5,706 research outputs found
Some recent work in Frechet geometry
Some recent work in Frechet geometry is briefly reviewed. In particular an
earlier result on the structure of second tangent bundles in the finite
dimensional case was extended to infinite dimensional Banach manifolds and
Frechet manifolds that could be represented as projective limits of Banach
manifolds. This led to further results concerning the characterization of
second tangent bundles and differential equations in the more general Frechet
structure needed for applications. A summary is given of recent results on
hypercyclicity of operators on Frechet spaces.Comment: 14 pages 48 reference
Darwin's Rainbow: Evolutionary radiation and the spectrum of consciousness
Evolution is littered with paraphyletic convergences: many roads lead to functional Romes. We propose here another example - an equivalence class structure factoring the broad realm of possible realizations of the Baars Global Workspace consciousness model. The construction suggests many different physiological systems can support rapidly shifting, sometimes highly tunable, temporary assemblages of interacting unconscious cognitive modules. The discovery implies various animal taxa exhibiting behaviors we broadly recognize as conscious are, in fact, simply expressing different forms of the same underlying phenomenon. Mathematically, we find much slower, and even multiple simultaneous, versions of the basic structure can operate over very long timescales, a kind of paraconsciousness often ascribed to group phenomena. The variety of possibilities, a veritable rainbow, suggests minds today may be only a small surviving fraction of ancient evolutionary radiations - bush phylogenies of consciousness and paraconsciousness. Under this scenario, the resulting diversity was subsequently pruned by selection and chance extinction. Though few traces of the radiation may be found in the direct fossil record, exaptations and vestiges are scattered across the living mind. Humans, for instance, display an uncommonly profound synergism between individual consciousness and their embedding cultural heritages, enabling efficient Lamarkian adaptation
The cultural epigenetics of psychopathology: The missing heritability of complex diseases found?
We extend a cognitive paradigm for gene expression based on the asymptotic limit theorems of information theory to the epigenetic epidemiology of mental disorders. In particular, we recognize the fundamental role culture plays in human biology, another heritage mechanism parallel to, and interacting with, the more familiar genetic and epigenetic systems. We do this via a model through which culture acts as another tunable epigenetic catalyst that both directs developmental trajectories, and becomes convoluted with individual ontology, via a mutually-interacting crosstalk mediated by a social interaction that is itself culturally driven. We call for the incorporation of embedding culture as an essential component of the epigenetic regulation of human mental development and its dysfunctions, bringing what is perhaps the central reality of human biology into the center of biological psychiatry. Current US work on gene-environment interactions in psychiatry must be extended to a model of gene-environment-culture interaction to avoid becoming victim of an extreme American individualism that threatens to create paradigms particular to that culture and that are, indeed, peculiar in the context of the world's cultures. The cultural and epigenetic systems of heritage may well provide the 'missing' heritability of complex diseases now under so much intense discussion
A geometry of information, I: Nerves, posets and differential forms
The main theme of this workshop (Dagstuhl seminar 04351) is `Spatial
Representation: Continuous vs. Discrete'. Spatial representation has two
contrasting but interacting aspects (i) representation of spaces' and (ii)
representation by spaces. In this paper, we will examine two aspects that are
common to both interpretations of the theme, namely nerve constructions and
refinement. Representations change, data changes, spaces change. We will
examine the possibility of a `differential geometry' of spatial representations
of both types, and in the sequel give an algebra of differential forms that has
the potential to handle the dynamical aspect of such a geometry. We will
discuss briefly a conjectured class of spaces, generalising the Cantor set
which would seem ideal as a test-bed for the set of tools we are developing.Comment: 28 pages. A version of this paper appears also on the Dagstuhl
seminar portal http://drops.dagstuhl.de/portals/04351
Qualitative Research on Youths’ Social Media Use: A review of the literature
In this article we explore how educational researchers report empirical qualitative research about young people’s social media use. We frame the overall study with an understanding that social media sites contribute to the production of neoliberal subjects, and we draw on Foucauldian discourse theories and the understanding that how researchers explain topics and concepts produces particular ways of thinking about the world while excluding others. Findings include that 1) there is an absence of attention to the structure and function of social media platforms; 2) adolescents are positioned in problematic, developmental ways, and 3) the over-representation of girls and young women in these studies contributes to the feminization of problems on social media. We conclude by calling for future research that can serve as a robust resource for exploring adolescents’ social media use in more productive, nuanced ways
General theory of non-reversible local dynamics
A general theory of dynamics is formulated with the aim of its application in
emergent quantum mechanics. In such a framework it is argued that the
fundamental dynamics of emergent quantum mechanics must be non-reversible.Comment: 25 pages, minor changes. Accepted for publication in International
Journal of Geometric Methods in Modern Physic
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