Abstract

I propose a number of principles that I believe are substantial for various faculties of the mammalian brain, such as perception, expectations, imagery, and memory. The same principles are also of interest when designing an artificial but biologically inspired cognitive architecture. Moreover, I discuss how the same principles may lie behind the ability to represent new concepts and to imagine fictitious and impossible objects, while also giving us reasons to believe that there are limits to our imagination and to what it is possible for us to think about. Some ideas regarding how these principles could be relevant for an autonomous agent to become functionally conscious are discussed as well.