242,132 research outputs found
Chronic infection: punctuated interpenetration and pathogen virulence
We apply an information dynamics formalism to the Levens and Lewontin vision of biological interpenetration between a 'cognitive condensation' including immune function embedded in social and cultural structure on the one hand, and an established, highly adaptive, parasite population on the other. We iterate the argument, beginning with direct interaction between cognitive condensation and pathogen, then extend the analysis to second order 'mutator' mechanisms inherent both to immune function and to certain forms of rapid pathogen antigenic variability.
The methodology, based on the Large Deviations Program of applied probability, produces synergistic cognitive/adaptive 'learning plateaus' that represent stages of chronic infection, and, for human populations, is able to encompass the fundamental biological reality of culture omitted by other approaches.
We conclude that, for 'evolution machine' pathogens like HIV and malaria, simplistic magic bullet 'medical' drug, vaccine, or behavior modification interventions which do not address the critical context of overall living and working conditions may constitute selection pressures triggering adaptations in life history strategy resulting in marked increase of pathogen virulenc
Consciousness, cognition, and the hierarchy of context: extending the global neuronal workspace model
We adapt an information theory analysis of interacting cognitive biological and social modules to the problem of the global neuronal workspace, the new standard neuroscience paradigm for consciousness. Tunable punctuation emerges in a natural way, suggesting the possibility of fitting appropriate phase transition power law, and away from transition, generalized Onsager relation expressions, to observational data on conscious reaction. The development can be extended in a straightforward manner to include psychosocial stress, culture, or other cognitive modules which constitute a structured, embedding hierarchy of contextual constraints acting at a slower rate than neuronal function itself. This produces a 'biopsychosociocultural' model of individual consciousness that, while otherwise quite close to the standard treatment, meets compelling philosophical and other objections to brain-only descriptions
The categorical limit of a sequence of dynamical systems
Modeling a sequence of design steps, or a sequence of parameter settings,
yields a sequence of dynamical systems. In many cases, such a sequence is
intended to approximate a certain limit case. However, formally defining that
limit turns out to be subject to ambiguity. Depending on the interpretation of
the sequence, i.e. depending on how the behaviors of the systems in the
sequence are related, it may vary what the limit should be. Topologies, and in
particular metrics, define limits uniquely, if they exist. Thus they select one
interpretation implicitly and leave no room for other interpretations. In this
paper, we define limits using category theory, and use the mentioned relations
between system behaviors explicitly. This resolves the problem of ambiguity in
a more controlled way. We introduce a category of prefix orders on executions
and partial history preserving maps between them to describe both discrete and
continuous branching time dynamics. We prove that in this category all
projective limits exist, and illustrate how ambiguity in the definition of
limits is resolved using an example. Moreover, we show how various problems
with known topological approaches are now resolved, and how the construction of
projective limits enables us to approximate continuous time dynamics as a
sequence of discrete time systems.Comment: In Proceedings EXPRESS/SOS 2013, arXiv:1307.690
- ā¦