Fault-Tolerant, but Paradoxical Path-Finding in Physical and Conceptual Systems

We report our initial investigations into reliability and path-finding based models and propose future areas of interest. Inspired by broken sidewalks during on-campus construction projects, we develop two models for navigating this "unreliable network." These are based on a concept of "accumulating risk" backward from the destination, and both operate on directed acyclic graphs with a probability of failure associated with each edge. The first serves to introduce and has faults addressed by the second, more conservative model. Next, we show a paradox when these models are used to construct polynomials on conceptual networks, such as design processes and software development life cycles. When the risk of a network increases uniformly, the most reliable path changes from wider and longer to shorter and narrower. If we let professional inexperience--such as with entry level cooks and software developers--represent probability of edge failure, does this change in path imply that the novice should follow instructions with fewer "back-up" plans, yet those with alternative routes should be followed by the expert?Comment: 8 page

Quantum Mechanics in Phase Space

Ever since Werner Heisenberg's 1927 paper on uncertainty, there has been considerable hesitancy in simultaneously considering positions and momenta in quantum contexts, since these are incompatible observables. But this persistent discomfort with addressing positions and momenta jointly in the quantum world is not really warranted, as was first fully appreciated by Hilbrand Groenewold and Jos\'e Moyal in the 1940s. While the formalism for quantum mechanics in phase space was wholly cast at that time, it was not completely understood nor widely known --- much less generally accepted --- until the late 20th century.Comment: A brief history of deformation quantization, ca 1930-1960, with some elementary illustrations of the theor

A fault-tolerant multiprocessor architecture for aircraft, volume 1

A fault-tolerant multiprocessor architecture is reported. This architecture, together with a comprehensive information system architecture, has important potential for future aircraft applications. A preliminary definition and assessment of a suitable multiprocessor architecture for such applications is developed

The Translocal Event and the Polyrhythmic Diagram

This thesis identifies and analyses the key creative protocols in translocal performance practice, and ends with suggestions for new forms of transversal live and mediated performance practice, informed by theory. It argues that ontologies of emergence in dynamic systems nourish contemporary practice in the digital arts. Feedback in self-organised, recursive systems and organisms elicit change, and change transforms. The arguments trace concepts from chaos and complexity theory to virtual multiplicity, relationality, intuition and individuation (in the work of Bergson, Deleuze, Guattari, Simondon, Massumi, and other process theorists). It then examines the intersection of methodologies in philosophy, science and art and the radical contingencies implicit in the technicity of real-time, collaborative composition. Simultaneous forces or tendencies such as perception/memory, content/ expression and instinct/intellect produce composites (experience, meaning, and intuition- respectively) that affect the sensation of interplay. The translocal event is itself a diagram - an interstice between the forces of the local and the global, between the tendencies of the individual and the collective. The translocal is a point of reference for exploring the distribution of affect, parameters of control and emergent aesthetics. Translocal interplay, enabled by digital technologies and network protocols, is ontogenetic and autopoietic; diagrammatic and synaesthetic; intuitive and transductive. KeyWorx is a software application developed for realtime, distributed, multimodal media processing. As a technological tool created by artists, KeyWorx supports this intuitive type of creative experience: a real-time, translocal “jamming” that transduces the lived experience of a “biogram,” a synaesthetic hinge-dimension. The emerging aesthetics are processual – intuitive, diagrammatic and transversal

Practicality of Quantum Random Access Memory

Quantum computers are expected to revolutionize the world of computing, but major challenges remain to be addressed before this potential can be realized. One such challenge is the so-called data-input bottleneck: Even though quantum computers can quickly solve certain problems by rapidly analyzing large data sets, it can be difficult to load this data into a quantum computer in the first place. In order to quickly load large data sets into quantum states, a highly-specialized device called a Quantum Random Access Memory (QRAM) is required. Building a large-scale QRAM is a daunting engineering challenge, however, and concerns about QRAM’s practicality cast doubt on many potential quantum computing applications. In this thesis, I consider the practical challenges associated with constructing a large-scale QRAM and describe how several of these challenges can be addressed. I first show that QRAM is surprisingly resilient to decoherence, such that data can be reliably loaded even in the presence of realistic noise. Then, I propose a hardware-efficient error suppression scheme that can further improve QRAM’s reliability without incurring substantial additional overhead, in contrast to conventional quantum error-correction approaches. Finally, I propose experimental implementations of QRAM for hybrid quantum acoustic systems. The proposed architectures are naturally hardware-efficient and scalable, thanks to the compactness and high coherence of acoustic modes. Taken together, the results in this thesis both pave the way for small-scale, near-term experimental demonstrations of QRAM and improve the reliability and scalability of QRAM in the long term

The Double-Edged Sword of Diagnosis: Medical Neoliberalism in Rape Crisis Center Counseling

The prevalence of sexual violence in the United States is a critical issue and the aftermath of sexual assault can have profound effects on psychological well-being. Rape Crisis Centers play a vital role in supporting sexual violence survivors. The framework through which Rape Crisis Center clinicians understand the experiences of survivors has a substantial impact on the course of counseling, how survivors interpret their own experiences, and survivors’ psychological health. A neoliberal medicalized framework conceptualizes distress post-sexual assault as a disease or disorder and places the responsibility on an individual to ‘fix’ themselves, situating the problem within the person, rather than in a sociopolitical context. This framework has become increasingly prevalent in Western society and has permeated psychology. The goal of the present study was to explore the impact of a neoliberal medicalized discourse on clinicians’ understandings of survivor distress and provide a counter-dialogue to the often polarizing conversations as to whether medicalization is ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ This study aimed to answer: 1) How does a medicalized discourse impact how Rape Crisis Center clinicians make meaning of their clients’ experiences post-sexual assault? And 2) What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a medicalized framework to understand the aftermath of sexual assault for survivors who seek services? Engaging in qualitative inquiry, a modified version of interpretative phenomenological analysis was employed. Analysis revealed four master themes titled, Wielding the Double-Edged Sword of the Medical Model, Navigating the Healing Process with Survivors, Stay in Your Lane: The Role of the RCC, and Understanding and Honoring Survivor Shame. The themes are discussed in terms of how medical neoliberalism subtly influences clinicians’ work. Implications for social justice are considered, especially as they relate to Rape Crisis Centers’ aims to increase access for marginalized populations. Recommendations for researchers and clinicians working with sexual violence survivors are provided pertaining to (a) how to critically adopt a medical framework, (b) how to empower survivors with information about medication, (c) alternatives to individual counseling for survivors, and (d) future research with survivors to further explore the effects of medical neoliberalism on their conceptualizations of distress post-sexual assault

Resilience of an embedded architecture using hardware redundancy

In the last decade the dominance of the general computing systems market has being replaced by embedded systems with billions of units manufactured every year. Embedded systems appear in contexts where continuous operation is of utmost importance and failure can be profound. Nowadays, radiation poses a serious threat to the reliable operation of safety-critical systems. Fault avoidance techniques, such as radiation hardening, have been commonly used in space applications. However, these components are expensive, lag behind commercial components with regards to performance and do not provide 100% fault elimination. Without fault tolerant mechanisms, many of these faults can become errors at the application or system level, which in turn, can result in catastrophic failures. In this work we study the concepts of fault tolerance and dependability and extend these concepts providing our own definition of resilience. We analyse the physics of radiation-induced faults, the damage mechanisms of particles and the process that leads to computing failures. We provide extensive taxonomies of 1) existing fault tolerant techniques and of 2) the effects of radiation in state-of-the-art electronics, analysing and comparing their characteristics. We propose a detailed model of faults and provide a classification of the different types of faults at various levels. We introduce an algorithm of fault tolerance and define the system states and actions necessary to implement it. We introduce novel hardware and system software techniques that provide a more efficient combination of reliability, performance and power consumption than existing techniques. We propose a new element of the system called syndrome that is the core of a resilient architecture whose software and hardware can adapt to reliable and unreliable environments. We implement a software simulator and disassembler and introduce a testing framework in combination with ERA’s assembler and commercial hardware simulators