Modeling Memes: A Memetic View of Affordance Learning

This research employed systems social science inquiry to build a synthesis model that would be useful for modeling meme evolution. First, a formal definition of memes was proposed that balanced both ontological adequacy and empirical observability. Based on this definition, a systems model for meme evolution was synthesized from Shannon Information Theory and elements of Bandura\u27s Social Cognitive Learning Theory. Research in perception, social psychology, learning, and communication were incorporated to explain the cognitive and environmental processes guiding meme evolution. By extending the PMFServ cognitive architecture, socio-cognitive agents were created who could simulate social learning of Gibson affordances. The PMFServ agent based model was used to examine two scenarios: a simulation to test for potential memes inside the Stanford Prison Experiment and a simulation of pro-US and anti-US meme competition within the fictional Hamariyah Iraqi village. The Stanford Prison Experiment simulation was designed, calibrated, and tested using the original Stanford Prison Experiment archival data. This scenario was used to study potential memes within a real-life context. The Stanford Prison Experiment simulation was complemented by internal and external validity testing. The Hamariyah Iraqi village was used to analyze meme competition in a fictional village based upon US Marine Corps human terrain data. This simulation demonstrated how the implemented system can infer the personality traits and contextual factors that cause certain agents to adopt pro-US or anti-US memes, using Gaussian mixture clustering analysis and cross-cluster analysis. Finally, this research identified significant gaps in empirical science with respect to studying memes. These roadblocks and their potential solutions are explored in the conclusions of this work

Music in Evolution and Evolution in Music

Music in Evolution and Evolution in Music by Steven Jan is a comprehensive account of the relationships between evolutionary theory and music. Examining the ‘evolutionary algorithm’ that drives biological and musical-cultural evolution, the book provides a distinctive commentary on how musicality and music can shed light on our understanding of Darwin’s famous theory, and vice-versa. Comprised of seven chapters, with several musical examples, figures and definitions of terms, this original and accessible book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the relationships between music and evolutionary thought. Jan guides the reader through key evolutionary ideas and the development of human musicality, before exploring cultural evolution, evolutionary ideas in musical scholarship, animal vocalisations, music generated through technology, and the nature of consciousness as an evolutionary phenomenon. A unique examination of how evolutionary thought intersects with music, Music in Evolution and Evolution in Music is essential to our understanding of how and why music arose in our species and why it is such a significant presence in our lives

A complex systems approach to education in Switzerland

The insights gained from the study of complex systems in biological, social, and engineered systems enables us not only to observe and understand, but also to actively design systems which will be capable of successfully coping with complex and dynamically changing situations. The methods and mindset required for this approach have been applied to educational systems with their diverse levels of scale and complexity. Based on the general case made by Yaneer Bar-Yam, this paper applies the complex systems approach to the educational system in Switzerland. It confirms that the complex systems approach is valid. Indeed, many recommendations made for the general case have already been implemented in the Swiss education system. To address existing problems and difficulties, further steps are recommended. This paper contributes to the further establishment complex systems approach by shedding light on an area which concerns us all, which is a frequent topic of discussion and dispute among politicians and the public, where billions of dollars have been spent without achieving the desired results, and where it is difficult to directly derive consequences from actions taken. The analysis of the education system's different levels, their complexity and scale will clarify how such a dynamic system should be approached, and how it can be guided towards the desired performance

Consciousness in scientific and folk psychology

The intentional properties and subjective qualities of conscious states pose special problems for physicalism. Yet 'consciousness' is a term of the vernacular that picks out such a heterogeneous group of phenomena that it will not be a good explanandum for science. This thesis adopted the position that we are licensed to theorize about the phenomena of consciousness, provided we are careful to dump all excess folk-psychological baggage surrounding the term. It was argued that the purposes and goals of folk psychology differ considerably from those of scientific psychology, for folk psychology is first and foremost a craft. Cognitive psychology is bound to the analytical strategy by way of functionalism. Various forms of functionalism were investigated, and two non­ mutually exclusive versions were favoured: homuncular functionalism and microfunctionalism. This led to the view that nature is multi-levelled, and therefore that functionalism may be better known as structural-functional theory. S-F theory should seek to explain the processes and structures of the mind­ brain, rather than attempt to find the states posited by folk psychology within the cognitive system. Traditional cognitive models view the mind as a highly structured system of semi-autonomous processors under the monitoring and guidance of a central executive. But this thesis argued that to postulate a 'consciousness module', while a natural extension of functionalist 'boxology', is merely to pander to our folk-psychological intuitions of the will or 'inner self'. Some of the 'new wave' of cognitive models -those that do not posit an executive -were reviewed. Phenomenal consciousness is the one major stumbling block for physicalist theories. Although this thesis agreed that qualia do not exist, it was evident that no theory has yet provided a bridge across the explanatory gap between third-person science and first-person phenomenology over which sceptics feel safe to cross. Nevertheless, it was argued that Dennett's (1991a) latest theory, with its intelligent use of metaphors and analogies, is one of the most promising steps in the right direction. Finally, it was argued throughout that an interdisciplinary approach is crucial if science is to uncover the mysteries of consciousness

Customer engagement: "only connect", a reconciliation between scholastic and practitioner perspectives.

The scholastic view of customer engagement is that it is a critical metric, albeit within the academic world there is a debate as to whether this critical metric is best represented experientially or behaviourally. The practitioner world is divided: for some the construct is a “vanity metric” (Weigel, 2011); others recognise the importance of the phenomenon but discard the experiential metric in favour of behavioural proxies. This thesis aims to achieve concordance between these perspectives by challenging the assumptions of both worlds about the concept’s provenance and utility It is structured around three papers. The conceptual paper (paper 1) defines customer engagement as an experiential construct, distinguishes it from neighbouring constructs (notably telepresence and interactivity), and establishes its dimensions, laying the groundwork for scale development. This paper was published in Journal of Business Research in 2010. It has become a central part of academic discourse on engagement, having 1590 Google Scholar citations by May 2022. Paper 2 explores the scholastic-practitioner disconnect about engagement. Through two large-scale surveys of media websites (n=12,125 and 3,030), it: (1) refines paper 1’s definition of engagement to take account of conceptual work in the intervening decade; (2) develops and validates an engagement scale reflecting that revised conceptualisation; (2) compares the impact on outcomes (loyalty, satisfaction and NPS) of this experiential engagement measure (‘CE’) with a behavioural measure (‘CEB@Site’), showing that the former outperforms the latter; (3) refutes the hypothesis, reflecting practitioner heuristics, that CEB@Site is a robust proxy for CE; and (4) illustrates that CEB@Site nonetheless remains a valuable metric in its own right. Context (here, different site ‘genres’) is a moderating factor that does not, however, inhibit comparisons between sites within the same category. Paper 3 examines the effect of CE on advertising receptivity (AdRecep), another crucial outcome for practitioners. Reusing paper 2’s second survey, it finds that: (1) CE drives AdRecep; (2) CE dimensions differ in their impact on AdRecep by context; (3) contextual targeting is an effective driver of AdRecep, and (4) respondents who are ‘receptive’ to advertising are also ‘responsive’ to it and exhibit a propensity to be ‘micro-influencers’. Paper 3 thereby makes the case for CE as an advertising metric of value.Economic and Social Research (ESRC)PhD in Leadership and Managemen

Categorical Ontology of Complex Systems, Meta-Systems and Theory of Levels: The Emergence of Life, Human Consciousness and Society

Single cell interactomics in simpler organisms, as well as somatic cell interactomics in multicellular organisms, involve biomolecular interactions in complex signalling pathways that were recently represented in modular terms by quantum automata with ‘reversible behavior’ representing normal cell cycling and division. Other implications of such quantum automata, modular modeling of signaling pathways and cell differentiation during development are in the fields of neural plasticity and brain development leading to quantum-weave dynamic patterns and specific molecular processes underlying extensive memory, learning, anticipation mechanisms and the emergence of human consciousness during the early brain development in children. Cell interactomics is here represented for the first time as a mixture of ‘classical’ states that determine molecular dynamics subject to Boltzmann statistics and ‘steady-state’, metabolic (multi-stable) manifolds, together with ‘configuration’ spaces of metastable quantum states emerging from complex quantum dynamics of interacting networks of biomolecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids that are now collectively defined as quantum interactomics. On the other hand, the time dependent evolution over several generations of cancer cells --that are generally known to undergo frequent and extensive genetic mutations and, indeed, suffer genomic transformations at the chromosome level (such as extensive chromosomal aberrations found in many colon cancers)-- cannot be correctly represented in the ‘standard’ terms of quantum automaton modules, as the normal somatic cells can. This significant difference at the cancer cell genomic level is therefore reflected in major changes in cancer cell interactomics often from one cancer cell ‘cycle’ to the next, and thus it requires substantial changes in the modeling strategies, mathematical tools and experimental designs aimed at understanding cancer mechanisms. Novel solutions to this important problem in carcinogenesis are proposed and experimental validation procedures are suggested. From a medical research and clinical standpoint, this approach has important consequences for addressing and preventing the development of cancer resistance to medical therapy in ongoing clinical trials involving stage III cancer patients, as well as improving the designs of future clinical trials for cancer treatments.\ud \ud \ud KEYWORDS: Emergence of Life and Human Consciousness;\ud Proteomics; Artificial Intelligence; Complex Systems Dynamics; Quantum Automata models and Quantum Interactomics; quantum-weave dynamic patterns underlying human consciousness; specific molecular processes underlying extensive memory, learning, anticipation mechanisms and human consciousness; emergence of human consciousness during the early brain development in children; Cancer cell ‘cycling’; interacting networks of proteins and nucleic acids; genetic mutations and chromosomal aberrations in cancers, such as colon cancer; development of cancer resistance to therapy; ongoing clinical trials involving stage III cancer patients’ possible improvements of the designs for future clinical trials and cancer treatments. \ud \u

Language impairment and colour categories

Goldstein (1948) reported multiple cases of failure to categorise colours in patients that he termed amnesic or anomic aphasics. these patients have a particular difficulty in producing perceptual categories in the absence of other aphasic impairments. we hold that neuropsychological evidence supports the view that the task of colour categorisation is logically impossible without labels

Living in a natural world

Die Dissertation besteht aus drei Teilen: der erste behandelt Rationalität und deren Bedeutung für alle Fragen des Lebens, nicht nur für einen reduzierten – für wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen reservierten – Teilbereich der Welt; der zweite Teil ist metaphysischer Natur und skizziert den postulierten Aufbau der Welt anhand der im ersten Teil erläuterten Prinzipien. Im dritten Teil frage ich – und gebe vorläufige Antworten – wie die Ergebnisse der vorherigen Teile unseren Blickwinkel auf empfindsame Wesen des Universums – darunter Menschen – ändern. Nur wenn wir rational sind können wir das Maximum an Information aus unserer Umwelt extrahieren. Unser beste Weg zum Erkenntnisgewinn sollte auch Leitfaden für unsere Spiritualität, Ethik, unsere Ansichten über den Sinn des Lebens etc sein. Es ist wichtig die sich mit unserem Erkenntnisstand ändernden Standards der Rationalität auf alle menschlichen Unterfangen anzuwenden. Für Individuen bedeutet Wissen gute mentale Modelle der Welt zu besitzen: je genauer effektive Faktoren in der Welt gespiegelt werden, umso besser können angestrebte Ziele erreicht werden. Unwissenheit führt zu Inaktivität und Passivität. Die Bewährungsprobe für Wissen und Philosophie ist die: werden durch sie die Art und Weise wie wir die Welt, unser Leben, und – letztlich am Wichtigsten – die Art und Weise wie wir handeln, verändert?The thesis consists of three parts: the first being on rationality and its import in tackling all questions facing us in our lives, not only a reduced domain of scientific investigation; the second, metaphysical in nature, forming an essay on the nature of the world, especially as informed by the principles of rationality sketched in the previous part; and the third, applying the findings of the previous sections to sentient agents – among them humans – in this universe. I argue that the rational approach is the best way to approach all questions facing us in our lives. Only by being rational can we extract as much information from our environment as possible. Our best way of gaining knowledge should quite naturally also influence our spirituality, our ethics, our view of the meaning of life and so on. It is important to apply the open standards of rationality to all areas of interest to humans. The agent centric approach is central to the thesis. For individuals, knowledge means having a good mental model of the world: the closer to the actual effective factors in the world, the more potential there is for action leading to achievement of goals. Ignorance condemns one to inaction and passivity. The litmus test for knowledge – and philosophy – is this: does it change the way we view the world, our life, and, ultimately and most importantly, the way we act

Contemporary Natural Philosophy and Philosophies - Part 1

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue titled "Contemporary Natural Philosophy and Philosophies" - Part 1 that was published in the journal Philosophies