concepts
• Models of objects, their relations, and
  situations
• Evolved to satisfy instincts
• Instincts
• Internal sensors (e.g. sugar level in blood)
• Emotions
• Neural signals connecting instincts and concepts
• e.g. a hungry person sees food all around
• Behavior
• Models of goals (desires) and muscle-movement
• Hierarchy
• Concept-models and behavior-models are organized
  in a loose hierarchy

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THE KNOWLEDGE INSTINCT

• Model-concepts always have to be adapted
• lighting, surrounding, new objects and situations
• even when there is no concrete bodily needs
• Instinct for knowledge and understanding
• Increase similarity between models and the world
• Mathematically described by dynamic logic
• Emotions related to the knowledge instinct
• Satisfaction or dissatisfaction
• change in similarity between models and world
• Related not to bodily instincts
• harmony or disharmony (knowledge-world)
  aesthetic emotion

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OBJECT RECOGNITION
Three objects in noise
3 Object Image Noise
3 Object Image
y
y
x
x
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OBJECT RECOGNITION DL WORKING EXAMPLE
DL starts with uncertain knowledge, and similar
to human mind does not sort through all
possibilities, but converges rapidly on exact
solution
y
x
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HIGHER COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS

• Abstract models at higher levels of hierarchy are
  less conscious
• At every level
• Bottom-up signals are lower-level-concepts
• Top-down signals are concept-models
• Behavior-actions (including adaptation)

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IMAGINATION

• Close eyes
• Imagine a chair
• Fuzzy vague image
• Imagination is a part of thinking
• Top-down neural model-signals
• Perceived by visual cortex
• Recognition (and cognition)
• A match or resonance
• Sensory signals ltgt imagination signals
• Crisp gt more conscious vague gt less conscious

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BEAUTIFUL AND SUBLIME

• At the bottom of the mind hierarchy
• Harmony, an elementary aesthetic emotion
• At the top of the mind hierarchy
• Concepts of the meaning of life
• Beauty
• Emotion
• Beautiful objects stimulate improving the highest
  models of meaning
• Reminds us of our purposiveness
• Kant called beauty aimless purposiveness not
  related to bodily purposes
• he was dissatisfied by not being able to give a
  positive definition
• The knowledge instinct
• absence of positive definition remaines a major
  source of confusion in philosophical aesthetics
  till this very day
• Spiritual sublimity
• Emotion
• Models of behavior (realizing the highest
  meaning)

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PUBLICATIONS

• OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
• www.oup-usa.org

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OUTLINE

• Combinatorial complexity (CC) of algorithms
• Mathematics of Dynamic logic overcomes CC
• Evolution of language differentiation of
  consciousness
• Evolution of music synthesis of consciousness
• Cultural evolution

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ANCIENT FUSED CONSCIOUSNESS

• Pre-human consciousness was fused
• Concepts, emotions, and actions were one
• Undifferentiated, fuzzy psychic structures
• Monkey, when seeing a leopard
• Perceives danger (concept)
• Fears (emotion)
• Cries danger (word)
• Jumps on a tree (behavior)
• Undifferentiated, fused concept-emotion-word-behav
  ior
• Monkeys word-cry is connected to its deepest
  instincts
• Ancient human consciousness was less fused,
  still
• Concepts multiplied, but connection to instincts
  was automatic
• Possibly, until 6,000 years ago
• Psychic conflicts were unconscious and projected
  outside
• Gods, other tribes, other people

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LANGUAGE DIFFERENTIATE CONCEPTS

• Fused consciousness was differentiated due to
  Lang.
• Concepts, since 2 million year ago
• Concepts-emotions-behavior, since 6,000 years ago
• How language and cognition interact in the mind?
• A fuzzy concept has linguistic and cognitive
  models
• Model-concept cognitive-model,
  language-model
• Language and cognition are fused at fuzzy
  pre-conceptual level
• before concepts evolved
• Joint evolution (in history and in the mind)
• Initial models are vague fuzzy blobs
• language models have empty slots for cognitive
  model (objects and situations) and v.v.
• language participates in cognition and v.v.
• L C help learning and understanding each other
• help associating signals, words, models, and
  behavior

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SYMBOLIC ABILITY

• Integrated hierarchies of Cognition and Language
• High level cognition is only possible due to
  language
• Language is only possible due to cognition

language
cognition
M
M
M
M
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EMOTIONS IN LANGUAGE

• Animal vocal tract
• controlled by old (limbic) emotional system
• involuntary
• Human vocal tract
• controlled by two emotional centers limbic and
  cortex
• Involuntary and voluntary
• Human voice determines emotional content of
  cultures
• Emotionality of language is in its sound melody
  of speech

16-Sep-05
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LANGUAGEEMOTIONS AND CONCEPTS

• Conceptual contents of culture words, phrases
• Easily borrowed among cultures
• Emotional contents of culture
• In voice sound (melody of speech)
• Determined by grammar
• Cannot be borrowed among cultures
• English language
• Week connection between conceptual and emotional
• Pragmatic, high culture, but may lead to identity
  crisis
• Arabic language
• Strong connection between conceptual and
  emotional
• Cultural immobility, but strong feel of identity

16-Sep-05
23
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OUTLINE

• Combinatorial complexity (CC) of algorithms
• Mathematics of Dynamic logic overcomes CC
• Language differentiation of concepts
• Music differentiation of emotions
• Music synthesis of consciousness
• Cultural evolution

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MUSIC DIFFERENTIATESEMOTIONS

• Brain neural mechanisms
• In humans, voice sound is controlled and
  perceived by two brain centers
• Ancient undifferentiated unconscious emotional
  neural centers (in limbic system)
• Recent neural centers (in cortex) under conscious
  control
• Evolution (pre-human)
• Connected voice to emotions and instincts
• Voice expresses emotions and is perceived
  emotionally
• We inherited this ability
• Cultural Evolution (human)
• Tremendously advanced this ability gt music
• Hence the power of music to remind states of
  soul

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MUSICIANS AND EMOTIONS

• Does philosophy affect music?
• More so than we usually believe!
• Descartes explained emotions as objects
• Matthesons Doctrine of the Affects
• Followed Descartes
• Determined musical practice of the opera seria
  (serious opera)
• Ideas of Monteverdi soon turned into their
  opposite.
• By the mid 17th c. opera became stylized and
  rigidly regulated set of airs, expressing
  concrete objective, Cartesian emotions
• For thousands of years music expressed and
  created emotions
• Only in the 18th c. this became conscious in the
  idea of expression
• music creates (differentiates) emotions in
  listeners, (Avison, 1753 Beattie, 1778 )
• Psychologists still do not know this
• They discuss 8 or 12 basic emotions
• Why music gives us infinite sea of emotions?
• Science has to answer

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SCIENCE MUSIC AND EMOTIONS

• Music is fundamentally different
• from literary or visual arts
• Literature and visual arts are perceived by
  conceptual brain centers
• In cortex
• And only after conceptual understanding they
  affect emotions
• Music is directly perceived by ancient
  emotional-instinctive brain centers
• The difference is like
• Eating a steak vs. seeing a picture
• Sex vs. porno

28
OUTLINE

• Combinatorial complexity (CC) of algorithms
• Mathematics of Dynamic logic overcomes CC
• Language differentiation of concepts
• Music differentiation of emotions
• Music synthesis of consciousness
• Cultural evolution
• Joint evolution of music and consciousness

29
SYNTHESIS VS. DIFFERENTIATION

• Differentiation creation of diversity
• Differentiated crisp and clear more conscious
• Differentiation of concepts at a single level
  of the mind hierarchy
• The essence of cultural evolution
• Synthesis wholeness of psyche (soul)
• Relates conceptual to emotional and instinctual
• Relates conscious concepts to unconscious
  archetypes
• Relates language to cognition
• Up the levels example chair musical hall
• The imperative of each soul
• Symbiotic and antagonistic
• Differentiation threatens synthesis
• Synthesis is required for creative
  differentiation

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KNOWLEDGE INSTINCT AND MUSIC

• Ancient consciousness was fused
• synthesis was automatic
• Contemporary consciousness is differentiated
• synthesis requires a lot of effort
• Synth. and Diff. are the main mechanisms of the
  Knowledge Instinct
• Relationships among concepts are emotional
• Politics, religions, meanings of life, Ann relate
  to Pete emotional
• Differentiated concepts are unified into a
  coherent whole by emotions
• Synthesis requires an infinite sea of emotions
  created by music

31
OUTLINE

• Combinatorial complexity (CC) of algorithms
• Mathematics of Dynamic logic overcomes CC
• Language differentiation of concepts
• Music differentiation of emotions
• Music synthesis of consciousness
• Music is required for Cultural evolution
• Joint evolution of music and consciousness

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EVOLUTION OF CULTURES

• The knowledge instinct
• Defines the purpose of evolution more knowledge
• Two mechanisms differentiation and synthesis
• Differentiation
• More detailed concepts
• Synthesis
• Connects conceptual to instinctual emotional
  through music
• Evolution complex non-linear dynamics
• Differentiation and synthesis contradict each
  other
• Evolution requires both
• Music is essential

16-Sep-05
32
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SPLIT BETWEEN CONCEPTUAL AND EMOTIONAL

• Words may disconnect from cognition
• Words maintain their formal meanings
• Relationships to other words
• Words loose their real meanings
• Connection to cognition, to unconscious and
  emotions
• Conceptual and emotional dissociate
• Concepts are sophisticated but un-emotional
• Language is easy to use to say smart things
• but they are meaningless, unrelated to
  instinctual life

34
DISINTEGRATION OF CULTURES

• Split between conceptual and emotional
• Concepts are severed from emotions
• There is nothing to devote ones life to, or to
  sacrifice
• Split may dominate the entire culture
• Occurs periodically throughout history
• Was a mechanism of decay of old civilizations
• Old cultures grew sophisticated and refined but
  got severed from instinctual sources of life
• Ancient Acadians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks,
  Romans
• New cultures (barbarians) were not refined, but
  vigorous
• Their simple concepts were strongly linked to
  instincts, fused

35
TERRORISTS CONSCIOUSNESS

• Ancient consciousness was fused
• Concepts, emotions, and actions were one
• Undifferentiated, fuzzy psychic structures
• Psychic conflicts were unconscious and projected
  outside
• Gods, other tribes, other people
• Complexity of todays world is too much for
  many
• Evolution of culture and differentiation
• Internalization of conflicts too difficult
• Reaction relapse into fused consciousness
• Undifferentiated, fuzzy, but simple and synthetic
• The recent terrorists consciousness is fused
• European terrorists in the 19th century
• Fascists and communists in the 20th century
• Current Moslem terrorists

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OUTLINE

• Combinatorial complexity (CC) of algorithms
• Mathematics of Dynamic logic overcomes CC
• Language differentiation of concepts
• Music differentiation of emotions
• Music synthesis of consciousness
• Cultural evolution
• Joint evolution of music and consciousness
• Few examples

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EVOLUTION OF MUSIC AND CONSCIOUSNESS

• Contemporary consciousness is a new phenomenon
• Some major changes due to differentiation
• Writing 5500 ya
• Breakdown of fused consciousness 4500 ya
• Monotheism 4000 ya
• Contemporary consciousness 2500 ya
• Renaissance 600 ya
• Reformation 400 ya
• Vision of Isaiah antiphonal music first
  mentioned, 2700 ya
• Seraphim... one cried to another, and said,
  Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
• The impending catastrophe that he foresaw created
  tensions in his soul
• Synthesis was achieved by
• Attributing contradictions to the highest
  concept
• Bringing the tragedy of human condition closer to
  consciousness
• Unifying conscious unconscious through music
• Nehemiah antiphonal music accepted as divine
  service, 2450 ya
• Split choirs

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EVOLUTION OF MUSIC AND CONSCIOUSNESS (cont)

• Tonal system Renaissance, 600 ya
• The individual permeates into consciousness as a
  part of the highest
• Richness of emotions is accepted and music
  differentiates emotions
• Synthesis of conceptual and emotional
• Baroque Reformation, 300 ya
• Reformation reduced the split between God and
  human
• Heaven and Hades were placed into the human soul
• Tensions in the human soul reached the maximum
• Bach integrates personal concerns with the
  highest
• Classicism Rationalism, 250 ya
• The string of tension connecting the highest and
  everyday broke
• Synthesis settled for less, myth of rational
  science
• Pop-song is a mechanism of synthesis
• Integrates conceptual (lyric) and emotional
  (melody)
• Also, differentiates emotions
• Bach concerns are too complex for many everyday
  needs

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PUBLICATIONS

• New book is coming
• The Knowledge Instinct
• Basic Books, 2006

40
FUTURE DIRECTIONS

• Musicology music vs. consciousness in history
  and in life of every composer
• Lab studies of the knowledge instinct
• Neural
• Psychological
• Music and differentiation of emotions
• Can we measure synthesis in a lab?
• Music vs. Language
• A popular song strongly affects psyche because of
  synthesis
• The same explanation goes for poetry, operas,
  musicals
• Can we prove it in the lab?
• Melody of speech
• Relations to emotions, synthesis
• Poetry, song lyrics
• Compare languages
• Did English lost its poetics because of the vowel
  shift?

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BACK UP

• Today Differentiated Consciousness
• Synthesis vs. Differentiation
• The KI and Buddhism
• Mathematics of Synthesis

42
TODAY DIFFERENTIATED CONSCIOUSNESS

• Ancient consciousness was fused
• Psychic conflicts were unconscious and projected
  outside
• Gods, other tribes, other people
• Concepts linked to instincts and had meanings
  unconditionally
• Complexity of todays world is too much for
  many
• Concepts are not automatically connected to
  instinct
• Internalization of conflicts too difficult
• Language is in cortex under conscious control
• We can peacefully deliberate
• But the real meaning might be lost

43
SYNTHESIS VS. DIFFERENTIATION

• Differentiation creation of diversity
• Differentiated crisp and clear more conscious
• Differentiation of concepts at a single level
  of the mind hierarchy
• Synthesis wholeness of psyche (soul)
• Relates conceptual to emotional and instinctual
• Relates conscious concepts to unconscious
  archetypes
• Relates language to cognition
• Up the levels example chair musical hall
• Ancient consciousness was fused (synthesis was
  automatic)
• Contemporary consciousness is differentiated
• synthesis requires a lot of effort
• S. and D. are the main mechanisms of the
  Knowledge Instinct
• Relationships among concepts are emotional
• Political parties, religions, meanings of life,
  Ann relate to Pete emotional
• Differentiated concepts are unified into a
  coherent whole by emotions

44
THE KI AND BUDDHISM

• Fundamental Buddhist notion of Maya
• the world of phenomena, Maya, is meaningless
  deception
• penetrates into the depths of perception and
  cognition
• phenomena are not identical to things-in-themselve
  s
• Fundamental Buddhist notion of Emptiness
• consciousness of bodhisattva wonders at
  perception of emptiness in any object (Dalai
  Lama 1993)
• any object is first of all a phenomenon
  accessible to cognition
• value of any object for satisfying the lower
  bodily instincts is much less than its value for
  satisfying higher needs, the knowledge instinct
• Bodhisattvas consciousness is directed by
  knowledge instinct
• concentration on emptiness does not mean
  emotional emptiness, but the opposite, the
  fullness with highest emotions related to the
  knowledge instinct, beauty and spiritually
  sublime

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MATHEMATICS OF SYNTHESIS

• Integrating a wealth of concepts
• Undifferentiated knowledge instinct likelihood
  maximization
• Differentiated knowledge instinct
• Likelihood involves local relationships among
  concepts
• Highly-valued concepts
• Highly valued concepts acquire properties of
  instincts
• Affect adaptation, differentiation, and cognition
  of other concepts
• Differentiated forms of the knowledge instinct
• All concepts are emotionally interconnected
• This requires continuum of emotions (music)
• Differentiated emotions connect diverse concepts