Fitness-Beats-Truth: Evolution, Perception, and Cognitive Interfaces (en Inglés) - Robert Prentner

This Brief offers a concise and accessible examination of the Fitness-Beats-Truth (FBT) theorem, a pivotal result in evolutionary game theory that challenges traditional assumptions about perception. It demonstrates that natural selection likely favors cognitive systems designed for fitness over truth, suggesting our perceptual experiences are more akin to a simplified user interface than an accurate reconstruction of reality. This perspective, however, raises profound philosophical questions.

Although the FBT theorem has significant potential to impact epistemological debates, its proof has remained difficult for non-specialists to access, and its conceptual challenges have been underexplored. This book bridges that gap by presenting the theorem’s core ideas accessibly while systematically examining key objections and paths for future development. This text bridges formal modeling, cognitive science, and philosophy, offering a clear exposition of the theorem's proofs and a thorough analysis of its conceptual underpinnings and criticisms. It is primarily targeted at researchers and advanced students in cognitive psychology, philosophy of mind, and theoretical biology seeking to understand the evolutionary forces that shape cognitive architecture. It is also aimed at professionals from AI research who are interested in an evolution-based approach to cognitive computing.