Intelligence came about because of environmental pressure: By being lawful in complex ways nature thrust upon active processes the requirement that ensuring survival to increasing extents could be solved by increasing amounts of intelligence. Before this started happening to the extent we see today on the planet, single-cell organisms and very simple multi-cell organisms had already emerged and laid the foundation for what we now call “autonomous agents”. Agents are independently identifiable entities that have a way of making decisions for themselves, in light of surrounding information. The more information the agent can take into account when making decisions, the longer timespans included, and the quicker good decisions can be made, the “smarter” the agent is.

There is always an upper bound to which an agent can perceive, decide, and act: it is determined to a large extent by the implementation of its cognitive mechanisms, and by the particular computations the agent has available to do the cognitive work. Perception is of course limited by the types of available sensors (in natural or augmented form – many humans use glasses, a form of sensory augmentation) and the type of body the agent has available to act with in the world. For humans there are all kinds of augmentations to our bodies, for example automobiles, telephones, email, exoskeletons (not very common, though) and various tools we use virtually every day, such as scissors, keys, light switches, etc.

In the beginning of any natural cognitive system's lifecycle the system is born. It is, of course, born without tools or augmentations – only natural means are provided for perceiving, thinking, and acting. The more general a cognitive agent is intended to be — the more domains or “worlds” it is supposed to be able to adapt to – the more must be learned in the formative stages. For example, if the amount of light available in the world into which it is born is not known a-priori the more requirement is put on the initial stages of the agent to “sample” the world at birth and grow the appropriate set of sensory sensory apparati that allow it to operate in that world.

2012©Kristinn R. Thórisson