Layered Mechanisms (Higher-Level Control)

The idea that biological systems, especially brains, use multiple layers of control mechanisms whose functions cannot be described in the language of fundamental physics alone.

Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count

Concepts (1)

concept

Virtual Machine
associated_with
A computing layer above physical hardware; Sloman uses this as an analogy for mental processes not reducible to physics.

Related by similarity (8)

cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edge

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

Unnoticed consequences of Schrödinger's ideas support claims about layers of mechanism in which the higher level layers require control mechanisms whose functions cannot be described in the language of fundamental physics.claim0.752
Sloman's extension of Schrödinger's argument to brain mechanisms and virtual machinery.
Bioelectric Control Layerconcept0.739
A key interface exploited by evolution to accomplish morphogenesis; cells perform computations via ion channel voltage dynamics; enables integration of information across scales toward large-scale morphogenetic goals.
MCA and its coarse-grained control layers (like bioelectric patterns) mitigate the inverse problem by providing a more linear relation between control signals and phenotypes.claim0.731
Argues that intervening control layers decompose the genotype-phenotype mapping into two easier problems.
What Mechanisms Scale Celllevel Feedback Loops Into Anatomicalquestion0.729
Delegation mechanismconcept0.728
What Mechanisms Enable Cells To Make Coherent Systemlevelquestion0.727
At What Scales And Through What Mechanisms Doesquestion0.725
Organisms contain elements of both cascading control and recurrent control architectures.claim0.724
Real organisms mix feed-forward and recurrent motifs.