A Decade of Essays and the Evolution of My Thinking of Thinking

2026-07-26 · Source: AI on Medium · Field: Science & Research — Social Sciences & Behavioral Studies, Research Methodology & Innovation · Depth: Expert, long

Summary

This article chronicles a decade-long evolution in thinking about cognition, structured as a dialectical progression through eight stages: Architecture, Intuition, Meaning, Process, Semiotic, Quaternary, Navigation, and Agency. Each stage resolves a tension from its predecessor by introducing a "third term," moving from an initial focus on deep learning as an engineering domain with logic-primacy to a view where intuition is foundational, meaning is agent-relative, and cognition is a closed, self-referential process. The framework ultimately separates cognition from agency, proposing that an agent is a self-closing loop of action, perception, and understanding. The current, unresolved tension concerns whether "felt quality," crucial for effective governance, is a functional role or substrate-dependent. Six core commitments, including anti-formalism and the primacy of the non-propositional, remained constant.

Key takeaway

For research scientists developing advanced AI, this evolutionary framework suggests rethinking foundational assumptions about intelligence. You should consider that intuition, not logic, may be the base of cognition, and that agency, requiring self-closing loops and "felt quality," is distinct from cognitive capability. This implies that simply scaling language models may not yield true agency, necessitating new architectural approaches for embodied, autonomous AI.

Key insights

The author's cognitive theory evolved dialectically, shifting from logic-primacy to intuition, agent-relative meaning, process, and distinct cognition/agency.

Principles

• Intuition is the cognitive base; reasoning is an emulation.
• Meaning is agent-relative, tied to an agent's possibilities-for-action.
• Dyadic framings often generate paradoxes in cognitive theory.

Method

The article describes a dialectical method of theory development: identify a settled position, find its internal tension, and resolve it by introducing a "third term" that negates prior assumptions while preserving others.

Topics

• Cognitive Science
• Philosophy of AI
• Intuition-primacy
• Agent-relative Meaning
• Process Metaphysics
• AI Agency

Best for: AI Scientist, Research Scientist

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by AI on Medium.