The stochastic thermodynamics of computation
(…) In this paper I review some of this recent work on the ‘stochastic thermodynamics of computation’. After reviewing the salient parts of information theory, computer science theory, and stochastic thermodynamics, I summarize what has been learned about the entropic costs of performing a broad range of computations, extending from bit erasure to loop-free circuits to logically reversible circuits to information ratchets to Turing machines. These results reveal new, challenging engineering problems for how to design computers to have minimal thermodynamic costs. They also allow us to start to combine computer science theory and stochastic thermodynamics at a foundational level, thereby expanding both.
The stochastic thermodynamics of computation
David H Wolpert
Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, Volume 52, Number 19
Shannon’s Information Theory 70 years on
Source: iopscience.iop.org
The necessity of extended autopoiesis
The theory of autopoiesis holds that an organism can be defined as a network of processes. However, an organism also has a physical body. The relationship between these two things—network and body—has been raised in this issue of Adaptive Behaviour, with reference to an extended interpretation of autopoiesis. This perspective holds that the network and the body are distinct things, and that the network should be thought of as extending beyond the boundaries of the body. The relationship between body and network is subtle, and I revisit it here from the extended perspective. I conclude that from an organism = network perspective, the body is a biological solution to the problem of maintaining both the distinctness of an organism, separate from but engaged with its environment and other organisms, and its distinctiveness as a particular individual.
The necessity of extended autopoiesis
Nathaniel Virgo
Adaptive Behavior
https://doi.org/10.1177/1059712319841557
Source: journals.sagepub.com
ScienceBites
In science, concepts such as organism, evolution and life, are used almost every day. Every scientist knows the general meaning of such concepts. At the same time, nature is complex, and for this reason, it is difficult to draw stringent lines around classes of things. Scientists therefore accept the use of so called ‘working definitions’ for many concepts. It is frequently advocated that working on definitions has little use for practical research.
This book explores a different viewpoint, in which definitions are compared with tools. If your toolbox contains too few tools, tools that are worn down, or tools that don’t fit, it becomes difficult to carry out even the most easy maintenance or repair job. Experts know: suitable tools make the work easier.
The aim of this book is to examine much-used concepts in science as if these are tools in a scientific toolbox. Do the current definitions represent quality tools? To explore this question, this book uses a recently developed hierarchy theory, the operator theory, as a reference. This theory is explained in the first chapter. Whenever the analyses suggest to do so, the ScienceBites offer directions for improvement of current definitions.
ScienceBites
A fresh take on commonly used terms in science
Gerard Jagers op Akkerhuis
Published: 2019 Pages: 142
eISBN: 978-90-8686-887-2 | ISBN: 978-90-8686-336-5
https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-887-2
Source: www.wageningenacademic.com
Towards a quantitative model of epidemics during conflicts
Epidemics may both contribute to and arise as a result of conflict. The effects of conflict on infectious diseases are complex and there have been confounding observations of both increase and decrease in disease outbreaks during and after conflicts. However there is no unified mathematical model that explains all these counter-intuitive observations. There is an urgent need for a quantitative framework for modelling conflicts and epidemics. We introduce a set of mathematical models to understand the role of conflicts in epidemics. Our mathematical framework has the potential to explain the counterintuitive observations and the complex role of human conflicts in epidemics. Our work suggests that aid and peacekeeping organizations should take an integrated approach that combines public health measures, socio-economic development, and peacekeeping in the conflict zone. Our approach exemplifies the role of non-linear thinking in complex systems like human societies. We view our work as a step towards a quantitative model of disease spread in conflicts.
Banerjee S. 2019. Towards a quantitative model of epidemics during conflicts. PeerJ Preprints 7:e27651v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27651v1
Source: peerj.com
NetSci-X 2020
NetSci-X, the Network Science Society‘s signature winter conference, will visit Tokyo, Japan in 2020. Bringing together leading researchers and innovators, NetSci-X 2020 will connect Japanese culture of innovation and hospitality with the novel perspectives of Network Science.
NetSci-X 2020 will include
- Main conference (plenary and parallel sessions, poster sessions) on January 20th — 22nd
- One-day network science school on January 23rd
Source: netscix2020tokyo.github.io
How Efficiency Shapes Human Language
We review recent research on the burgeoning topic of how language structure is shaped by principles of efficiency for communication and learning.
Work in this area has infused long-standing ideas in linguistics and psychology with new precision and methodological rigor by bringing together information theory, newly available datasets, controlled experimentation, and computational modeling.
We review a number of studies that focus on phenomena ranging from the lexicon through syntactic processes, and which deploy formal tools from information theory and probability theory to understand how and why language works the way that it does.
These studies show how a pervasive pressure for efficient usage guides the form of natural language and suggest a rich future for language research in connecting linguistics to cognitive psychology and mathematical theories of communication.
How Efficiency Shapes Human Language
Edward Gibson, et al.
Trends in Cognitive Science
Source: www.cell.com
Topical Alignment in Online Social Systems
Understanding the dynamics of social interactions is crucial to comprehend human behavior. The emergence of online social media has enabled access to data regarding people relationships at a large scale. Twitter, specifically, is an information oriented network, with users sharing and consuming information. In this work, we study whether users tend to be in contact with people interested in similar topics, i.e., if they are topically aligned. To do so, we propose an approach based on the use of hashtags to extract information topics from Twitter messages and model users’ interests. Our results show that, on average, users are connected with other users similar to them. Furthermore, we show that topical alignment provides interesting information that can eventually allow inferring users’ connectivity. Our work, besides providing a way to assess the topical similarity of users, quantifies topical alignment among individuals, contributing to a better understanding of how complex social systems are structured.
Topical Alignment in Online Social Systems
Felipe Maciel Cardoso, Sandro Meloni, André Santanchè, and Yamir Moreno
Front. Phys., 17 April 2019 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fphy.2019.00058
Source: www.frontiersin.org
Information as a construction
The purpose of this review paper is to outline the constructivist approach to the notion of information from two perspectives. The first perspective explores the role of ‘constructed’ information in the ‘constructivist niche’ – a common name for the appropriate viewpoints in different science fields, such as cognitive and neuroscience, psychology, cybernetics and biology of cognition. The second perspective considers library and information science (LIS) papers in which information is treated as a constructed entity. This paper assumed the origin of the notion of information to be a construction as defined in the ‘constructivist niche’ that is based upon communication theory and cybernetics. Conversely, the origin of the notion of information as a construction as per LIS can be found in Bateson’s definition of information as a ‘difference which makes the difference,‘ as well as in the 1970s LIS definition wherein information is associated with the direction of a cognitive viewpoint, as in a ‘cognitive turn’. The study showed that ‘information as a construction‘, except in a few cases, did not play a significant role in the constructivist theories nor in LIS. LIS researchers reduce the concept of information to a subjective, socially-constructed entity which inherently results in different interpretations.
Information as a construction
Boris Bosancic, Marta Matijevic
Journal of Librarianship and Information Science
Source: journals.sagepub.com
Mind, Body, Quantum Mechanics
I discuss the following: The causal closure of classical physics implies that consciousness in a classical physics brain can at best be epiphenomenal. Quantum mechanics can break the causal closure of classical physics in two ways: measurement and a newly discovered Poised Realm. Conscious experience may be associated with quantum measurement. Here quantum mind has acausal consequences for the classical brain. I propose genetic experiments to test this. Entanglement may solve the “binding problem.” I believe these proposals unite mind and body in a new way and answer Descartes after 350 years of the Stalemate introduced by his dualism of Res cogitans and Res extensa.
Mind, Body, Quantum Mechanics
Stuart Kauffman
Activitas Nervosa Superior
Source: link.springer.com
Network properties of salmonella epidemics
We examine non-typhoidal Salmonella (S. Typhimurium or STM) epidemics as complex systems, driven by evolution and interactions of diverse microbial strains, and focus on emergence of successful strains. Our findings challenge the established view that seasonal epidemics are associated with random sets of co-circulating STM genotypes. We use high-resolution molecular genotyping data comprising 17,107 STM isolates representing nine consecutive seasonal epidemics in Australia, genotyped by multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeats analysis (MLVA). From these data, we infer weighted undirected networks based on distances between the MLVA profiles, depicting epidemics as networks of individual bacterial strains. The network analysis demonstrated dichotomy in STM populations which split into two distinct genetic branches, with markedly different prevalences. This distinction revealed the emergence of dominant STM strains defined by their local network topological properties, such as centrality, while correlating the development of new epidemics with global network features, such as small-world propensity.
Network properties of salmonella epidemics
Oliver M. Cliff, Vitali Sintchenko, Tania C. Sorrell, Kiranmayi Vadlamudi, Natalia McLean & Mikhail Prokopenko
Scientific Reports volume 9, Article number: 6159 (2019)
Source: www.nature.com
‘Liquid brains, solid brains: How distributed cognitive architectures process information
Theme issue ‘Liquid brains, solid brains: How distributed cognitive architectures process information’ compiled and edited by Ricard Solé, Melanie Moses and Stephanie Forrest
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Source: royalsocietypublishing.org
