BI 246 Andrea Gambarotto: Cognition Requires Agency

Andrea Gambarotto discusses how Hegel's account of the intrinsic purposiveness of organisms contrasts with mechanistic explanation and connects to enactive approaches in cognitive science. The conversation considers autonomy, constraint closure, dialectics, the relations among life, mind, cognition, intelligence and consciousness, and why natural intelligence may differ from engineered artificial intelligence. It also examines whether large language models should be described as minded or cognitive and whether octopuses may be highly intelligent without being conscious.