Performance of intelligent systems governed by internally generated goals.

Intelligent behavior is characterized by flexible and creative pursuit of endogenously defined goals. It has emerged in humans through the stages of evolution that are man- ifested in the brains and behaviors of other vertebrates. Perception is a key concept by which to link brain dynamics to goal-directed behavior. This archetypal form of intentional behavior is an act of observation into time and space, by which informa- tion is sought to guide future action, and by which the perceiver modifies itself through learning from the sensory consequences of its own actions. Chaotic brain dynamics creates the goals, expresses them by means of behavioral actions, and defines the meaning of the requested information. These acts include the making of representations (e.g. numbers, words, graphs, sounds, gestures) for communication to other brains in validation and coordination of experience. The failure of artificial intelligence to achieve its stated aims can be attributed to taking too literally these man-made descriptive representations as the tokens ofbrain action, whereas in brains there is no information, only dynamic flows and operators.