Dissipative Linear Stochastic Hamiltonian Systems

This paper is concerned with stochastic Hamiltonian systems which model a class of open dynamical systems subject to random external forces. Their dynamics are governed by Ito stochastic differential equations whose structure is specified by a Hamiltonian, viscous damping parameters and system-environment coupling functions. We consider energy balance relations for such systems with an emphasis on linear stochastic Hamiltonian (LSH) systems with quadratic Hamiltonians and linear coupling. For LSH systems, we also discuss stability conditions, the structure of the invariant measure and its relation with stochastic versions of the virial theorem. Using Lyapunov functions, organised as deformed Hamiltonians, dissipation relations are also considered for LSH systems driven by statistically uncertain external forces. An application of these results to feedback connections of LSH systems is outlined.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, submitted to ANZCC 201

Artificial general intelligence: Proceedings of the Second Conference on Artificial General Intelligence, AGI 2009, Arlington, Virginia, USA, March 6-9, 2009

Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) research focuses on the original and ultimate goal of AI – to create broad human-like and transhuman intelligence, by exploring all available paths, including theoretical and experimental computer science, cognitive science, neuroscience, and innovative interdisciplinary methodologies. Due to the difficulty of this task, for the last few decades the majority of AI researchers have focused on what has been called narrow AI – the production of AI systems displaying intelligence regarding specific, highly constrained tasks. In recent years, however, more and more researchers have recognized the necessity – and feasibility – of returning to the original goals of the field. Increasingly, there is a call for a transition back to confronting the more difficult issues of human level intelligence and more broadly artificial general intelligence

Computation in Complex Networks

Complex networks are one of the most challenging research focuses of disciplines, including physics, mathematics, biology, medicine, engineering, and computer science, among others. The interest in complex networks is increasingly growing, due to their ability to model several daily life systems, such as technology networks, the Internet, and communication, chemical, neural, social, political and financial networks. The Special Issue “Computation in Complex Networks" of Entropy offers a multidisciplinary view on how some complex systems behave, providing a collection of original and high-quality papers within the research fields of: • Community detection • Complex network modelling • Complex network analysis • Node classification • Information spreading and control • Network robustness • Social networks • Network medicin

Proceedings of the 2018 Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) International Congress

Published proceedings of the 2018 Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME) International Congress, hosted by York University, 27-30 May 2018

Metaphor, Imagery, and Culture. Spatialized Ontologies, Mental Tools, and Multimedia in the Making.

The thesis deals with metaphor and imagery in cultural thought-models, the aim being an integrative framework for a rapprochement between cognitive science, cultural anthropology , and linguistics. The work couches previous ethnographic data in the theoretical apparatus of cognitive linguistics (as pioneered by G. Lakoff and R. Langacker), which is horizontally extended to include non-linguistic phenomena and vertically extended to include high-level mental tools. As groundwork for understanding cultural cognition in Part One I undertake a reappraisal of the theory of conceptual metaphor from a genuinely anthropological perspective: I elaborate (1) the multiplicity of metaphor's socio-cognitive functions, its embedding in complex 'polytropes', and its interplay with higher-level cultural schemas; (2)I propose a balanced view between universality and cultural variation in metaphor; and (3) I advocate an intensified focus on cultural body knowledge as the basis of metaphor. Part Two sets as its goal to contour the scope of cultural imagery by extending the theory of dynamic image schemas, as laid out by Langacker, beyond language itself: (4) I analyze essentialist and processual ontologies as being defined through basic imagery types and dynamic switches between ontologies through image schema transformations. (5) Next, I argue for the necessity of cognitive multimedia analysis and offer a model based on the presupposition that various aspects of language, non-linguistic symbolism, action schemas, and body feelings operate in a continuous mental substrate, namely image schemas. (6) Finally, taking the lead from Lakoff's 'spatialization of form' hypothesis, I challenge the broader cognitive sciences with a multi-level theory of spatialized ('geometric') imagery that spans from semantics to general-purpose mental 'tools'. Its upshot is a relativization of symbolic or propositional approaches to thought as well as faculty psychology

'My brain will be your occult convolutions' : toward a critical theory of the biological body

This project forms part of a growing engagement with biology by critical psychology and, more broadly, body studies. The specific focus is on the neurological body whose dogmatic exclusion from critical endeavours is challenged by arguing that neuroscience offers a vital resource for emancipatory agendas. Rather than conversely treating biology as a site for the factual supplementation of social theory the aim is to engage (negotiate) with neuroscience more directly and critically. In this process a discursive reductionism and attempted escape from complicity associated with critical psychology are addressed. Similarly a naïve and apolitical empiricism claimed by neuroscience is disrupted. The primary objective is however to demonstrate the utility of neuroscience in developing critical theory. These objectives are pursued through the ‘method’ of deconstruction, (mis)reading several highly regarded neuroscience texts written by prominent neuroscientists, working within the convolutions of these texts so as develop openings for critical conceptualisations of (neural) corporeality. In this manner the various spectres associated with neurology, including essentialism, determinism, individualism, reductionism and dualism, are displaced. This includes, amongst others, the omnipresent mind/body and body/society binaries. The (mis)readings address a number of prominent themes associated with contemporary neuroscience: Attempts at specifying an identity for (part of) the brain are shown to rely on a necessary relationship with the excluded other (such as the body, the socio-cultural, and the environment). Similarly, attempts at articulating a centre, a point from which agency can proceed, which finds existing identity in the functions of the prefrontal cortices, are also undone by the (multiple, affective, and unconscious) other which decentres the centre by being the essential supplement for any such claims. The causal metaphysic must likewise proceed within the play of différance, a logic of difference and deferral that undermines causal routes, innate origins and autocratic centres. Finally, reductionism must advance as a necessary strategy through which to engage with complexity, its ambitions always impossible as the aneconomic is forever in excess of any economy. The emancipatory viability of such (mis)readings is discussed within a context where the open and malleable body has been co-opted by contemporary neo-liberal geoculture.PsychologyD.Litt. et Phil. (Psychology