# Theory of Mind **Entity class:** Cognitive capacity **Domain:** Cognitive science / Social cognition **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition Theory of mind is the capacity to represent or infer that other agents have beliefs, desires, knowledge, intentions, and perspectives that may differ from one's own. ## Mechanism and significance Behavior that predicts another agent can implement a useful functional model without establishing human-like empathy, consciousness, or lived understanding. ## Relationships - **Research dossier:** [[research/ASI and RSI Timeline Research Moonshots|ASI and RSI Timeline Research Moonshots]] - **Ontology route:** [[ASI and RSI Timeline Ontology#Neural Decoding and Cognitive Systems|Neural Decoding and Cognitive Systems]] - **Primary fields:** [[Self-Reflection]] · [[Neural Decoding]] · [[Brain-Computer Interfaces]] - **Adjacent concepts:** [[Awareness]] · [[Metacognition]] · [[Self-Knowledge]] · [[Machine Intelligence]] - **Neural route:** [[wiki/Mentalizing Network|Mentalizing Network]] describes the social-cognition network recruited when representing another agent's mind. - **Comparative article:** [[blog/20261007 - The Prayers of Primates|The Prayers of Primates]] compares personal prayer and primate status behavior through the work of modeling an addressee while preserving the distinction between neural recruitment and theological truth. ## Sources and provenance - [[research/ASI and RSI Timeline Research Moonshots|ASI and RSI Timeline Research Moonshots]] — immediate source for this node's role in the broadcast research map. ## Evidence boundary The research dossier establishes why this concept belongs in the Moonshots ontology. Historical, scientific, fictional, and philosophical uses remain distinguishable; the node does not turn analogy or narrative architecture into empirical proof.