11 research outputs found
Cellular Automata Can Reduce Memory Requirements of Collective-State Computing
Various non-classical approaches of distributed information processing, such
as neural networks, computation with Ising models, reservoir computing, vector
symbolic architectures, and others, employ the principle of collective-state
computing. In this type of computing, the variables relevant in a computation
are superimposed into a single high-dimensional state vector, the
collective-state. The variable encoding uses a fixed set of random patterns,
which has to be stored and kept available during the computation. Here we show
that an elementary cellular automaton with rule 90 (CA90) enables space-time
tradeoff for collective-state computing models that use random dense binary
representations, i.e., memory requirements can be traded off with computation
running CA90. We investigate the randomization behavior of CA90, in particular,
the relation between the length of the randomization period and the size of the
grid, and how CA90 preserves similarity in the presence of the initialization
noise. Based on these analyses we discuss how to optimize a collective-state
computing model, in which CA90 expands representations on the fly from short
seed patterns - rather than storing the full set of random patterns. The CA90
expansion is applied and tested in concrete scenarios using reservoir computing
and vector symbolic architectures. Our experimental results show that
collective-state computing with CA90 expansion performs similarly compared to
traditional collective-state models, in which random patterns are generated
initially by a pseudo-random number generator and then stored in a large
memory.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figure
Communicating the Unspeakable: Linguistic Phenomena in the Psychedelic Sphere
Psychedelics can enable a broad and paradoxical spectrum of linguistic
phenomena from the unspeakability of mystical experience to the eloquence of
the songs of the shaman or curandera. Interior dialogues with the Other,
whether framed as the voice of the Logos, an alien download, or communion
with ancestors and spirits, are relatively common. Sentient visual languages are
encountered, their forms unrelated to the representation of speech in natural
language writing systems. This thesis constructs a theoretical model of
linguistic phenomena encountered in the psychedelic sphere for the field of
altered states of consciousness research (ASCR). The model is developed from
a neurophenomenological perspective, especially the work of Francisco Varela,
and Michael Winkelman’s work in shamanistic ASC, which in turn builds on
the biogenetic structuralism of Charles Laughlin, John McManus, and Eugene
d’Aquili. Neurophenomenology relates the physical and functional
organization of the brain to the subjective reports of lived experience in altered
states as mutually informative, without reducing consciousness to one or the
other. Consciousness is seen as a dynamic multistate process of the recursive
interaction of biology and culture, thereby navigating the traditional
dichotomies of objective/subjective, body/mind, and inner/outer realities that
problematically characterize much of the discourse in consciousness studies.
The theoretical work of Renaissance scholar Stephen Farmer on the evolution of
syncretic and correlative systems and their relation to neurobiological
structures provides a further framework for the exegesis of the descriptions of
linguistic phenomena in first-person texts of long-term psychedelic selfexploration.
Since the classification of most psychedelics as Schedule I drugs,
legal research came to a halt; self-experimentation as research did not.
Scientists such as Timothy Leary and John Lilly became outlaw scientists, a
social aspect of the “unspeakability” of these experiences. Academic ASCR has
largely side-stepped examination of the extensive literature of psychedelic selfexploration.
This thesis examines aspects of both form and content from these
works, focusing on those that treat linguistic phenomena, and asking what
these linguistic experiences can tell us about how the psychedelic landscape is
constructed, how it can be navigated, interpreted, and communicated within its
own experiential field, and communicated about to make the data accessible to
inter-subjective comparison and validation. The methodological core of this
practice-based research is a technoetic practice as defined by artist and
theoretician Roy Ascott: the exploration of consciousness through interactive,
artistic, and psychoactive technologies. The iterative process of psychedelic
self-exploration and creation of interactive software defines my own technoetic
practice and is the means by which I examine my states of consciousness employing
the multidimensional visual language Glide
Complexity Reduction in Image-Based Breast Cancer Care
The diversity of malignancies of the breast requires personalized diagnostic and therapeutic decision making in a complex situation. This thesis contributes in three clinical areas: (1) For clinical diagnostic image evaluation, computer-aided detection and diagnosis of mass and non-mass lesions in breast MRI is developed. 4D texture features characterize mass lesions. For non-mass lesions, a combined detection/characterisation method utilizes the bilateral symmetry of the breast s contrast agent uptake. (2) To improve clinical workflows, a breast MRI reading paradigm is proposed, exemplified by a breast MRI reading workstation prototype. Instead of mouse and keyboard, it is operated using multi-touch gestures. The concept is extended to mammography screening, introducing efficient navigation aids. (3) Contributions to finite element modeling of breast tissue deformations tackle two clinical problems: surgery planning and the prediction of the breast deformation in a MRI biopsy device
Proceedings of the 7th Sound and Music Computing Conference
Proceedings of the SMC2010 - 7th Sound and Music Computing Conference, July 21st - July 24th 2010