Evolution of Complex Behavior, Perception, Cognition, Consciousness & the Brain | Paul Cisek | 107
Mind & Matter
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The Fundamental Purpose of the Nervous System
The fundamental function of the brain is not to build knowledge about the world, but rather to complement and counteract the dynamics of the world. So there's certain sort of laws of nutrient distribution or physics that need to be there in the environment in order for the organism to find that control policy. And then, but that's not to say, of course, that brains don't build knowledge because along the way to find and then to use that control policy, knowledge of the world will be useful in many cases. It's just not the origins of it. But ultimately, all that stuff is built within this context of control systems.
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