Applications of Categories to Biology and Cognition
Andrée Ehresmann · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2018
Mathematical models used in biology are generally adapted from physics and relate to specific local processes. Category theory helps developing global dynamic models account for the main specificities of living systems: (i) The system is evolutionary, with a tangled hierarchy of interacting components, which change over time. (ii) It develops a robust and flexible memory up to the emergence of components and processes of increasing complexity. (iii) It has a multi-agent, multi-temporality, self-organization. This chapter presents such a model, the Memory Evolutive Systems, which in particular characterizes the property at the root of emergence and flexibility. A main application is the model MENS for a neurocognitive system which proposes a physically based “theory of mind”, up to the emergence of higher cognitive processes such as consciousness, anticipation, and creativity.