Berkeley on Voluntary Motion: A Conservationist Account

A plausible reading of Berkeley’s view of voluntary motion is occasionalism; this, however, leads to a specious conclusion against his argument of human action. Differing from an unqualified occasionalist reading, I consider the alternative reading that Berkeley is a conservationist regarding bodily motion by the human mind at will. That is, finite minds (spirits) immediately cause motions in their body parts, albeit under the divine conservation. My argument then comports with the conservationist reading from three perspectives: (i) theodicy that the human mind is held liable for sinful actions; (ii) an account of the human mind influencing other minds; and (iii) an improper but necessary directing principle of the human mind. This article is a stepping stone to grasping why the conservationist reading is more coherent than the occasionalist one

Hand in Motion Reveals Mind in Motion

Recently, researchers have measured hand movements en route to choices on a screen to understand the dynamics of a broad range of psychological processes. We review this growing body of research and explain how manual action exposes the real-time unfolding of underlying cognitive processing. We describe how simple hand motions may be used to continuously index participants’ tentative commitments to different choice alternatives during the evolution of a behavioral response. As such, hand-tracking can provide unusually high-fidelity, real-time motor traces of the mind. These motor traces cast novel theoretical and empirical light onto a wide range of phenomena and serve as a potential bridge between far-reaching areas of psychological science – from language, to high-level cognition and learning, to social cognitive processes

The Mind in Motion

The Mind in Motion Shayan Gates Faculty Sponsor: Galen Johnson, Philosophy The origin of most scientific disciplines can be traced back to a few philosophical insights posed by a few curious thinkers throughout time, and cognitive science is no exception.While intrigue has nearly always surrounded the human mind and its relation to the brain, validation of this relationship has not been so easy to come by, and there are still areas of contention during this time of advancement in neurological sciences and related technologies. This topic is very broad (to say the least) so I decided to confine this paper to some of the philosophers whose work I enjoyed reading most during my time at URI. In this sense, it will be somewhat of a “Greatest Hits” of my undergraduate career which, while certainly appealing to my nostalgic sensibilities, will also parlay nicely into medical school where I hope to become a neurologist. Some of the philosophers included in this project are Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, John Dewey, David Hume, John Locke, Martin Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Renee Descartes and Plato (American Transcendentalists, Pragmatists, British Empiricists, Phenomenologists, and Rationalists). Overall, there are four topics of discussion, and they pertain to Experience, Emotion, Memory, and Imagination. These will conclude with a fifth section written in the spirit of Pragmatism, which aims to sum up the overall value or takeaway from everything that was previously said. Ultimately, the goal is to create an interesting, yet palatable, discussion about the way our minds and brains work, and how knowing these things about ourselves can work to our benefit

On Minds' Localization

A confluence of clues from a range of academic topics suggests that minds localization in nature consists of relativistically moving microphysical particles, whose motion is physiologically modulated. Here those clues are shown to imply that the localization of the operations of observers (minds or existentialities) in nature are the actions carriers of a force field, which action carriers are slightly slowed from near-c speed motion by electroneurobiological variations in brain physiology – thus gating through relativistic time dilation the observer’s time resolution and putting her or him in operative connection or disconnection with the cerebral representation of the surrounding occurrences. In this scenario, minds as well as sensory knowledge acquire a precise definition and appear situated in a particular point of causal sequences. Summary in general terms: Why were minds selected to turn accidents into opportunities, i. e., to progress toward biological goals through appropriate steps for which the instructions are nonetheless undefinable? Minds appear situated in certain force-carrying particles whose speed sets wakefulness or sleep. Through this force, observable by its influence on the evolutionary process, minds and bodies interact. Physical actions impinging on a mind generate in it physical reactions whose causal efficiency gets exhausted, so that the reactions cannot continue their causal series. In exchange, they become sensorially known. On them the mind then takes efficient initiatives – whereby minds acquire intellectual development – generating changes. The broken causal sequence seems to be what enables minds for their biological role. Summary in technical terms: Observers’ localization in nature might be relativistically moving particles whose motion is physiologically modulated. Transdisciplinary clues imply that speed variation is imposed onto some action carriers of a force field by their coupling with intensity variations of an overlapping field. The operations of observers (minds or existentialities) in nature seem localized in such actions carriers, slightly slowed from near-c speed motion by electroneurobiological variations – which thus gate the observer’s time resolution and put her or him in operative connection or disconnection with the surroundings. Thereby minds and sensory knowledge appear in a particular point of causal sequences. ---------------- Keywords: Piaget causality mental causation evolution volition free-will pleasure/pain awareness self-consciousness evolution attention genetic epistemology gnoseology philosophical anthropology cerebral biophysics brain- mind relationships cadacualtez cadacualtic cilia ciliary cellular cognition electroneurodynamics engram epistemology memory mind-brain mind definition memoria nervous system evolution neural networks neurobiology cognitive neuroscience neuropsychiatry noergy nous-poietikos ontology consciousness paleontology person philosophy Precambrian psychopathology psychology psychism psychiatry recall special-relativity semovience sleep-biophysics shock soul time perception interval transform ultrahistory schizophrenia Turing machines vegetative artificial-lif

Temporal Passage

This article explains that time flow is a subjective, mind-dependent phenomenon. The paper describes the nature of the subjective "present" of consciousness, and defines the mechanism that brings about this present's motion from past to future. The first section of the article demonstrates that existence is a dynamic process and shows that time arises from this process. The second section presents a geometric analysis of the present's motion. The third section contrasts space with time. In the last section, consciousness and time are discussed within the context of Einstein's theory of relativity

Existence and uniqueness of traveling wave for accelerated Frenkel-Kontorova model

In this paper, we study the existence and uniqueness of traveling wave solution for the accelerated Frenkel-Kontorova model. This model consists in a system of ODE that describes the motion particles in interaction. The most important applications we have in mind is the motion of crystal defects called dislocations. For this model, we prove the existence of traveling wave solutions under very weak assumptions. The uniqueness of the velocity is also studied as well as the uniqueness of the profile which used different types of strong maximum principle. As far as we know, this is the first result concerning traveling waves for accelerated, spatially discrete system

Agile thinking in motion graphics practice and its potential for design education

Motion Graphics is relatively new subject and its methodologies are still being developed. There are useful lessons to be learnt from the practice in early cinema from the 1890's to the 1930's where Agile thinking was used by a number of practitioners including Fritz Lang. Recent studies in MA Motion Graphics have accessed some of this thinking incorporating them in a series of Motion Graphic tests and experiments culminating in a two minute animation “1896 Olympic Marathon”. This paper demonstrates how the project and its design methodology can contribute new knowledge for the practice and teaching of this relatively new and expanding area of Motion Graphic Design. This would be not only invaluable to the International community of Motion Graphic practitioners, Educators and Researchers in their development of this maturing field. But also to the broader Multidisciplinary disciplines within Design Education. These methodologies have been arrived at by accessing the work of creative and reflective practice as defined by Carol Grey and Julian Marlin in Visualizing Research (2004) and reflective practice as defined by Donald Schon (1983). Central to the investigation has been the approach of Agile thinking from the methodology of "Bricolage" by Levi Strauss "The Savage Mind" (1966)

Full-body motion-based game interaction for older adults

Older adults in nursing homes often lead sedentary lifestyles, which reduces their life expectancy. Full-body motion-control games provide an opportunity for these adults to remain active and engaged; these games are not designed with age-related impairments in mind, which prevents the games from being leveraged to increase the activity levels of older adults. In this paper, we present two studies aimed at developing game design guidelines for full-body motion controls for older adults experiencing age-related changes and impairments. Our studies also demonstrate how full-body motion-control games can accommodate a variety of user abilities, have a positive effect on mood and, by extension, the emotional well-being of older adults. Based on our studies, we present seven guidelines for the design of full-body interaction in games. The guidelines are designed to foster safe physical activity among older adults, thereby increasing their quality of life. Copyright 2012 ACM

Parametrization of the Driven Betatron Oscillation

An AC dipole is a magnet which produces a sinusoidally oscillating dipole field and excites coherent transverse beam motion in a synchrotron. By observing this coherent motion, the optical parameters can be directly measured at the beam position monitor locations. The driven oscillation induced by an AC dipole will generate a phase space ellipse which differs from that of the free oscillation. If not properly accounted for, this difference can lead to a misinterpretation of the actual optical parameters, for instance, of 6% or more in the cases of the Tevatron, RHIC, or LHC. The effect of an AC dipole on the linear optics parameters is identical to that of a thin lens quadrupole. By introducing a new amplitude function to describe this new phase space ellipse, the motion produced by an AC dipole becomes easier to interpret. Beam position data taken under the influence of an AC dipole, with this new interpretation in mind, can lead to more precise measurements of the normal Courant-Snyder parameters. This new parameterization of the driven motion is presented and is used to interpret data taken in the FNAL Tevatron using an AC dipole.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, and 1 tabl