Contextual emergence of intentionality

By means of an intriguing physical example, magnetic surface swimmers, that can be described in terms of Dennett's intentional stance, I reconstruct a hierarchy of necessary and sufficient conditions for the applicability of the intentional strategy. It turns out that the different levels of the intentional hierarchy are contextually emergent from their respective subjacent levels by imposing stability constraints upon them. At the lowest level of the hierarchy, phenomenal physical laws emerge for the coarse-grained description of open, nonlinear, and dissipative nonequilibrium systems in critical states. One level higher, dynamic patterns, such as, e.g., magnetic surface swimmers, are contextually emergent as they are invariant under certain symmetry operations. Again one level up, these patterns behave apparently rational by selecting optimal pathways for the dissipation of energy that is delivered by external gradients. This is in accordance with the restated Second Law of thermodynamics as a stability criterion. At the highest level, true believers are intentional systems that are stable under exchanging their observation conditions.Comment: 27 pages; 4 figures (Fig 1. Copyright by American Physical Society); submitted to Journal of Consciousness Studie

A biophysical observation model for field potentials of networks of leaky integrate-and-fire neurons

We present a biophysical approach for the coupling of neural network activity as resulting from proper dipole currents of cortical pyramidal neurons to the electric field in extracellular fluid. Starting from a reduced threecompartment model of a single pyramidal neuron, we derive an observation model for dendritic dipole currents in extracellular space and thereby for the dendritic field potential that contributes to the local field potential of a neural population. This work aligns and satisfies the widespread dipole assumption that is motivated by the "open-field" configuration of the dendritic field potential around cortical pyramidal cells. Our reduced three-compartment scheme allows to derive networks of leaky integrate-and-fire models, which facilitates comparison with existing neural network and observation models. In particular, by means of numerical simulations we compare our approach with an ad hoc model by Mazzoni et al. [Mazzoni, A., S. Panzeri, N. K. Logothetis, and N. Brunel (2008). Encoding of naturalistic stimuli by local field potential spectra in networks of excitatory and inhibitory neurons. PLoS Computational Biology 4 (12), e1000239], and conclude that our biophysically motivated approach yields substantial improvement.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figure

Enforcing a Prohibition on International Espionage

Peacetime espionage is an incredibly important and common occurrence in modern international relations, yet its legal status is far from clear. This Comment explores the practice’s legal background, as well as the arguments for and against its legality. While there can be many benefits to peacetime espionage, and while few countries have “clean hands,” it seems unworkable to overcome the presupposition that most espionage is an “intervention” as defined by the ICJ in Nicaragua v. U.S., even if the prohibition on espionage is often unenforced. With the conclusion that most peacetime espionage is likely illegal under international law, this Comment attempts to ascertain how this prohibition can be enforced. After examining the ICJ’s prohibition on “intervention,” the ICC’s jurisdiction over “crimes of aggression,” the U.N. Security Council’s prohibition on “force,” and the Council of Europe’s Convention on Cybercrime, no panacea was found. Therefore, in situations where domestic law is unable to effectively enforce this prohibition, this Comment argues that countermeasures are the best way to deter state actors from engaging in acts of peacetime espionage. However, in certain situations where extreme versions of peacetime espionage are carried out upon weak countries unable to make use of countermeasures, reliance on the ICJ, the ICC, the U.N. Security Council, or the Council of Europe may be feasible

Judicial dissents from ideological allies in lower court cases are more likely to lead to en banc review.

In the US Court of Appeals, a panel of judges can vote to rehear a case which had previously been heard by the court, a procedure known as en banc review. In new research, Deborah Beim and colleagues find that when a judge who is an ideological ally dissents with the majority decision, this can act as a strong signal that something that is inappropriate has occurred, which in turn can increase the probability of an en banc review from 3 to 17 percent

Japan's internal debt

Does internal debt matter? Japan's yen-denominated public debt now totals 140% of GDP, and this number continues to rise rapidly. What constraints will this growing debt finally encounter? I argue that finance can postpone but not eliminate payments owed by the government to the private sector. The combination of continuing Keynsian budget deficits, bleeding banks, overleveraged municipalities and massive pension liabilities will ultimately bring into question the credibility of the government's many promises. The result could be a massive issuance of new currency