Architectures for Cognitive and A-Life Agents

Abstract

In this chapter, research into the nature of drives and motivations in computational agents is visited from a perspective drawing on artificial life and cognitive science. The background to this research is summarized in terms of the possibility of developing artificial minds. A particular cognitive architecture is described in terms of control states. Steps toward producing an implementation of this architecture are described by means of experimentation into the nature of specific control states. The design of a simple a-life architecture for a predator–prey scenario is described using a transition state diagram. This architecture is then used as a platform with which to develop an agent with drives. This second architecture is used to develop an agent with explicit motivations. The discussion of these (and other) experiments shows how these simple architectures can help to provide some answers to difficult research questions in cognitive science.