Bica and Beyond: How Biology and Anomalies Together Contribute to Flexible Cognition

Somehow, living organisms deal with a complex world. This is the basis for the AI hope of smart systems worthy of that designation. But we have been unsuccessful at this so far. Here I will argue that a closer — but straightforward — look at human reasoning suggests an implementable strategy for °exible commonsense reasoning. The notion of an anomaly — something that deviates from expectations — is the central focus. I will begin with a motivating discussion, followed by examples, and a sketch of where further work is needed.