The Inhuman Overhang: On Differential Heterogenesis and Multi-Scalar Modeling

As a philosophical paradigm, differential heterogenesis offers us a novel descriptive vantage with which to inscribe Deleuze’s virtuality within the terrain of “differential becoming,” conjugating “pure saliences” so as to parse economies, microhistories, insurgencies, and epistemological evolutionary processes that can be conceived of independently from their representational form. Unlike Gestalt theory’s oppositional constructions, the advantage of this aperture is that it posits a dynamic context to both media and its analysis, rendering them functionally tractable and set in relation to other objects, rather than as sedentary identities. Surveying the genealogy of differential heterogenesis with particular interest in the legacy of Lautman’s dialectic, I make the case for a reading of the Deleuzean virtual that departs from an event-oriented approach, galvanizing Sarti and Citti’s dynamic a priori vis-à-vis Deleuze’s philosophy of difference. Specifically, I posit differential heterogenesis as frame with which to examine our contemporaneous epistemic shift as it relates to multi-scalar computational modeling while paying particular attention to neuro-inferential modes of inductive learning and homologous cognitive architecture. Carving a bricolage between Mark Wilson’s work on the “greediness of scales” and Deleuze’s “scales of reality”, this project threads between static ecologies and active externalism vis-à-vis endocentric frames of reference and syntactical scaffolding

Phase retrieval of reflection and transmission coefficients from Kramers-Kronig relations

Analytic and passivity properties of reflection and transmission coefficients of thin-film multilayered stacks are investigated. Using a rigorous formalism based on the inverse Helmholtz operator, properties associated to causality principle and passivity are established when both temporal frequency and spatial wavevector are continued in the complex plane. This result extends the range of situations where the Kramers-Kronig relations can be used to deduce the phase from the intensity. In particular, it is rigorously shown that Kramers-Kronig relations for reflection and transmission coefficients remain valid at a fixed angle of incidence. Possibilities to exploit the new relationships are discussed.Comment: submitted for publicatio

Long-run marketing inferences from scanner data.

Good marketing decisions require managers' understanding of the nature of the market-response function relating performance measures such as sales and market share to variations in the marketing mix (product, price, distribution and communications efforts). Our paper focuses on the dynamic aspect of market-response functions, i.e. how current marketing actions affect current and future market response. While conventional econometrics has been the dominant methodology in empirical market-response analyses, time-series analysis offers unique opportunities for pushing the frontier in dynamic research. This paper examines the contributions an d the future outlook of time-series analysis in market-response modeling. We conclude first, that time series analysis has made a relatively limited overall contribution to the discipline, and investigate reasons why that has been the case. However, major advances in data (transactions-based databases and in modeling technology (long-term time-series modeling) create new opportunities for time-series techniques in marketing, in particular for the study of long-run marketing effectiveness. We discuss four major aspects of long -term time-series modeling, relate them to substantive marketing problems, and describe some early applications. Combining the new data with the new methods, we then present original empirical results on the long-term behavior of brand sales and category sales for four consumer products. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research in market response. Our observations lead us to identify three areas where additional research could enhance the diffusion of the identified time-series concepts in marketing.Data; Marketing;

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)

Disentangling causal webs in the brain using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A review of current approaches

In the past two decades, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging has been used to relate neuronal network activity to cognitive processing and behaviour. Recently this approach has been augmented by algorithms that allow us to infer causal links between component populations of neuronal networks. Multiple inference procedures have been proposed to approach this research question but so far, each method has limitations when it comes to establishing whole-brain connectivity patterns. In this work, we discuss eight ways to infer causality in fMRI research: Bayesian Nets, Dynamical Causal Modelling, Granger Causality, Likelihood Ratios, LiNGAM, Patel's Tau, Structural Equation Modelling, and Transfer Entropy. We finish with formulating some recommendations for the future directions in this area

CBR and MBR techniques: review for an application in the emergencies domain

The purpose of this document is to provide an in-depth analysis of current reasoning engine practice and the integration strategies of Case Based Reasoning and Model Based Reasoning that will be used in the design and development of the RIMSAT system. RIMSAT (Remote Intelligent Management Support and Training) is a European Commission funded project designed to: a.. Provide an innovative, 'intelligent', knowledge based solution aimed at improving the quality of critical decisions b.. Enhance the competencies and responsiveness of individuals and organisations involved in highly complex, safety critical incidents - irrespective of their location. In other words, RIMSAT aims to design and implement a decision support system that using Case Base Reasoning as well as Model Base Reasoning technology is applied in the management of emergency situations. This document is part of a deliverable for RIMSAT project, and although it has been done in close contact with the requirements of the project, it provides an overview wide enough for providing a state of the art in integration strategies between CBR and MBR technologies.Postprint (published version

"From the Unity of the World to God: A Teleo-Cosmological Argument for God’s Existence"

In this paper I pursue an avenue of argument implicit in Patristic thinkers — such as Tertullian and Athanasius — and explicit in the thomistic and scholastic tradition. I argue that there is an ontological unity to the world, and that this unity calls for an explanation in terms of a transcendent cause, traditionally identified with God

Deterministic Dynamics and Chaos: Epistemology and Interdisciplinary Methodology

We analyze, from a theoretical viewpoint, the bidirectional interdisciplinary relation between mathematics and psychology, focused on the mathematical theory of deterministic dynamical systems, and in particular, on the theory of chaos. On one hand, there is the direct classic relation: the application of mathematics to psychology. On the other hand, we propose the converse relation which consists in the formulation of new abstract mathematical problems appearing from processes and structures under research of psychology. The bidirectional multidisciplinary relation from-to pure mathematics, largely holds with the "hard" sciences, typically physics and astronomy. But it is rather new, from the social and human sciences, towards pure mathematics

Causality and Similarity in Autobiographical Event Structure: An Investigation Using Event Cueing and Latent Semantic Analysis

The influence of similarity- and causally-based relations on the organization of autobiographical events was investigated using extended strings of related event memories. These strings were elicited using an event cueing paradigm in which participants generated descriptions of memories from their life, which were then presented as cues to subsequent event memories. In Experiment 1, similarity between generated events was investigated using participants’ similarity ratings, Latent Semantic Analysis, and experimenter judgements of shared event properties. For events close together in a string, event owners’ similarity ratings were higher than non-owners’, and non-owners’ ratings were comparable to similarity calculated using LSA. In Experiment 2, the influence of causal connectivity of events on perceived event similarity was investigated using causality ratings by event owners and non-owners. Results indicated that many events cued other events based on causal relations, owners’ causal ratings were highly consistent, and the ownership advantage in Experiment 1 could in part be explained by causal connections among events. It is concluded that both event similarity and causality are important aspects of the organization of autobiographical memory