Practopoiesis

A theory on the functioning of brain and mind. The main notion of practopoiesis is that the brain is organized into a hierarchy of learning mechanisms: To achieve biological-like intelligence, it is necessary for an adaptive system to learn how to learn. Moreover, it is proposed that all our semantic knowledge and our skills are stored in a form of fast learning mechanisms, and that these fast learning mechanisms have been acquired over lifetime by applying a set of slow learning mechanisms. The slow learning corresponds to what is traditionally referred to as (simply) learning. The fast learning corresponds to cognitive operations such as perception, spotlight of attention, recall from memory and general awareness.
Example
For example, when we perceive a particular chair, the brain generates not only a pattern of neural activity in response to that chair. The neurons also quickly adjust, some by quickly habituating and others by quickly sensitizing. This pattern of habitation and sensitization, according to the theory, prepares us for the interaction with that chair. And, when the preparation is successful—resulting in a sufficiently good preparation on how to interact with that object (i.e., the chair!)—we have, according to the theory, a subjective experience of having perceived a chair. Moreover, sensitization and habituation do not occur in some generic way across all neurons. Rather, each neuron has a unique knowledge on when to sensitize or habituate. Everything we know about chairs is stored in this when-to-sensitize-vs-habituate knowledge of neurons. And this knowledge has to be learned over lifetime.
The idea behind
The main advantage of a hierarchical architecture is the capability of achieving high-level adaptability with a relatively compact system size. Such a system does not need to store complete information on how to adapt in all possible environments; instead, it only needs to know general rules about adaptation in a certain class of environments (obtained by the slow learning process) and be able to apply these rules in specific conditions (through the fast learning process).
Besides accounting for the operation of the brain, this principle can be used to illustrate how other adaptive systems work, e.g., a species. In this case, the fast learning process accounts for how individuals of a species learn to survive during their lifetime, while the slow learning process is the evolution itself, which dictates how and how much individuals can learn by the fast learning process. Carrying out the fast process allows individuals to survive in specific environments, while carrying out the slow process enables species to flourish in various and ever-changing ecological niches.
Three-mechanism hierarchy
The poietic hierarchy of the brain is proposed to be organized as follows:
Slow learning -> Fast learning -> Neural activity,
whereby our knowledge is stored in the rules for fast learning, and these rules have been learned by the operations of slow learning.
Difference to other theories
The key difference to the classical brain theory is that the primary brain mechanism for implementing mental operations is not presumed to rely on the electro-chemical activity executed by neural circuitry (i.e., on the network "computation" based on excitation and inhibition). Instead, according to practopoiesis, the emergence of the mind depends critically on the mechanisms making quick changes to that circuitry. These fast learning mechanisms are hypothesized to be closely related to the phenomenon of (fast) neural adaptation which adjust routing and computational properties of excitatory-inhibitory networks.
Implications
It is argued that only a hierarchy of slow and fast learning mechanisms can produce abductive reasoning and Searle's understanding.
The learning hierarchy of a practopoietic system suggests a solution to the problem of downward causation, i.e., to the question of how the mind influences the body.
The theory has implications for creation of strong AI.

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