Cognition Is Not Computation: The Argument from Irreversibility

The dominant scientific and philosophical view of the mind — according to which, put starkly, cognition is computation — is refuted herein, via specification and defense of the following new argument: Computation is reversible; cognition isn’t; ergo, cognition isn’t computation. After presenting a sustained dialectic arising from this defense, we conclude with a brief preview of the view we would put in place of the cognition-is-computation doctrine. ∗We are indebted to Bill Rapaport, Pat Hayes, Ken Ford, Marvin Minsky, Jim Fahey, two anonymous referees (who provided particularly insightful comments), and many Rensselaer students. These people provided trenchant objections which saw to the evolution of the present version from a rather inauspicious primogenitor.