Research Reviews
Making connections
Life scientists and physical scientists
face many of the same challenges when studying cognitive systems,
living and artificial even though they work in very different
areas with different techniques. When the two sciences came together
in the early planning of the Foresight Cognitive Systems Project
they found themselves using many of the same terms, sometimes,
but not always, in the same way, to describe the challenges that
they face in their research. Representation, action, planning,
learning and memory – these concepts were common between the different
approaches to research in cognitive systems.
This was an important clue in deciding the shape of the Foresight
project. It helped to highlight which areas of research to review
and present to the wider research community.
The project commissioned a series of Research Reviews
so that people in the life sciences could read about the issues
in cognitive systems that interested researchers in the physical
sciences, and vice versa. Thus these are not conventional reviews
of the state of the art. They take a broader view of their subjects
and try to make connections between the different disciplines
that are involved in research into cognitive systems.
