The Parity Argument for Extended Consciousness

Andy Clark and David Chalmers (1998) argue that certain mental states and processes can be partially constituted by objects located beyond one’s brain and body: this is their extended mind thesis (EM). But they maintain that consciousness relies on processing that is too high in speed and bandwidth to be realized outside the body (see Chalmers, 2008, and Clark, 2009). I evaluate Clark’s and Chalmers’ reason for denying that consciousness extends while still supporting unconscious state extension. I argue that their reason is not well grounded and does not hold up against foreseeable advances in technology. I conclude that their current position needs re-evaluation. If their original parity argument works as a defence of EM, they have yet to identify a good reason why it does not also work as a defence of extended consciousness. I end by advancing a parity argument for extended consciousness and consider some possible replies

Hori-mological projective duality

Kuznetsov has conjectured that Pfaffian varieties should admit non-commutative crepant resolutions which satisfy his Homological Projective Duality. We prove half the cases of this conjecture, by interpreting and proving a duality of non-abelian gauged linear sigma models proposed by Hori.Comment: 55 pages. V2: slightly rewritten to take advantage of the `non-commutative Bertini theorem' recently proved by the authors and Van den Bergh. V3: lots of changes in exposition following referees' comments. Section 5 has been mostly cut because it was boring. To appear in Duke Math. J. V3: added funder acknowledgemen

A non-commutative Bertini theorem

We prove a version of the classical 'generic smoothness' theorem with smooth varieties replaced by non-commutative resolutions of singular varieties. This in particular implies a non-commutative version of the Bertini theorem.Comment: 6 pages. v2: added funder acknowledgement. Published in J. Noncommutative Geometr

AI Extenders: The Ethical and Societal Implications of Humans Cognitively Extended by AI

Humans and AI systems are usually portrayed as separate sys- tems that we need to align in values and goals. However, there is a great deal of AI technology found in non-autonomous systems that are used as cognitive tools by humans. Under the extended mind thesis, the functional contributions of these tools become as essential to our cognition as our brains. But AI can take cognitive extension towards totally new capabil- ities, posing new philosophical, ethical and technical chal- lenges. To analyse these challenges better, we define and place AI extenders in a continuum between fully-externalized systems, loosely coupled with humans, and fully-internalized processes, with operations ultimately performed by the brain, making the tool redundant. We dissect the landscape of cog- nitive capabilities that can foreseeably be extended by AI and examine their ethical implications. We suggest that cognitive extenders using AI be treated as distinct from other cognitive enhancers by all relevant stakeholders, including developers, policy makers, and human users

Application of Swept-Sine Excitation for Acoustic Impedance Education

The NASA Langley Normal Incidence Tube (NIT) and Grazing Flow Impedance Tube (GFIT) are regularly employed to characterize the frequency response of acoustic liners through the eduction of their specific acoustic impedance. Both test rigs typically use an acoustic source that produces sine wave signals at discrete frequencies (Stepped-Sine) to educe the impedance. The current work details a novel approach using frequency-swept sine waveforms normalized to a constant sound pressure level for excitation. Determination of the sound pressure level and phase from microphone measurements acquired using swept-sine excitation is performed using a modified Vold-Kalman order tracking filter. Four acoustic liners are evaluated in the NIT and GFIT with both stepped-sine and swept-sine sources. Using these two methods, the educed impedance spectra are shown to compare favorably. However, the new (Swept-Sine) approach provides much greater frequency resolution in less time, allowing the acoustic liner properties to be studied in much greater detail

Mortality and injuries of haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) that are caught by pelagic longline

By-catches of haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) below legal size (44 cm total length) in the seasonal pelagic longline fisheries for haddock off the coast of Finnmark, northern Norway, are often high. The small fish are torn off the hook at the vessel side by means of a crucifier or a gaff and returned to the sea. It is generally thought that most of the discarded haddock die. An investigation to quantify this mortality was done in the season for this fishery in 1997. The undersized haddock that were torn off the longline hook were recaptured by gently catching them in a dip net as they reached the sea surface. Survival of haddock torn off by means of crucifier alone was compared to haddock torn of the hook by means of a gaff. The fish were transferred in tanks onboard a vessel to holding pens made of small meshed knotless netting floating at the surface. They were visually monitored for 7-11 days. The control group consisted of haddock fished with clean hooks without barbs and gently released by hand. At the end of the observation period the live and dead fish were examined for external damage. The experiment showed a total mortality of 39% for fish that had been torn off by means of a crucifier, and 53% mortality of fish released by means of a gaff. The mortality of the control group was 9%. The injuries of the fish were also analysed

Roughness fluctuations, roughness exponents and the universality class of ballistic deposition

In order to estimate roughness exponents of interface growth models, we propose the calculation of effective exponents from the roughness fluctuation (sigma) in the steady state. We compare the finite-size behavior of these exponents and the ones calculated from the average roughness for two models in the 2+1-dimensional Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) class and for a model in the 1+1-dimensional Villain-Lai-Das Sarma (VLDS) class. The values obtained from sigma provide consistent asymptotic estimates, eventually with smaller finite-size corrections. For the VLDS (nonlinear molecular beam epitaxy) class, we obtain alpha=0.93+-0.01, improving previous estimates. We also apply this method to two versions of the ballistic deposition model in two-dimensional substrates, in order to clarify the controversy on its universality class raised by numerical results and a recent derivation of its continuous equation. Effective exponents calculated from sigma suggest that both versions are in the KPZ class. Additional support to this conclusion is obtained by a comparison of the full roughness distributions of those models and the distribution of other discrete KPZ models.Comment: 12 pages (4 figures included); to be published in Physica

Magnetic field generated resistivity maximum in graphite

In zero magnetic field, B, the electrical resistivity, rho(O,T) of highly oriented pyrolytic (polycrystalline) graphite drops smoothly with decreasing T, becoming constant below 4 K. However, in a fixed applied magnetic field B, the resistivity rho(B,T) goes through a maximum as a function of T, with larger maximum for larger B. The temperature of the maximum increases with B, but saturates to a constant value near 25 K (exact T depends on sample) at high B. In single crystal graphite a maximum in rho(B,T) as a function of T is also present, but has the effects of Landau level quantization superimposed. Several possible explanations for the rho(B,T) maximum are proposed, but a complete explanation awaits detailed calculations involving the energy band structure of graphite, and the particular scattering mechanisms involved