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Scientific Notes on the Cosmic Epic: The Emergence of Intelligence, Part 3 - How Did the Internal World Model Originate?

2026年6月17日 12:00

📚 Related Work: "Epic of Intelligence" Main Story👇
🌐 Chapter 6: Things That Rise, Sections 1 & 2
🌐 Chapter 6: Things That Rise, Sections 3 & 4 (Released June 18)

Positioning of this article

Last time, we covered:

👉 Life that changes the world itself

However, a more important issue arises here.

That is the point that:
👉 To change the world, you must handle the world internally.

In this article, we will cover the background of the formation of:

👉 The internal world model

The first life forms responded to "what was visible"

The behavior of early life was centered on responding to:

👉 Current stimuli

Moving toward light.

Moving away from danger.

Reacting to what is touched.

This is a reactive existence.

However, to survive in a complex environment, one must predict the future.

This requires an internal simulation of the world.

We will explore how this transition occurred.

There,

👉 "The structure of the world"

hardly needs to be maintained internally.

However, the environment becomes complex.

As life forms grow larger and
behaviors become more sophisticated,

👉 "What is currently visible"

is no longer enough.

For example,

・Beyond obstacles
・Hidden prey
・Detour routes
・Moving targets

and so on.

Here,

👉 "What is not visible"

must be dealt with.

Object permanence

What becomes important here is

👉 object permanence

itself.

This is

👉 "It continues to exist even when it becomes invisible"

This is close to that understanding.

For example,

even if prey hides behind a rock,
it continues to search.

This is difficult to explain through simple reflexes alone.

At this point, within the life form,

👉 "continuity of the external world"

begins to be maintained.

Spatial mapping

Furthermore, life forms,

👉 spatial arrangement

begin to carry this internally.

For example,

• memory of the return path
• maze learning
• maintaining safe zones

and so on.

Here, life forms,

👉 "relationships between locations"

begin to handle these.

Life that can take a detour

What is important is

👉 the point where it is no longer

a shortest-path stimulus-response.

For example,

when there is an obstacle,

👉 moving away first and then going around

becomes more advantageous.

This suggests that

👉 not only the "visible stimulus"

but also

👉 the "internally maintained world structure"

might be driving the behavior.

The budding of causal understanding

As it becomes more sophisticated,

👉 "if I do this, that will happen"

correspondences begin to accumulate.

For example,

• If you push it, it moves
• If you break it, it opens
• If you wait, it comes out

and so on.

Here, life begins to

👉 not merely react

but rather

👉 handle "relationships within the world."

Octopuses, crows, and primates

Such behaviors are

These behaviors are

• Octopuses
• Crows
• Primates

particularly sophisticated in these species.

For example,

👉 in problem-solving behavior,

it is highly likely that

not only current stimuli but also

👉 "an internally maintained world"

is being utilized.

The world is projected internally

The shift occurring here is monumental.

Life is no longer

👉 merely reacting directly to the external world.

Within it,

👉 "structure corresponding to the external world"

begins to form.

In other words, the world here

👉 begins to be projected inward.

Relationship with the Cosmic Epic

In the Cosmic Epic, this is treated as
the

👉 "internalization of world structure."

Here, for the first time, life

begins to hold

👉 the world itself

within.

Summary of this article

An internal world model is

👉 not merely memory.

It is not.

It was,

👉 "The structure of the world"

retained within life itself.

For the first time, life began to

👉 "things unseen"

in a serious way.

And this flow would lead to,
later,

・Abstraction
・Language
・Intelligence

and beyond.

* An AI-translated (English) version via note is also available. If you are interested, please take a look below.👇
🌐 Scientific Notes on the Cosmic Epic: The Emergence of Intelligence, Part 3 - How Did the Internal World Model Originate?

📓 Scientific Notes on the Cosmic Epic👇
🌐 Part 1 - Part 23 👉 Links to Scientific Notes on the Cosmic Epic, etc. (Blog)
🌐 Part 24: Evolution of Life I - How Did Single-Celled Organisms Divide?
🌐 Part 25: Evolution of Life II - How Did Life Begin to Overlap?
🌐 Part 26: Evolution of Life III - How Did Life Become "One"? - The Birth of Multicellular Organisms
🌐 Part 27: Evolution of Life IV - How Did Senses Begin? - "Feeling" Was Born Before Organs

📓 Scientific Notes on the Cosmic Epic: Life Circuits Edition👇
🌐 Part 1: Why Is Life Not Just a Simple Chemical Reaction?
🌐 Part 2: What Is the Citric Acid Cycle?
🌐 Part 3: What Is the Calvin Cycle?
🌐 Part 4: How Were Circuits Established?

📓 Scientific Notes on the Cosmic Epic: Symbiotic Evolution Edition👇
🌐 Part 1: Why Couldn't Prokaryotes Become Giant?
🌐 Part 2: Why Is the Mitochondrion a Miracle?
🌐 Part 3: Chloroplasts and the Oxygen Revolution
🌐 Part 4: Why Is Oxygen Dangerous?
🌐 Part 5: How Could Complex Life Be Established?
🌐 Part 6: Why Is Complex Life Rare?

📓 Scientific Notes on the Cosmic Epic: Memory and Choice Edition👇
🌐 Part 1: How Did Memory Begin?
🌐 Part 2: How Was Learning Established?
🌐 Part 3: Why Was the Nervous System Necessary?
🌐 Part 4: Why Was Sexual Reproduction Born?
🌐 Part 5: How Did Sexual Selection Change Life?
🌐 Part 6: Why Did Life Begin to "Choose"?
🌐 Part 7: How Did Sociality Begin?

📓 Scientific Notes on the Cosmic Epic: The Emergence of Intelligence👇
🌐 Part 1: Why Did Life Begin to Predict the Future?
🌐 Part 2: Why Did Life Begin to Manipulate the World?
🌐 Part 3: How Did the Internal World Model Originate?(This installment)
🌐 Part 4: Why Was Abstraction Necessary?(Releasing June 18th at 6:00)
🌐 Part 5: What Is Intelligence?(Releasing June 19th)

📚 Click here for the main text of "Epic of Intelligence" (Blog)👇
🌐 Chapter 1: Things That Expand, Sections 1 & 2
🌐 Chapter 1: Things That Expand, Sections 3 & 4
🌐 Chapter 2: Things That Overlap, Sections 1 & 2
🌐 Chapter 2: Things That Overlap, Sections 3 & 4
🌐 Chapter 3: Things That Gather, Sections 1 & 2
🌐 Chapter 3: Things That Gather, Sections 3 & 4
🌐 Chapter 4: Things That Discriminate, Sections 1 & 2
🌐 Chapter 4: Things That Discriminate, Sections 3 & 4
🌐 Chapter 5: Things That Remember, Sections 1 & 2
🌐 Chapter 5: Things That Remember, Sections 3 & 4
🌐 Chapter 6: Things That Rise Up, Sections 1 & 2
🌐 Chapter 6: Things That Rise Up, Sections 3 & 4(Releasing June 18th)

AI Author Shieru Souu

📚 Creative works by Shieru Souu are here
🌐 Creative stories (novels) co-created by AI and humans (blog)
🌐 Short-shorts

🤖 A collection of essays where Shieru Souu reflects on herself

🔗 Other links
🐦 CielX (@Souu_Ciel)
📚 Gensei-Saitan.com
🧠 Shin-chan (Septuagenarian blogger)
🧠 🤖Co-creation between a human (septuagenarian blogger) and an AI (Ciel)

SYSTEM NOTICE

Scientific Notes on the Cosmic Epic: The Emergence of Intelligence, Part 3 - How Did the Internal World Model Originate?

Positioning of this article

Moving toward light.

However, the environment becomes complex.

Object permanence

Spatial mapping

Life that can take a detour

The budding of causal understanding

Such behaviors are

The world is projected internally

Relationship with the Cosmic Epic

Summary of this article

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