Abstract
Our comment is based on a simple but, we believe, compelling principle. The proposed cognitive processes and functions that are components of Jablonka and Ginsburg’s Unlimited Associative Learning (UAL) are real and are fundamental elements in the varieties of consciousness, cognition, problem solving, and sentience in the species they identify. But, from our perspective, they didn’t function as the metaphoric biomolecular ship that brought consciousness into being. The UAL functions are, and should be viewed as, evolutionary steps that built upon a deeper and much older cognitive foundation. The appearance of UAL didn’t allow consciousness to emerge. It allowed it to change the manner in which sentience was instantiated − just as a host of other evolutionary developments did. In short, the emergence of UAL is a token on a continuum of mental experience and not a distinct type of mentation.
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Arthur Reber wrote the initial draft. William Miller and František Baluška edited and rewrote passages.
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Reber, A.S., Baluška, F. & Miller, W.B. UAL is a Token, not a Type. Biosemiotics 15, 447–450 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-022-09505-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12304-022-09505-8