The real world (RW) around us is totally unknown to us since the sensory organs give us only a reductionist, virtual representation of it (VW). Moreover, our so called “voluntary” actions cannot be decided at will; as a matter of fact, several pieces of evidences deny the existence of free will (FW). Then, the question is how may we pursue a resilient and autopoietic behaviour if we cannot decide autonomously and independently how to recognize and remove a perturbing RW stimulus? To give an answer to this question, we proposed “The Bignetti Model” (TBM), a human cognitive model that explains that a probabilistic-deterministic mechanism underlies the brain function, so that the cognitive activities of the mind are statistically based on the cause-effect-law. The hallmark of the model was the presence of a virtual intelligence (VI) operating by means of a physiological “dual-state-of-the-mind”: the “Unconscious-Mind” (UM) and the “Conscious-Mind” (CM). UM reacts against the perturbing VW stimuli by adopting a trial-&-error method; instead, with a delay, CM critically discerns trials and then memorises the most successful ones, thus favouring UM for the future. More recently TBM was updated by observing the analogy between the activities of UM and CM in VW and those of Player and Avatar in a virtual game; in both situations, the amelioration of the learning ability depends on the “reinforcement learning”. According to this analogy, the updated version of TBM proposes that any motoric reaction of VI against VW perturbing stimuli unwittingly modifies its primary cause of perturbation residing at the RW level. Analogously, the couple Avatar-Player in a virtual game, believes to modify an adverse scenario on PC screen at will; however, that action is ultimately controlled by the software of the game. 

According to all these premises, we must conclude that our mind is moving within a deterministic frame in which the activities are not casual but causal. To justify resiliency and autopoiesis, the last version of TBM must theoretically unify VI activities all in a "Cognitive-Field" (CF), a laboratory of UM-CM cross-dialoguing that relies on both the innate, biophysical-biochemical language of UM (UML) and the epigenetically-acquired, mother’s language of CM (CML). The arousal of CML as a “second language” in VI was evolutionary strategic to fit in VW and, ultimately, in the unknown RW.

Enrico Bignetti 1949) born in Brescia, Italy. 1974) graduated Doctor in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Parma, Italy. 1977) Professor of Physiology at the University of Parma. 1985) Professor of Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Parma. 1987-1998) Director of Veterinary Biochemistry Institute. 2017) retired. Main research topics: 1) vision, olfaction and taste (Guanosine-triphosphate is directly involved in light-excitation of photoreceptors; bell-pepper Odorant-binding protein from nasal mucosa was purified and characterized; the psycho-active effect of Glutamate (Umami taste) was investigated); 2)) biosensor productions and the study of the psycho-active effects of food; 3) Cognition (a new human cognitive model “The Bignetti Model”, based on the role of free-will illusion in cognition was proposed). Work done abroad: Polytechnic of Zurich. University of Oregon, Yale University, Florida State University. Speaker at intl. congresses: Palermo, Italy; Jerusalem, Israel; Agra, India. (Rome, Italy, and New York, USA, will be postponed for Covid19). The last Publication: Bignetti E. (2021) The Limits of Mind and “The Bignetti Model”. New Horizons in Education and Social Studies. Chapter 8, Vol. 9, DOI: 10.9734/bpi/nhess/v9/7239D). Extra-academic activity: Conceptual Artist, Hatha Yoga Teacher and expert of oriental philosophies.