# Mesarovician Abstract Learning Systems

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.14766 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.14766/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 2 of its 15 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 29 Nov 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [A Systems Theory of Transfer Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.01196/) (2021)
- [Why Artificial Intelligence Needs a Task Theory --- And What It Might Look Like](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.04660/) (2016)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Core and Periphery as Closed-System Precepts for Engineering General Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.02837/) (2022)
- [Homomorphisms Between Transfer, Multi-Task, and Meta-Learning Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.03316/) (2022)
- [On Extending the Automatic Test Markup Language (ATML) for Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.03769/) (2024)
- [A Systems Theoretic Approach to Online Machine Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.03775/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The solution methods used to realize artificial general intelligence (AGI) may not contain the formalism needed to adequately model and characterize AGI. In particular, current approaches to learning hold notions of problem domain and problem task as fundamental precepts, but it is hardly apparent that an AGI encountered in the wild will be discernable into a set of domain-task pairings. Nor is it apparent that the outcomes of AGI in a system can be well expressed in terms of domain and task, or as consequences thereof. Thus, there is both a practical and theoretical use for meta-theories of learning which do not express themselves explicitly in terms of solution methods. General systems theory offers such a meta-theory. Herein, Mesarovician abstract systems theory is used as a super-structure for learning. Abstract learning systems are formulated. Subsequent elaboration stratifies the assumptions of learning systems into a hierarchy and considers the hierarchy such stratification projects onto learning theory. The presented Mesarovician abstract learning systems theory calls back to the founding motivations of artificial intelligence research by focusing on the thinking participants directly, in this case, learning systems, in contrast to the contemporary focus on the problems thinking participants solve.