Foraging search: Prototypical intelligence

We think because we eat. Or as Descartes might have said, on a little more reflection, “I need to eat, therefore I think.” Animals that forage for a living repeatedly face the problem of searching for a sparsely distributed resource in a vast space. Furthermore, the resource may occur sporadically and episodically under conditions of true uncertainty (nonstationary, complex and non-linear dynamics). I assert that this problem is the canonical problem solved by intelligence. It’s solution is the basis for the evolution of more advanced intelligence in which the space of search includes that of concepts (objects and relations) encoded in cortical structures. In humans the conscious experience of searching through concept space we call thinking. The foraging search model is based upon a higher-order autopoeitic system (the forager) employing anticipatory processing to enhance its success at finding food while avoiding becoming food or having accidents in a hostile world. I present a semi-formal description o...