Learning As Self-organization

18.

Learning and Unlearning in the Formation of Social Bonds

Walter J. Freeman

Learning and Unlearning in the Formation of Social Bonds*

Walter J. Freeman

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology

University of California at Berkeley

Abstract

Learning is the set of processes by which intentional structures stretch forth and change themselves through self-organizing, chaotic dynamics. It leads to solipsistic isolation of individual brains progressively with increasing complexity of learned tasks. In order for understanding between brains to develop as the basis for trust and cooperation, neurohumoral mechanisms are postulated to exist in mammals, which bring about unlearning through a meltdown of intentional beliefs, without loss of procedural ...