Is metarepresentation an effect of self-organization?

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Is metarepresentation an effect of
self-organization?
Wolfgang Wildgen

• Meta-representation and (self-) consciousness
• Emergence of higher levels of self-organizationin
  biological and semiotic systems
• Wednesday, September 27 Friday, September 29,
  2006

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Introduction Reflexion on the concept of
metarepresentation

• Some being, which is the container of the
  representation, e.g., a human mind, which
  perceives and thinks. We call it the
  repraesentans.
• Some entity being represented which is not
  directly accessible (absent). We call it the the
  repraesentandum. In many cases it is considered
  as in the focus of the attention of (a), or it is
  the goal of the intention of (a) (in the
  vectorial sense defined by Brentano).
• Some entity accessible to (a) which organizes the
  link between (a) and (b) and provides a specific
  organization for the system of such
  representations. Peirce calls it the
  repraesentamen.

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This discussion gives us rather two bad choices

1. A concept of representation to which we may add
   (theoretically) an unlimited number of arguments
   (beyond the classical three ones found already in
   Augustine) and which is not only static but
   becomes a kind of unspecific basket of components
   without a clear profile.
2. A very rudimentary notion which refers to
   processes in the brain (as a proper part of a
   biological entity). As the details we know about
   the dynamics of the brain stem from studies in
   animals, this concept does not properly sepa-rate
   human from nonhuman representations.

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The prefix meta

• The prefix meta (from the Greek adverb µeta)
  means inside of, after and the Latin noun meta
  means center, point of revolution.
• Meta in Latin has a rather clear meaning as the
  turning point in a circus (for races). If
  representation is a goal-directed process, then
  the turning point after which the race comes back
  to the start/goal could mark the process of
  metarepresentation.

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In a circular motion the path may return to a
point identical with the start or deviate from
it. If the deviations are damped, the path is
stable if differences grow progressively, the
attractor becomes chaotic.
The Poincaré map of a base cycle and a path
deviating from it
(source http//www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/research/vis/d
ynsys/Poincare97/)
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Vector fields of point reproductions
There is an intermediate case which is shown in
pattern reproduction and its self-organization.
Every cycle abolishes parts of the original
pattern, but there are one (or several)
attractors to which all divergences tend. In the
examples discussed by Stadler and Wildgen (1987),
a text is reproduced in different series of
reproduction. Some elements of the text are
preserved, others change and finally one or
several core texts emerge from the process of
cyclic reproduction. In the case of experimental
visual patterns reproduction, the underlying
mechanism becomes even clearer.
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Literature on the topic metarepresentation

• Linguistic utterances are public representations
  and typical objects of mental metarepresentation.
  Speakers in intending an utterance, and hearers,
  in interpreting an utterance, mentally represent
  it as a bearer of specified content, that is they
  metarepresent it. (Sperber, 2000 121)
• Dennett (2000) considers a path from outside in
  (ibidem 21). The overt public use of signs is a
  clear indication of their metarepresentational
  nature (every body can perceive them, reflect on
  them, they are a common good like space, light,
  air, etc.). If we follow this line,
  metapresentations first become supra-individual,
  then social and finally elements of a cultural
  context, to which individuals respond (elements
  of his life world).

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Homunculus in the brain individual consciousness cultural context world

Scale of the shifting concept of
metarepresentation
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The phylo- and ontogenetic evolution of
metarepresentation

• In actual behavior embedded in a situation. Such
  processes belong to microgenesis.
• In the ontogenetic development, studies have
  revealed that two- to three year old children do
  not yet distinguish between a state of affairs p
  and a belief that p.
• Autistic children and adults are impaired in
  their evaluation of the states of mind of others
  (often regarding emotions).
• Schizophrenia is a late-onset breakdown of a
  metarepresentational system

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Phylogenetic evolution

• Current results of experimental studies and
  observations in the wild show imitation and
  simple mind-reading as mani-festations of
  metarepresentation are more common in great apes
  (e.g. chimpanzees)) than in monkeys.
• As the scenarios of the evolution of human
  language diverge vastly (between an origin two
  million years ago with the species Homo or 50,000
  years ago with the first manifestations of cave
  art), the rise of true metarepre-sentation
  could be very recent.
• In order to avoid such a quasi-exclusion of all
  living beings, I shall take another avenue which
  may be given the etiquette self-organization or
  emergent structure.

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Models of self-organization, emergence of higher
complexity
In a more general way every natural system can
have such "phases" or states not altered by small
changes in parameters. The phase is a locus of
macroscopic stability. A physical system (any
system) consists of a number of components (e.g.
water in Figure 1, or a mixture of water and salt
in other cases, etc.). These components are
assumed to be independent of each other.
The phase space of water
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Prototypical system in transient equilibrium
Bénard-cells (cf. Haken, 1990 5 )
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Extension to cognition

• "Our results may be interpreted as follows The
  fluid posses--ses a variety of different states
  because of its internal mechanisms. But which of
  these states is realized depends on the initial
  conditions, or, to put things in a different way,
  a partially given pattern is completed in a
  unique fashion. But this is at the cognitive
  level precisely what happens in associative
  memory. Part of a set of data is completed in a
  unique fashion. Multistability means that our
  system can internally store many patterns. Their
  restoration from initial states appears
  simultaneously in all volume elements of the
  fluid, i.e. our fluid acts as a parallel
  computer."

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The emergence of language

• The major difference between young chimpanzees
  and children is that imitation (and teaching) is
  much more prominent in children. If humans create
  a rich environment for the training of chimpanzee
  gestures, these may come near to the semiotic
  capacity of young children, but this situation is
  artificial and does not belong to the natural
  environment of chimpanzees. The bias for
  imitation, which is more abstract than emulation
  as it is not controlled by an evaluative testing
  of the model, triggers another process called the
  ratchet effect by Boesch and Tomasello (1998
  602), i.e., the inventory of accumulated
  behavioral patterns does not decrease change
  consists of further elaboration and
  sophistication of the accumulated cultural
  goods.

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Metarepresentation as an emergent feature of
symbolic behavior

• The order of documentation by paleontological
  data is
• lithic technology (after 2,3 million years BP)
• art (geometric engraving on tools at the stage of
  Homo erectus high level iconic art after
  40,000 BP)
• myth (probably implied by Paleolithic art, i.e.,
  before 40,000 BP)
• language (only documented by first systems of
  writing in the Neolithic)

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Metarepresentation and art
There is good evidence that the painter on the
chair is in fact Vermeer himself, but the drawing
he is making has obviously another motif and
structure than the one on which he appears
himself. Thus the act of drawing by Vermeer is
represented and it has a strong analogy to the
painting shown in Figure 5 in the same fashion
the picture in front of the painter is not
identical with the oil-painting by Vermeer, but
it shares the central topic (and thus the object
of the representation). In a stricter sense, this
painting is not a metarepresentation.
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The person standing behind the door and looking
at the scene looks simultaneously at the king and
the queen. They appear in the mirror and are thus
only represented indirectly (and with side
inversion). The painter, who is Velasquez
himself, looks also at the monarch pausing for a
moment in his work. One may infer that, when he
continues his work in one moment, he will again
look at the scene with the meninas and at his
painting.
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The case of a mirror

• In the self-portrait on can assume that a mirror
  was used by the painter such an inference may be
  sustained by the somewhat unnatural position of
  the person, because in a self-portrait in front
  of a mirror, the painter must after each action
  on the painting return to an identical position
  in front of the mirror.
• The self-portrait can show a part of the mirror.
• A portrait may show the person looking into a
  mirror and thus both the painter and the painted
  person look into the mirror and the painting
  represents the effect of looking into a mirror
  (with the effect of the mirror (inversion and
  change of perspective).
• The mirror may show the painter and his model.
  Both may look into the mirror and this can be
  shown in the painting.

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Salvador Dali has made such a painting called
Stereoscopic Painting (1976). Figure 7 shows this
painting. In fact the action of the mirror could
be repeated whereby the painter and his model
would appear not only twice but three, four, n
times. In the latter case the of mirrors may
constitute a group of deformations (in the sense
of Leyton) re-establishing identity after a
finite number of steps. As in the case of
video-feed back it can also have a chaotic
attractor and destroy the original input and be
slaved by an internal standard (e.g. a
Sierpinki-structure).
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The painting including the self-reference to
Velasquez is reproduced under deformations
(roughly described by the cubist style of Picasso
in this period). In this case, Picasso is not
represented, i.e. the metarepesentational
character is not overt. Nevertheless Picassos
characteristic style (in this period of his life)
is like a signature of his presence. Is this a
case of metarepresentation?
Pablo Picasso, one piece in a series after
Velasquez Meninas
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Groupings and reanalysis
Group without Velasquez, 17.9.1957
The central group around the infanta valence
3 Bystanders 2 2 1
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Partial pictures with the participants at the
right of the Infanta. Valence 4 (left) and 2
(right). Colors green, blue, red (yellow, white)
Right groups, 24.10. and 8.11.1957
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Reanalysis of the central person Infanta
Margarita Maria
Infanta 14.9.1957, 100x81
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Citation in painting
Andy Warhol, The Last Supper, 1986
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The central zone of Leonardos Last supper
(Marani, 2001 156)
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Repraesentans
Selfreferential loop (1)
Reflexion of (A, B) in C
Selfreferential loop (3)
Selfreferential loop (2)
Repraesentamen
Repraesentandum
Modification of the semiotic triad by three types
of self-referential loops (1). (2), and (3) and
redefinition of the triad.
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Many open questions

• The strategy followed in the last section is a
  very optimistic one, insofar as a basic
  continuity of laws and principles throughout the
  universe (possibly fixed in the period after the
  big bang and not valid for other universes
  existing beyond ours) is assumed. A less radical
  strategy could allow for rather autonomous levels
  of organization which only share some very basic
  laws with other levels and may be described
  independently from earlier stages, from which
  they have emerged. Thus one could postulate that
  with the rise of consciousness (or
  intentionality) (meta) representations became
  rather independent from the surrounding ecology
  and are characterized by their arbitrariness (in
  the sense of Ferdinand de Saussure). Such
  arbitrary systems would not only control our
  perception of the ecology, in which we live, they
  would even change this ecology from a natural to
  an artificial one and thus reverse the Darwinian
  law of fitness.

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• Another path could start from the social
  organization of animals and the techniques (e.g.,
  grooming in higher apes) of social control or
  peace. A shift in the social structure triggered
  by symbolic forms, could have allowed higher
  levels of cooperation, larger societies with a
  network of levels and social subdivisions,
  different role patterns and types of
  socialization. The biological potential would
  have been exploited to a degree impossible for
  socially less organized primates. In this view
  meta (meta )representation would be a
  consequence of a social (economic, political)
  evolution rather than an effect of higher
  cognitive capacities. These two routes may be
  called
• The route of cognitive enrichment and
  self-referentiality.
• The route of social complexity and higher levels
  of socialization.

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My home page ishttp//www.fb10.uni-bremen.de/hom
epages/wildgen.htm

• You may find my presentation (one week after the
  conference) together with other conference papers
  of the last two years in a list at the end of my
  homepage.