Rationality of the Subsumption Architecture

Since the behavior of the subsumption agent is dictated completely by direct perception, there is no internal representation that can be inconsistent with the world; in effect, the agent is always bringing all the knowledge it has to bear. This property leads to behavioral salience. The hormone system is designed to modulate low-level behavior and Brooks admits that it may need to be suppressed when higher level behaviors dictate that a low-level response is not needed (e.g., ignoring a forage for power behavior when some high-level communication has been received saying that power resources will be brought to the agent).

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