The Concept of Recursion in Cognitive Studies. Part II: From Turing to Bayes to Consciousness
Philosophical Problems of IT & Cyberspace January 14, 2025 Mikhailov Igor
Recursion—a process that calls itself—has expanded the limits of computability with each new method, from Turing oracles to probabilistic machines and Bayesian techniques. The article argues that recursion is vital to human cognition, especially for developing and interpreting complex language. Studying recursion and consciousness faces challenges: the subjective nature of consciousness and the complexity of neural networks involved. Current theories of cognitive processing and language acquisition are limited in explaining recursion and consciousness. Investigating their relationship is critical for understanding language and cognition, and a future recursion-based theory may resolve major metaphysical puzzles.