Nature as a Network of Morphological Infocomputational Processes for Cognitive Agents

Abstract

This paper presents a view of nature as a network of infocomputational agents organized in a dynamical hierarchy of lev- els. It provides a framework for unification of currently disparate understandingsofnatural,formal,technical,behavioralandsocialphe- nomena based on information as a structure, differences in one system that cause the differences in another system, and computation as its dynamics,i.e.physicalprocessofmorphologicalchangeintheinforma- tional structure. We address some of the frequent misunderstandings regarding the natural/morphological computational models and their relationships to physical systems, especially cognitive systems such as living beings. Natural morphological infocomputation as a conceptual frameworknecessitatesgeneralizationofmodelsofcomputationbeyond thetraditionalTuringmachinemodelpresentingsymbolmanipulation, and requires agent-based concurrent resource-sensitive models of com- putation in order to be able to cover the whole range of phenomena from physics to cognition. The central role of agency, particularly ma- terial vs. cognitive agency is highlighted