Sampled data systems passivity and discrete port-Hamiltonian systems

In this paper, we present a novel way to approach the interconnection of a continuous and a discrete time physical system first presented in [1][2] [3]. This is done in a way which preserves passivity of the coupled system independently of the sampling time T. This strategy can be used both in the field of telemanipulation, for the implementation of a passive master/slave system on a digital transmission line with varying time delays and possible loss of packets (e.g., the Internet), and in the field of haptics, where the virtual environment should `feel¿ like a physical equivalent system

Energy-Entropy-Momentum integration of discrete thermo-visco-elastic dynamics.

A novel time integration scheme is presented for the numerical solution of the dynamics of discrete systems consisting of point masses and thermo-visco-elastic springs. Even considering fully coupled constitutive laws for the elements, the obtained solutions strictly preserve the two laws of thermo dynamics and the symmetries of the continuum evolution equations. Moreover, the unconditional control over the energy and the entropy growth have the effect of stabilizing the numerical solution, allowing the use of larger time steps than those suitable for comparable implicit algorithms. Proofs for these claims are provided in the article as well as numerical examples that illustrate the performance of the method

Compositional Verification and Optimization of Interactive Markov Chains

Interactive Markov chains (IMC) are compositional behavioural models extending labelled transition systems and continuous-time Markov chains. We provide a framework and algorithms for compositional verification and optimization of IMC with respect to time-bounded properties. Firstly, we give a specification formalism for IMC. Secondly, given a time-bounded property, an IMC component and the assumption that its unknown environment satisfies a given specification, we synthesize a scheduler for the component optimizing the probability that the property is satisfied in any such environment

A Tale of Two Animats: What does it take to have goals?

What does it take for a system, biological or not, to have goals? Here, this question is approached in the context of in silico artificial evolution. By examining the informational and causal properties of artificial organisms ('animats') controlled by small, adaptive neural networks (Markov Brains), this essay discusses necessary requirements for intrinsic information, autonomy, and meaning. The focus lies on comparing two types of Markov Brains that evolved in the same simple environment: one with purely feedforward connections between its elements, the other with an integrated set of elements that causally constrain each other. While both types of brains 'process' information about their environment and are equally fit, only the integrated one forms a causally autonomous entity above a background of external influences. This suggests that to assess whether goals are meaningful for a system itself, it is important to understand what the system is, rather than what it does.Comment: This article is a contribution to the FQXi 2016-2017 essay contest "Wandering Towards a Goal

Corporate envy and emotional dynamics in the internal selection process of corporate venturing initiatives

Corporate venturing initiatives, which exemplify corporate entrepreneurial behavior, follow an evolutionary path of variation, selection, and retention. While their external selection is a consequence of their performance, their internal selection is subject to forces of complementarity and legitimacy, and how well competition from other initiatives is overcome. This chapter aims to unfold the dynamics of the internal selection process of initiatives, focusing on its emotional dimensions. Assuming that organizational agents have a deliberate role in guiding the internal selection process of initiatives, the chapter examines how organizational agents' emotional dynamics influence this process. The chapter draws its theoretical basis from the intraorganizational evolutionary perspective and the literature on emotions in organizations. The case of a corporate venturing initiative and the narratives of four managers involved directly and indirectly in the initiative are used to illustrate how the emotional dynamics of organizational members evoked envy toward a venturing initiative and directly impacted its degree of competition and complementarity with other interacting initiatives, ultimately hampering its selection

Apperceptive patterning: Artefaction, extensional beliefs and cognitive scaffolding

In “Psychopower and Ordinary Madness” my ambition, as it relates to Bernard Stiegler’s recent literature, was twofold: 1) critiquing Stiegler’s work on exosomatization and artefactual posthumanism—or, more specifically, nonhumanism—to problematize approaches to media archaeology that rely upon technical exteriorization; 2) challenging how Stiegler engages with Giuseppe Longo and Francis Bailly’s conception of negative entropy. These efforts were directed by a prevalent techno-cultural qualifier: the rise of Synthetic Intelligence (including neural nets, deep learning, predictive processing and Bayesian models of cognition). This paper continues this project but first directs a critical analytic lens at the Derridean practice of the ontologization of grammatization from which Stiegler emerges while also distinguishing how metalanguages operate in relation to object-oriented environmental interaction by way of inferentialism. Stalking continental (Kapp, Simondon, Leroi-Gourhan, etc.) and analytic traditions (e.g., Carnap, Chalmers, Clark, Sutton, Novaes, etc.), we move from artefacts to AI and Predictive Processing so as to link theories related to technicity with philosophy of mind. Simultaneously drawing forth Robert Brandom’s conceptualization of the roles that commitments play in retrospectively reconstructing the social experiences that lead to our endorsement(s) of norms, we compliment this account with Reza Negarestani’s deprivatized account of intelligence while analyzing the equipollent role between language and media (both digital and analog)