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On the Emergence of Communication: An Argument from Robotics
Abstract
Some “traditional” issues in language emergence and development are viewed through the prism of the interaction of autonomous robots with their environment and through their communicative skills based on the signaling system which emerges as a result of the robots’ own evolution. The main goal of the paper is to present initial conditions necessary for the emergence of communication in a group of robots. First, the paper discusses, in relation to the general faculty of language, the change that has taken place within cognitive science, particularly within computational modelling and Artificial Intelligence. Then a number of basic, individual cognitive mechanisms (pre-adaptations) are suggested, including the robots’ ability to distinguish signals, associate them with particular situations and imitate signaling behavior. These basic individual abilities may develop in the context of a community of interacting agents as well as in the changing communicative environment. In order to practice and develop the cognitive capacities, robotic agents are expected to engage in a number of activities ('language games'), including the imitation of actions, the negotiation of reference and the use of signals in the absence of referents. Inquiries into the emergence of communication in natural and artificial systems can help isolate the possible stages of the development of the robots’ communicative abilities.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/i.2017.42.1.31
Date of publication: 2018-02-20 08:59:25
Date of submission: 2017-06-08 12:47:30
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