On database keys, with an application to the Praxisproblem

摘要

In engineering terms, biological cognition is the product of a modular processing architecture in which the individual modules are hierarchically configured to deliver real-time command and control functionality. Continuity of ideation is essential for success both within and across modules, and is delivered in two main ways, firstly by context maintenance mechanisms at the top level, and secondly by complex two-way communication between the various levels. Cognitive science has not yet identified the mechanisms of context maintenance in higher cognition, and has hardly started to decipher the communications protocols controlling the biological broadband. These joint shortcomings gravely impede our understanding of the brain, and are especially damaging in the philosophical grey area known as the "explanatory gap", the gulf between seeing what a biological system is for and actually explaining how it works in terms of the supporting bio-chemistry. This paper attempts to bridge the explanatory gap by arguing mat "CODASYL" type commercial databases are in several critical respects cognate with biological memory mechanisms. CODASYL data storage principles are reviewed, and then-possible role in a simple act of speech praxis is discussed. The CODASYL chain pointer and set currency mechanisms are highlighted as compelling metaphors for biological association and consciousness respectively.