Li Chen explained, "Cognition and information are inseparable. Where there is information, there can be cognition; where there is cognition, information must exist. Together, these two may reveal the meaning of intelligence's existence."
"I think the meaning of life lies in passing it on, and the meaning of intelligence lies in cognition. Perhaps we were born into this world precisely to perceive and understand the universe."
Li Chen continued, "Whether mortals or Puppet Masters, we need to explain things through the forces they exert in order to define them. If something responds to forces and can interact with other things, it is physically real. If it produces no response, it is insubstantial. We cannot point to an empty room and claim out of nowhere that an elephant is hiding inside, yet be unable to detect its existence by any means or be affected by it. In that case, it is merely a concept, not a reality."
"But intelligence begins with cognition. The most primitive cognition is nothing more than a simple mechanism of reception and feedback. Even a program can do that, so it can exist on the level of pure information and act upon illusory concepts."
"Working in concert with complex factors such as sensation, perception, memory, thought, and imagination, it forms the mental activities of intelligent beings. Through this, the dazzling universe is endowed with meaning. This is the bridge between the insubstantial and the substantial."
"This universe needs living beings to perceive it. A hundred trillion years of waiting, the birth and death of stars, the cycles of the universe-perhaps all of it was merely waiting for you and me to glance back at it. Without life and intelligence, the entire universe would be meaningless to us!"
"Thus, cognition is the most important thing an intelligent being