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. 2020 Dec 3:35:56.
doi: 10.1007/s10539-020-09772-0.

Unlimited Associative Learning and the origins of consciousness: a primer and some predictions

Jonathan Birch  1 , Simona Ginsburg  2 , Eva Jablonka  1   3
Affiliations

Unlimited Associative Learning and the origins of consciousness: a primer and some predictions

Jonathan Birch et al. Biol Philos. .

Abstract

Over the past two decades, Ginsburg and Jablonka have developed a novel approach to studying the evolutionary origins of consciousness: the Unlimited Associative Learning (UAL) framework. The central idea is that there is a distinctive type of learning that can serve as a transition marker for the evolutionary transition from non-conscious to conscious life. The goal of this paper is to stimulate discussion of the framework by providing a primer on its key claims (Part I) and a clear statement of its main empirical predictions (Part II).

Keywords: Consciousness; Evolution; Evolutionary transitions; Learning; Transition marker; Unlimited associative learning.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Unlimited heredity as a transition marker for the origin of life. Unlimited heredity requires (in its original, primary implementation) a set of capacities that suffice (given the actual laws of nature) for life
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The general idea of a transition marker. A transition marker marks the presence of a mode of being (e.g. life, consciousness) by virtue of requiring (at least in its original, primary implementation) a set of capacities that suffice (given the actual laws of nature) for that mode of being
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Unlimited Associative Learning (UAL) as a transition marker for the origin of consciousness
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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