Mind, Body, World- Foundations of Cognitive Science, 2013a

epresentational and non-representational forms of cognition might be present in
the same agent.
Shapiro’s (2011) three themes of conceptualization, replacement, and constitution
characterize important principles that are the concern of the embodied
approach. These principles also have important effects on the practice of embodied
cognitive science. Because of their concern with environmental contributions to
behavioural complexity, embodied cognitive scientists are much more likely to practise
forward engineering or synthetic psychology (Braitenberg, 1984; Dawson, 2004;
Dawson, Dupuis, & Wilson, 2010; Pfeifer & Scheier, 1999). In this approach, devices
are first constructed and placed in an environment, to examine what complicated or
surprising behaviours might emerge. Thus while in reverse engineering behavioural
observations are the source of models, in forward engineering models are the source
of behaviour to observe. Because of their concern about how engagement with the
world is dependent upon the physical nature and abilities of agents, embodied cognitive
scientists actively explore the role that embodiment plays in cognition. For
instance, their growing interest in humanoid robots is motivated by the realization
that human intelligence and development require human form (Breazeal, 2002;
Brooks et al., 1999).
In the current chapter we introduce some of the key elements that characterize
embodied cognitive science. These ideas are presented in the context of reactions
against classical cognitive science in order to highlight their innovative nature.
However, it is important to keep potential similarities between embodied cognitive
science and the other two approaches in mind; while they are not emphasized here,
the possibility of such similarities is a central theme of Part II of this book.
5.2 Societal Computing
The travelling salesman problem is a vital optimization problem (Gutin &
Punnen, 2002; Lawler, 1985). It involves determining the order in which a salesman
should visit a sequence of cities, stopping at each city only once, such that the shortest
total distance is travelled. The problem is tremendously important: a modern
bibliography cites 500 studies on how to solve it (Laporte & Osman, 1995).
One reason for the tremendous amount of research on the travelling salesman
problem is that its solution can be applied to a dizzying array of real-world
problems and situations (Punnen, 2002), including scheduling tasks, minimizing
interference amongst a network of transmitters, data analysis in psychology, X-ray
crystallography, overhauling gas turbine engines, warehouse order-picking problems,
and wallpaper cutting. It has also attracted so much attention because it is
difficult. The travelling salesman problem is an NP-complete problem (Kirkpatrick,
Gelatt, & Vecchi, 1983), which means that as the number of cities involved in the
210 Chapter 5