Adaptation to criticality through organizational invariance in embodied agents

Many biological and cognitive systems do not operate deep within one or other regime of activity. Instead, they are poised at critical points located at phase transitions in their parameter space. The pervasiveness of criticality suggests that there may be general principles inducing this behaviour, yet there is no well-founded theory for understanding how criticality is generated at a wide span of levels and contexts. In order to explore how criticality might emerge from general adaptive mechanisms, we propose a simple learning rule that maintains an internal organizational structure from a specific family of systems at criticality. We implement the mechanism in artificial embodied agents controlled by a neural network maintaining a correlation structure randomly sampled from an Ising model at critical temperature. Agents are evaluated in two classical reinforcement learning scenarios: the Mountain Car and the Acrobot double pendulum. In both cases the neural controller appears to reach a point of criticality, which coincides with a transition point between two regimes of the agent's behaviour. These results suggest that adaptation to criticality could be used as a general adaptive mechanism in some circumstances, providing an alternative explanation for the pervasive presence of criticality in biological and cognitive systems.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1704.0525

Scaling behaviour and critical phase transitions in integrated information theory

Integrated Information Theory proposes a measure of conscious activity (Phi), characterised as the irreducibility of a dynamical system to the sum of its components. Due to its computational cost, current versions of the theory (IIT 3.0) are difficult to apply to systems larger than a dozen units, and, in general, it is not well known how integrated information scales as systems grow larger in size. In this article, we propose to study the scaling behaviour of integrated information in a simple model of a critical phase transition: an infinite-range kinetic Ising model. In this model, we assume a homogeneous distribution of couplings to simplify the computation of integrated information. This simplified model allows us to critically review some of the design assumptions behind the measure and connect its properties with well-known phenomena in phase transitions in statistical mechanics. As a result, we point to some aspects of the mathematical definitions of IIT that 3.0 fail to capture critical phase transitions and propose a reformulation of the assumptions made by integrated information measures

Communication theories, belief systems, power

Esta reflexión sobre las Teorías de la Comunicación busca evidenciar una idea básica: que las teorías enunciadas en el desarrollo de esta ciencia incluyen ideas y relatos que fueron condicionados por razones propias de sus contextos de enunciación. Entre otras, el poder y sus ejercicios, que esas teorías reflejan, legitiman, discuten. En ese marco el modelo teórico dominante, vinculado con las élites sociales, enfatiza ciertos aspectos y procesos de la comunicación y obvia otros, dificultando su comprensión. Ahora, también bastantes autores buscan interpretar las comunicaciones, proponiendo ideas y narraciones condicionadas por las nuevas circunstancias contextuales, que siguen incluyendo las formas de ejercicio del poder. El tratamiento de las audiencias, ahora denominados “prosumidores empoderados”, resulta ilustrativo de ello.The following ideas on so-called ‘theories of communication’ attempt to expose a central argument: that theories developed in this context include ideas and narratives conditioned by their own enunciation contexts, among them power and its labors, that such theories reflect, legitimize and discuss. From this position, dominant theoretical models, linked to social elites, foreground a number of elements and processes within communication, as well as it neglects others, making it difficult to understand them properly. Nowadays, a good number of authors are attempting to interpret communication phenomena by proposing ideas and narratives equally determined by new contextual conditions that also include ways of exercising power. The way audiences are treated, or rather “empowered prosumers” as they are now referred to, represents an illustrative example

The engineering inside our dishes

AbstractFor an engineer the real value of a product is not in its molecular composition but in the intrinsic properties derived from the structure that is formed. Nobody cares about the molecules in a cellular phone except that they have to be arranged to receive and emit calls in reliable form. In the case of foods this brings the focus to the “engineering inside the product” rather than on the process engineering of mixing, drying, heating, freezing and so on, which has been the traditional realm of food engineering.The objective of this article is to introduce food scientists, chefs and amateur cooks to basic concepts and terminology used in food materials science, and to give examples of the engineering inside what we eat

Sensorimotor coordination and metastability in a situated HKB model

Oscillatory phenomena are ubiquitous in nature and have become particularly relevant for the study of brain and behaviour. One of the simplest, yet explanatorily powerful, models of oscillatory Coordination Dynamics is the Haken–Kelso–Bunz (HKB) model. The metastable regime described by the HKB equation has been hypothesised to be the signature of brain oscillatory dynamics underlying sensorimotor coordination. Despite evidence supporting such a hypothesis, to our knowledge, there are still very few models (if any) where the HKB equation generates spatially situated behaviour and, at the same time, has its dynamics modulated by the behaviour it generates (by means of the sensory feedback resulting from body movement). This work presents a computational model where the HKB equation controls an agent performing a simple gradient climbing task and shows (i) how different metastable dynamical patterns in the HKB equation are generated and sustained by the continuous interaction between the agent and its environment; and (ii) how the emergence of functional metastable patterns in the HKB equation – i.e. patterns that generate gradient climbing behaviour – depends not only on the structure of the agent's sensory input but also on the coordinated coupling of the agent's motor–sensory dynamics. This work contributes to Kelso's theoretical framework and also to the understanding of neural oscillations and sensorimotor coordination

WeaFQAs: A Software Product Line Approach for Customizing and Weaving Efficient Functional Quality Attributes

Fecha de Lectura de Tesis: 10 de julio de 2018Los atributos de calidad funcionales (FQA) son aquellos que tienen una clara implicación en la funcionalidad del sistema, es decir, existen unos componentes específicos que deben ser incorporados a la arquitectura software del sistema para satisfacer sus requisitos de atributos de calidad. Ejemplos de FQAs son seguridad, usabilidad, o persistencia. Modelar estos atributos es una tarea compleja. Por un lado, se componen de muchas características relacionadas, por ejemplo seguridad está compuesto, entre otros, por autenticación, confidencialidad y encriptación. Tienen dependencias entre ellos, por ejemplo, seguridad puede ser requerido por usabilidad o persistencia. Por otro lado, tienen muchos puntos de variabilidad: una aplicación concreta puede requerir autenticación y control de acceso mientras que otra puede necesitar sólo encriptación. Además, su funcionalidad suele estar dispersa afectando a varios componentes del sistema en desarrollo. El objetivo de esta tesis es definir una línea de productos software orientada a aspectos que permita: (1) modelar las similitudes y la variabilidad de los FQAs desde las primeras etapas del proceso de desarrollo, (2) gestionar las dependencias existentes entre los FQAs, (3) independizar el modelado de los FQAs de la arquitectura de la aplicación afectada, (4) configurar los FQAs en base a los requisitos de cada aplicación teniendo además en cuenta propiedades no funcionales como el rendimiento y el consumo energético de cada solución, (5) incorporar las configuraciones a la arquitectura de la aplicación de manera automática; y (6) gestionar la evolución de los FQAs cuando los requisitos cambien en el futuro. Como resultado se ha definido WeaFQAs, un proceso software para gestionar los FQAs que cubre todos los puntos mencionados. Se han realizado y comparado dos instanciaciones de WeaFQAs usando diferentes lenguajes de variabilidad y de modelado, además de proporcionar soporte con una herramienta basada en el lenguaje CVL

Communication, discourses, algorithms, power

Tras remontarse a los planteamientos de la Escuela de Frankfurt y las características del Análisis Crítico del Discurso, el autor sostiene que, si bien este tipo de debates no han desaparecido, en la actualidad el tema se contempla desde ópticas más complejas, al entrar en liza la sociedad digital en la que ha aumentado espectacularmente el número de agentes sociales que ejercen la comunicación pero lo hacen sobre narrativas de fondo en buena medida clásicas, al tiempo que aparecen otras más novedosas no exentas de críticas como es el caso de las redes sociales. Todo ello ha devenido en una gran cantidad de información que precisa ser ordenada, es en este momento cuando el algoritmo representa una herramienta pensada para tal fin, si bien el hecho también ofrece una situación preocupante para la actividad puramente Humana.After going back to the approaches of the Frankfurt School and the characteristics of the Critical Discourse Analysis, the author argues that, while this type of debate has not disappeared, currently the subject is seen from more complex perspectives, when the digital society enters into which has dramatically increased the number of social agents that they exercise communication but they do it on background narratives in good classic measures, while other newer ones not exempt from criticism as is the case of social networks. All this has become into a large amount of information that needs to be ordered, is at this moment when the algorithm represents a tool designed for that purpose, although the fact also offers a worrisome situation for purely human activity

Exploring Criticality as a Generic Adaptive Mechanism

The activity of many biological and cognitive systems is not poised deep within a specific regime of activity. Instead, they operate near points of critical behavior located at the boundary between different phases. Certain authors link some of the properties of criticality with the ability of living systems to generate autonomous or intrinsically generated behavior. However, these claims remain highly speculative. In this paper, we intend to explore the connection between criticality and autonomous behavior through conceptual models that show how embodied agents may adapt themselves toward critical points. We propose to exploit maximum entropy models and their formal descriptions of indicators of criticality to present a learning model that drives generic agents toward critical points. Specifically, we derive such a learning model in an embodied Boltzmann machine by implementing a gradient ascent rule that maximizes the heat capacity of the controller in order to make the network maximally sensitive to external perturbations. We test and corroborate the model by implementing an embodied agent in the Mountain Car benchmark test, which is controlled by a Boltzmann machine that adjusts its weights according to the model. We find that the neural controller reaches an apparent point of criticality, which coincides with a transition point of the behavior of the agent between two regimes of behavior, maximizing the synergistic information between its sensors and the combination of hidden and motor neurons. Finally, we discuss the potential of our learning model to answer questions about the connection between criticality and the capabilities of living systems to autonomously generate intrinsic constraints on their behavior. We suggest that these "critical agents" are able to acquire flexible behavioral patterns that are useful for the development of successful strategies in different contexts.Research was supported in part by the Spanish National Programme for Fostering Excellence in Scientific and Technical Research project PSI2014-62092-EXP and by the project TIN2016-80347-R funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. MA was supported by the UPV/EHU postdoctoral training program ESPDOC17/17

The GIANT Project

As the European satellite navigation programme moves forward, with EGNOS as the first step towards Galileo, the user community finds out the potential benefits that the GNSS-based applications can provide to the different economic areas of society. The aviation sector, which has played a decisive role in the specification of these systems, can obtain significant advantages by means of the combined use of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) systems, once the technical, operational and regulatory problems are overcome. This paper describes the activities that are planned in the context of the GIANT project, the organization of the proposed work and a detailed description of the flight trial campaign. Reprinted with permission from The Institute of Navigation (http://ion.org/) and The Proceedings of the 18th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation, (pp. 1854-1860). Fairfax, VA: The Institute of Navigation

Towards energy sustainability in ecolodges for latin America: a case in the bolivian Amazon

This project, funded by the Programa Iberoaméricano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo (CYTED), analyses the energy service requirements in sustainable tourism and will spread knowledge about renewable energies among the ecotourism stakeholders of Latin America. The target groups are local communities in protected areas, because they are the less up to date groups and, frequently, they are living in the most fragile ecosystems, but also the most fertile in biodiversity; their living standard is very low and the ecotourism can be a successful economic resource. The regions considered are ecosystems in Latin America, which have some protection degree, and are managed by local communities. The selected countries to implement renewable energy infrastructures in ecolodges are: Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. Also low cost telecommunications infrastructures will be installed to improve the diffusion among potential clients of the ecolodges, in order to permit direct reservation of the services