TY  - GEN
ID  - cogprints314
UR  - http://cogprints.org/314/
A1  - Heylighen, Francis
Y1  - 1994///
N2  - Given that knowledge consists of finite models of an infinitely complex reality, how can we explain that it is still most of the time reliable? Survival in a variable environment requires an internal model whose complexity (variety) matches the complexity of the environment that is to be controlled. The reduction of the infinite complexity of the sensed environment to a finite map requires a strong mechanism of categorization. A measure of cognitive complexity (C) is defined, which quantifies the average amount of trial-and-error needed to find the adequate category. C can be minimized by "probability ordering" of the possible categories, where the most probable alternatives ("defaults") are explored first. The reduction of complexity by such ordering requires a low statistical entropy for the cognized environment. This entropy is automatically kept down by the natural selection of "fit" configurations. The high probability, "default" cognitive categorizations are then merely mappings of environmentally "fit" configurations.
PB  - World Science, Singapore
KW  - fitness
KW  -  default reasoning
KW  -  requisite variety
KW  -  decision-making
KW  -  complexity
KW  -  entropy
KW  -  categorization
KW  -  evolutionary epistemology
KW  -  trial-and-error
KW  -  cognitive complexity
KW  -  natural selection
KW  -  probability ordering
TI  - Fitness as Default: the evolutionary basis of cognitive complexity reduction
SP  - 1595
AV  - public
EP  - 1602
ER  -

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