Discrete Model of Ideological Struggle Accounting for Migration

A discrete in time model of ideological competition is formulated taking into account population migration. The model is based on interactions between global populations of non-believers and followers of different ideologies. The complex dynamics of the attracting manifolds is investigated. Conversion from one ideology to another by means of (i) mass media influence and (ii) interpersonal relations is considered. Moreover a different birth rate is assumed for different ideologies, the rate being assumed to be positive for the reference population, made of initially non-believers. Ideological competition can happen in one or several regions in space. In the latter case, migration of non-believers and adepts is allowed; this leads to an enrichment of the ideological dynamics. Finally, the current ideological situation in the Arab countries and China is commented upon from the point of view of the presently developed mathematical model. The massive forced conversion by Ottoman Turks in the Balkans is briefly discussed.Comment: 24 pages, with 5 figures and 52 refs.; prepared for a Special issue of Advances in Complex System

Between the Visionary and the Archaic: Iannis Xenakis's Cosmic City

Almost parallel with his groundbreaking theoretical work Musiques formelles (Xenakis, 1963), the late composer and architect Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) published “The Cosmic City” (Xenakis, 1965). In this urban proposal, 5 million inhabitants are housed in a single megastructure, a hyperbolic paraboloid of more than 3000 meters high and 50 meters wide. This form is inspired by Xenakis’s concept of “volumetric architecture”, as exemplified in the famous Philips Pavilion in 1958. Totally independent from climatic conditions and topography, the Cosmic City includes homes, places of work, schools and other facilities, while the distribution of the population in the urban fabric is organized according to the same statistical laws and stochastic principles that form the basis of Xenakis’s musical composition. Apart from situating the Cosmic City in Xenakis’s oeuvre, this paper will offer a critical reading and an investigation of its reception in the writings of Françoise Choay and Louis Marin. Both authors have conceptualised the notion of utopia and discussed Xenakis’s project in that context. For Choay, speaking from an anthropologic viewpoint, the Cosmic City is not only a perfect example of “Technotopia”, i.e., a sort of “reduced” utopia (Choay, 1965), but also, despite its visionary intentions, archaic and even irrelevant today (Choay, 2000). However, Marin places Xenakis’s project in a long literary and semiotic tradition. For him, the Cosmic City is a projection of More’s utopia of the New World into the Space Age (Marin, 1973). This paper considers the Cosmic City as a case study of avant-garde urbanism in France in the 1960s, and discusses the opposite appreciation by Choay and Marin as exemplary of its ambiguous reception.status: publishe

Defusing Ideological Defenses in Biology

Ideological language is widespread in theoretical biology. Evolutionary game theory has been defended as a worldview and a leap of faith, and sexual selection theory has been criticized for what it posits as basic to biological nature. Views such as these encourage the impression of ideological rifts in the field. I advocate an alternative interpretation, whereby many disagreements between different camps of biologists merely reflect methodological differences. This interpretation provides a more accurate and more optimistic account of the state of play in the field of biology. It also helps account for biologists' tendency to embrace ideological positions

What Are Ideological Systems?

Ideology is a systemic property of cognition central to the transmission and actualization of beliefs. Ideologies take many forms including religious, philosophical, popular and scientific. They play a central role in both personal identity and in the way society holds itself together. Therefore, it is important to understand how to model identities. The article introduces ideologies as a function of cognition that have been described by political scientists and critical theorists. There follows a typology of ideologies that shows their increasing complexity as societies develop. These considerations lead to the identification of key elements and variables in an ideology that can be expressed mathematically together with some of their systemic relations. These variables may be used to estimate the validation of ideologies

Predicting cocaine consumption in Spain: A mathematical modelling approach

This is an author's accepted manuscript of an article published in “Drugs: Education, Prevention, and Policy "; Volume 18, Issue 2, 2011; copyright Taylor & Francis; available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/09687630903443299In this article, we analyse the evolution of cocaine consumption in Spain and we predict consumption trends over the next few years. Additionally, we simulate some scenarios which aim to reduce cocaine consumption in the future (sensitivity analysis). Assuming cocaine dependency is a socially transmitted epidemic disease, this leads us to propose an epidemiological-type mathematical model to study consumption evolution. Model sensitivity analysis allows us to design strategies and analyse their effects on cocaine consumption. The model predicts that 3.5% of the Spanish population will be habitual cocaine consumers by 2015. The simulations carried out suggest that cocaine consumption prevention strategies are the best policy to reduce the habitual consumer population. In this article, we show that epidemiological-type mathematical models can be a useful tool in the analysis of the repercussion of health policy proposals in the short-time future. © 2011 Informa UK Ltd.Sánchez, E.; Villanueva Micó, RJ.; Santonja, FJ.; Rubio, M. (2011). Predicting cocaine consumption in Spain: A mathematical modelling approach. Drugs: Education, Prevention, and Policy. 18(2):108-115. doi:10.3109/09687630903443299S108115182Blower, S. M., & Dowlatabadi, H. (1994). Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis of Complex Models of Disease Transmission: An HIV Model, as an Example. International Statistical Review / Revue Internationale de Statistique, 62(2), 229. doi:10.2307/1403510Dutra, L., Stathopoulou, G., Basden, S. L., Leyro, T. M., Powers, M. B., & Otto, M. W. (2008). A Meta-Analytic Review of Psychosocial Interventions for Substance Use Disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 165(2), 179-187. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2007.06111851Gorman, D. M., Mezic, J., Mezic, I., & Gruenewald, P. J. (2006). Agent-Based Modeling of Drinking Behavior: A Preliminary Model and Potential Applications to Theory and Practice. American Journal of Public Health, 96(11), 2055-2060. doi:10.2105/ajph.2005.063289Jódar, L., Santonja, F. J., & González-Parra, G. (2008). Modeling dynamics of infant obesity in the region of Valencia, Spain. Computers & Mathematics with Applications, 56(3), 679-689. doi:10.1016/j.camwa.2008.01.011JOHNSON, B., ROACHE, J., AITDAOUD, N., JAVORS, M., HARRISON, J., ELKASHEF, A., … BLOCH, D. (2006). A preliminary randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of the safety and efficacy of ondansetron in the treatment of cocaine dependence. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 84(3), 256-263. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2006.02.011Levin, F. R., Evans, S. M., Brooks, D. J., & Garawi, F. (2007). Treatment of cocaine dependent treatment seekers with adult ADHD: Double-blind comparison of methylphenidate and placebo. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 87(1), 20-29. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2006.07.004Marino, S., Hogue, I. B., Ray, C. J., & Kirschner, D. E. (2008). A methodology for performing global uncertainty and sensitivity analysis in systems biology. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 254(1), 178-196. doi:10.1016/j.jtbi.2008.04.011Martcheva, M., & Castillo-Chavez, C. (2003). Diseases with chronic stage in a population with varying size. Mathematical Biosciences, 182(1), 1-25. doi:10.1016/s0025-5564(02)00184-0Nelder, J. A., & Mead, R. (1965). A Simplex Method for Function Minimization. The Computer Journal, 7(4), 308-313. doi:10.1093/comjnl/7.4.308Olsson, A., Sandberg, G., & Dahlblom, O. (2003). On Latin hypercube sampling for structural reliability analysis. Structural Safety, 25(1), 47-68. doi:10.1016/s0167-4730(02)00039-5Santonja, F. J., Tarazona, A. C., & Villanueva, R. J. (2008). A mathematical model of the pressure of an extreme ideology on a society. Computers & Mathematics with Applications, 56(3), 836-846. doi:10.1016/j.camwa.2008.01.001Schmitz, J. M., Stotts, A. L., Rhoades, H. M., & Grabowski, J. (2001). Naltrexone and relapse prevention treatment for cocaine-dependent patients. Addictive Behaviors, 26(2), 167-180. doi:10.1016/s0306-4603(00)00098-8Sharomi, O., & Gumel, A. B. (2008). Curtailing smoking dynamics: A mathematical modeling approach. Applied Mathematics and Computation, 195(2), 475-499. doi:10.1016/j.amc.2007.05.012Stotts, A. L., Mooney, M. E., Sayre, S. L., Novy, M., Schmitz, J. M., & Grabowski, J. (2007). Illusory predictors: Generalizability of findings in cocaine treatment retention research. Addictive Behaviors, 32(12), 2819-2836. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2007.04.020White, E., & Comiskey, C. (2007). Heroin epidemics, treatment and ODE modelling. Mathematical Biosciences, 208(1), 312-324. doi:10.1016/j.mbs.2006.10.00

Fractional Reserve Banking as Economic Parasitism: A Scientific, Mathematical & Historical Expose, Critique, and Manifesto

This paper looks at the history of money and its modern form from a scientific and mathematical point of view. The approach here is to emphasize simplicity. A straightforward model and algebraic formula for a large economy analogous to the ideal gas law of thermodynamics is proposed. It may be something like a new ``F=ma'' rule of the emerging econophysics field. Some implications of the equation are outlined, derived, and proved. The phenomena of counterfeiting, inflation and deflation are analyzed for interrelations. Analogies of the economy to an ecosystem or energy system are advanced. The fundamental legitimacy of ``expansion of the money supply'' in particular is re-examined and challenged. From the hypotheses a major (admittedly radical) conclusion is that the modern international ``fractional reserve banking system'' is actually equivalent to ``legalized economic parasitism by private bankers.'' This is the case because, contrary to conventional wisdom, the proceeds of inflation are not actually spendable by the state. Also possible are forms of ``economic warfare'' based on the principles. Alternative systems are proposed to remediate this catastrophic flaw.fractional reserve banking money expansion parasitism capitalism greenspan gold thermodynamics perfect gas econophysics gresham's law stiglitz money supply inflation deflation growth price stability counterfeiting energy radical polemic revolution economic warfare religion doublespeak gdp scarcity fiat blips federal reserve history slavery lassaiz-fair solow keynes keynesianism cancer psychology sociology politics analogy IMF world bank GNP GDP digital cash money laundering pareto mcfadden echelon nsa free market growth conspiracy

Invisible Hand in the Process of Making Economics or on the Method and Scope of Economics

As a social science, economics cannot be reduced to simply an a priori science or an ideology. In addition economics cannot be solely an empirical or a historical science. Economics is a research field which studies only one dimension of human behavior, with the four fields of mathematics, econometrics, ethics and history intersecting one another. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the two parts of the proposition above, in connection with the controversies surrounding the method and the scope of economics: economics as an applied mathematics and economics as a predictive/empirical science.Invisible hand, Scope and method in economics, Economics as an applied mathematics, Economics as an empirical science, Economics as ideology.