Types of Mimetics for the Design of Intelligent Technologies

Abstract

Mimetic design means using a source in the natural or artificial worlds as an inspiration for technological solutions. It is based around the abstraction of the relevant operating principles in a source domain. This means that one must be able to identify the correct level of analysis and extract the relevant patterns. How this should be done is based on the type of source. From a mimetic perspective, if the design goal is intelligent technology, an obvious source of inspiration is human information processing, which we have called cognitive mimetics. This article offers some conceptual clarification on the nature of cognitive mimetics by contrasting it with biomimetics in the context of intelligent technology. We offer a two-part ontology for cognitive mimetics, suggest an approach and discuss possible implications for AI in general.