JOINT EVOLUTION OF COGNITION, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND MUSIC

Leonid PerlovskyTechnical Advisor

Air Force Research Lab

Ohio State UniversityColumbus

24 April 2006

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…

OUTLINE

•Algorithms & neural net-s for Cog. and Lang. => combinatorial complexity (CC)– Similar to Gödel’s incompleteness of logic

•Mathematics of Dynamic logic overcomes CC– Evolves from vague and fuzzy => 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 musicHistory: examples from Isaiah to rap

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 • > all the events in the Universe during its entire

life

• 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

COMBINATORIAL COMPLEXITY SINCE the 1950s

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 -> excluded (n+1), 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 => CC

•Logic pervades all algorithms and neural networks – rule systems, fuzzy systems (degree of fuzziness), pattern recognition, neural networks (training uses logical statements)

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

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

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

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

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

Three objects in noise

OBJECT RECOGNITIONy y

x x

3 Object Image + Noise3 Object Image

OBJECT RECOGNITIONDL WORKING EXAMPLE

x

yDL starts with uncertain knowledge, and similar to human mind does not sort through

all possibilities, but converges rapidly on exact solution

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)

Similarity measures

Models

Action/Adaptation

Models

Action/AdaptationSimilarity measures

objects

abstractions

purpose

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 <–> imagination signals

– Crisp => more conscious; vague => less conscious

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)

PUBLICATIONS

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

www.oup-usa.org

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

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-behavior

– Monkey’s 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

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

SYMBOLIC ABILITY

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

– Language is only possible due to cognition

Similarity Action

ActionSimilarity

Similarity Action

ActionSimilarity

cognition language

M

M M

M

grounded in real-world objects

grounded in language

grounded in language

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

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LANGUAGE:EMOTIONS 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

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

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 => music–Hence the power of music to “remind states of soul”

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– “Serious academic” music in the 20th c. : music w/o science lost way

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DISINTEGRATION OF CULTURES

•Split between conceptual and emotional – Concepts are severed from emotions – There is nothing to devote one’s 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”

TERRORIST’S 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 today’s 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 terrorist’s consciousness is “fused”– European terrorists in the 19th century– Fascists and communists in the 20th century– Current Moslem terrorists

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

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” conceptBringing the tragedy of human condition closer to consciousnessUnifying conscious & unconscious through music

• Nehemiah – antiphonal music accepted as divine service, 2450 ya– Split choirs

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– Human consciousness requires synthesis immediately– Human consciousness requires synthesis immediately

• Rap is a simplified, but powerful mechanism of synthesis– Exactly like ancient Greek dithyrambs of Dionysian cult

PUBLICATIONS

• New book is coming:

The Knowledge Instinct

Basic Books, 2006

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? – What are neural and psychological mechanisms making American songs popular?

• A contradiction?– Non-melodic, conceptual, serious music of the 20th century– What are its neural and evolutionary mechanisms?

• Joint evolution of music and consciousness beyond Western culture

• Future evolution of music and culture

BACK UP

• Today: Differentiated Consciousness

• Synthesis vs. Differentiation

• The KI and Buddhism

• Mathematics of Synthesis

TODAY: DIFFERENTIATED CONSCIOUSNESS

•Ancient consciousness was “fused”– Psychic conflicts were unconscious and projected

outsideGods, other tribes, other people

– Concepts linked to instincts and had meanings unconditionally

•Complexity of today’s 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

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– Synthesis requires an infinite sea of emotions created by music

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-themselves

• 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

– Bodhisattva’s 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

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