582,588 research outputs found
A logical basis for constructive systems
The work is devoted to Computability Logic (CoL) -- the
philosophical/mathematical platform and long-term project for redeveloping
classical logic after replacing truth} by computability in its underlying
semantics (see http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~giorgi/cl.html). This article
elaborates some basic complexity theory for the CoL framework. Then it proves
soundness and completeness for the deductive system CL12 with respect to the
semantics of CoL, including the version of the latter based on polynomial time
computability instead of computability-in-principle. CL12 is a sequent calculus
system, where the meaning of a sequent intuitively can be characterized as "the
succedent is algorithmically reducible to the antecedent", and where formulas
are built from predicate letters, function letters, variables, constants,
identity, negation, parallel and choice connectives, and blind and choice
quantifiers. A case is made that CL12 is an adequate logical basis for
constructive applied theories, including complexity-oriented ones
Inattentive Consumers in Markets for Services
In an experiment on markets for services, we find that consumers are likely to stick to default tariffs and achieve suboptimal outcomes. We find that inattention to the task of choosing a better tariff is likely to be a substantial problem in addition to any task and tariff complexity effect. The institutional setup on which we primarily model our experiment is the UK electricity and gas markets, and our conclusion is that the new measures by the UK regulator Ofgem to improve consumer outcomes are likely to be of limited impact
A Complexity-Brightness Correlation in Gamma Ray Bursts
We observe strong correlations between the temporal properties of gamma ray
bursts (GRBs) and their apparent peak brightness. The strongest effect (with a
significance level of 10^{-6}) is the difference between the brightness
distributions of simple bursts (dominated by a single smooth pulse) and complex
bursts (consisting of overlapping pulses). The latter has a break at a peak
flux of 1.5 ph/cm^2/s, while the distribution of simple bursts is smooth down
to the BATSE threshold. We also observe brightness dependent variations in the
shape of the average peak aligned time profile (ATP) of GRBs. The decaying
slope of the ATP shows time dilation when comparing bright and dim bursts while
the rising slope hardly changes. Both slopes of the ATP are deformed for weak
bursts as compared to strong bursts. The interpretation of these effects is
simple: a complex burst where a number of independent pulses overlap in time
appears intrinsically stronger than a simple burst. Then the BATSE sample of
complex bursts covers larger redshifts where some cosmological factor causes
the break in the peak brightness distribution. This break could correspond to
the peak in the star formation rate that was recently shown to occur at a
redshift of z~1.5.Comment: 13 pages; 11 figures; replaced with the published versio
Emerging Consciousness as a Result of Complex-Dynamical Interaction Process
A quite general interaction process within a multi-component system is analysed by the extended effective potential method, liberated from usual limitations of perturbation theory or integrable model. The obtained causally complete solution of the many-body problem reveals the phenomenon of dynamic multivaluedness, or redundance, of emerging, incompatible system realisations and dynamic entanglement of system components within each realisation. The ensuing concept of dynamic complexity (and related intrinsic chaoticity) is absolutely universal and can be applied to the problem of consciousness that emerges now as a high enough, properly specified level of unreduced complexity of a suitable interaction process. This complexity level can be identified with the appearance of bound, permanently localised states in the multivalued brain dynamics from strongly chaotic states of unconscious intelligence, by analogy with classical behaviour emergence from quantum states at much lower levels of world dynamics. We show that the main properties of this dynamically emerging consciousness (and intelligence, at the preceding complexity level) correspond to empirically derived properties of natural versions and obtain causally substantiated conclusions about their artificial realisation, including the fundamentally justified paradigm of genuine machine consciousness. This rigorously defined machine consciousness is different from both natural consciousness and any mechanistic, dynamically single-valued imitation of the latter. We use then the same, truly universal concept of complexity to derive equally rigorous conclusions about mental and social implications of the machine consciousness paradigm, demonstrating its indispensable role in the next stage of civilisation development
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