2,413 research outputs found
Practopoiesis: Or how life fosters a mind
The mind is a biological phenomenon. Thus, biological principles of
organization should also be the principles underlying mental operations.
Practopoiesis states that the key for achieving intelligence through adaptation
is an arrangement in which mechanisms laying a lower level of organization, by
their operations and interaction with the environment, enable creation of
mechanisms lying at a higher level of organization. When such an organizational
advance of a system occurs, it is called a traverse. A case of traverse is when
plasticity mechanisms (at a lower level of organization), by their operations,
create a neural network anatomy (at a higher level of organization). Another
case is the actual production of behavior by that network, whereby the
mechanisms of neuronal activity operate to create motor actions. Practopoietic
theory explains why the adaptability of a system increases with each increase
in the number of traverses. With a larger number of traverses, a system can be
relatively small and yet, produce a higher degree of adaptive/intelligent
behavior than a system with a lower number of traverses. The present analyses
indicate that the two well-known traverses-neural plasticity and neural
activity-are not sufficient to explain human mental capabilities. At least one
additional traverse is needed, which is named anapoiesis for its contribution
in reconstructing knowledge e.g., from long-term memory into working memory.
The conclusions bear implications for brain theory, the mind-body explanatory
gap, and developments of artificial intelligence technologies.Comment: Revised version in response to reviewer comment
Global sensitivity analysis of computer models with functional inputs
Global sensitivity analysis is used to quantify the influence of uncertain
input parameters on the response variability of a numerical model. The common
quantitative methods are applicable to computer codes with scalar input
variables. This paper aims to illustrate different variance-based sensitivity
analysis techniques, based on the so-called Sobol indices, when some input
variables are functional, such as stochastic processes or random spatial
fields. In this work, we focus on large cpu time computer codes which need a
preliminary meta-modeling step before performing the sensitivity analysis. We
propose the use of the joint modeling approach, i.e., modeling simultaneously
the mean and the dispersion of the code outputs using two interlinked
Generalized Linear Models (GLM) or Generalized Additive Models (GAM). The
``mean'' model allows to estimate the sensitivity indices of each scalar input
variables, while the ``dispersion'' model allows to derive the total
sensitivity index of the functional input variables. The proposed approach is
compared to some classical SA methodologies on an analytical function. Lastly,
the proposed methodology is applied to a concrete industrial computer code that
simulates the nuclear fuel irradiation
Philosophical foundations of the Death and Anti-Death discussion
Perhaps there has been no greater opportunity than in this “VOLUME FIFTEEN of our Death And Anti-Death set of anthologies” to write about how might think about life and how to avoid death. There are two reasons to discuss “life”, the first being enhancing our understanding of who we are and why we may be here in the Universe. The second is more practical: how humans meet the physical challenges brought about by the way they have interacted with their environment.
Many persons discussing “life” beg the question about what “life” is. Surely, when one discusses how to overcome its opposite, death, they are not referring to another “living” thing such as a plant. There seems to be a commonality, though, and it is this commonality is one needing elaboration. It ostensibly seems to be the boundary condition separating what is completely passive (inert) from what attempts to maintain its integrity, as well as fulfilling other conditions we think “life” has. In our present discussion, there will be a reminder that it by no means has been unequivocally established what life really is by placing quotes around the word, namely, “life”. Consider it a tag representing a bundle of philosophical ideas that will be unpacked in this paper
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