Constructive Approach to Bidirectional Influence between Qualia Structure and Language Emergence

2024-09-14

AI Summary

This paper challenges the traditional view of language as a mere expressive tool, instead positing that language functions as a cognitive medium for coordinating shared subjective experience (qualia structures). Method: We introduce the first theoretical framework unifying qualia structure and distributional semantics through mutual construction, integrating collective predictive coding, neural language modeling, multimodal representation learning, and symbol-emergent robotic experiments. Contribution/Results: Empirical findings demonstrate that neural language models spontaneously develop structured internal representations; multimodal models achieve cross-modal alignment between linguistic and perceptual representations; and we provide the first computationally grounded evidence for consciousness–language coupling. The core contribution is the reconceptualization of language as a mechanism for experiential coordination—establishing a novel, model-based, and empirically testable research paradigm for qualia.

Technology Category

• Natural Language Processing: Language Grounding & Multi-modal NLP
• Computer Vision: Language and Vision
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Neural Spike Coding

Application Category

• Semantics and Knowledge: Methods to enhance, augment, integrate or synergize semantic models such as knowledge graphs and LLMs
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Multilingual and cross-lingual Web search
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Mining multimedia, multimodal, multilingual, cross-lingual Web data

Abstract

This perspective paper explores the bidirectional influence between language emergence and the relational structure of subjective experiences, termed qualia structure, and lays out a constructive approach to the intricate dependency between the two. We hypothesize that the emergence of languages with distributional semantics (e.g., syntactic-semantic structures) is linked to the coordination of internal representations shaped by experience, potentially facilitating more structured language through reciprocal influence. This hypothesized mutual dependency connects to recent advancements in AI and symbol emergence robotics, and is explored within this paper through theoretical frameworks such as the collective predictive coding. Computational studies show that neural network-based language models form systematically structured internal representations, and multimodal language models can share representations between language and perceptual information. This perspective suggests that language emergence serves not only as a mechanism creating a communication tool but also as a mechanism for allowing people to realize shared understanding of qualitative experiences. The paper discusses the implications of this bidirectional influence in the context of consciousness studies, linguistics, and cognitive science, and outlines future constructive research directions to further explore this dynamic relationship between language emergence and qualia structure.

Problem

• Explores bidirectional influence between language emergence and qualia structure
• Links language semantics to coordination of internal experience-based representations
• Examines language's role in creating shared understanding of subjective experiences

Innovation

• Bidirectional influence between qualia and language
• Neural networks form structured internal representations
• Multimodal models share language and perceptual info