Fwd: [Activities-announce] SFI FILM SCREENING---Tomorrow

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Fwd: [Activities-announce] SFI FILM SCREENING---Tomorrow

Pamela McCorduck
I was going to offer to show my copy at the Friam Wednesday gathering  
sometime, but it looks like SFI is premiering it here.  I play a  
modest role in it.



Begin forwarded message:

> From: Della Ulibarri <dlu at santafe.edu>
> Date: August 29, 2006 11:46:55 AM MDT
> To: inhouse at cyprus.santafe.edu, activities-announce at santafe.edu
> Subject: [Activities-announce] SFI FILM SCREENING---Tomorrow
>
> *** FILM SCREENING ***
>
> Wednesday, August 30, 2006, 12:15pm ? Noyce Conference Room
>
>
> "Mind in The Machine:
> The Discovery of Artificial Intelligence"
>
> by
>
> Dan Rockmore
> SFI External Faculty and Department of Mathematics, Dartmouth College
>
> http://www.santafe.edu/events/abstract/499
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Activities-announce mailing list
> Activities-announce at santafe.edu
> http://www.santafe.edu/mailman/listinfo/activities-announce

"For some reason the most vocal Christians among us never mention the  
Beatitudes.  But with tears in their eyes they demand that the Ten  
Commandments be posted in public places.  And of course that's Moses,  
not Jesus.  I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the  
Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere."

  Kurt Vonnegut, "A Man Without A Country"


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Fwd: [Activities-announce] SFI FILM SCREENING---Tomorrow

Jenny Quillien
Hello Pamela
We're just back from a trip to the far far northeast (Newfoundland).  I
hope you will still show your copy to Friam. I may not be the only one who
missed it.
Looking forward to seeing you again,
Jenny


At 02:27 PM 8/29/2006, you wrote:

>I was going to offer to show my copy at the Friam Wednesday gathering
>sometime, but it looks like SFI is premiering it here.  I play a modest
>role in it.
>
>
>
>Begin forwarded message:
>
>>From: Della Ulibarri <<mailto:dlu at santafe.edu>dlu at santafe.edu>
>>Date: August 29, 2006 11:46:55 AM MDT
>>To: <mailto:inhouse at cyprus.santafe.edu>inhouse at cyprus.santafe.edu,
>><mailto:activities-announce at santafe.edu>activities-announce at santafe.edu
>>Subject: [Activities-announce] SFI FILM SCREENING---Tomorrow
>>
>>*** FILM SCREENING ***
>>
>>Wednesday, August 30, 2006, 12:15pm ? Noyce Conference Room
>>
>>
>>"Mind in The Machine:
>>The Discovery of Artificial Intelligence"
>>
>>by
>>
>>Dan Rockmore
>>SFI External Faculty and Department of Mathematics, Dartmouth College
>>
>><http://www.santafe.edu/events/abstract/499>http://www.santafe.edu/events/abstract/499
>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Activities-announce mailing list
>><mailto:Activities-announce at santafe.edu>Activities-announce at santafe.edu
>>http://www.santafe.edu/mailman/listinfo/activities-announce
>
>"For some reason the most vocal Christians among us never mention the
>Beatitudes.  But with tears in their eyes they demand that the Ten
>Commandments be posted in public places.  And of course that's Moses, not
>Jesus.  I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount,
>the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere."
>
>  Kurt Vonnegut, "A Man Without A Country"
>
>
>============================================================
>FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org




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Fwd: [Activities-announce] SFI FILM SCREENING---Tomorrow

Owen Densmore
Administrator
Me too!  How about a wedtech in the not too distant future?

On Sep 1, 2006, at 7:03 PM, Jenny Quillien wrote:

> Hello Pamela
> We're just back from a trip to the far far northeast  
> (Newfoundland).  I
> hope you will still show your copy to Friam. I may not be the only  
> one who
> missed it.
> Looking forward to seeing you again,
> Jenny
>
>
> At 02:27 PM 8/29/2006, you wrote:
>> I was going to offer to show my copy at the Friam Wednesday gathering
>> sometime, but it looks like SFI is premiering it here.  I play a  
>> modest
>> role in it.
>>
>>
>>
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>>> From: Della Ulibarri <<mailto:dlu at santafe.edu>dlu at santafe.edu>
>>> Date: August 29, 2006 11:46:55 AM MDT
>>> To: <mailto:inhouse at cyprus.santafe.edu>inhouse at cyprus.santafe.edu,
>>> <mailto:activities-announce at santafe.edu>activities-
>>> announce at santafe.edu
>>> Subject: [Activities-announce] SFI FILM SCREENING---Tomorrow
>>>
>>> *** FILM SCREENING ***
>>>
>>> Wednesday, August 30, 2006, 12:15pm ? Noyce Conference Room
>>>
>>>
>>> "Mind in The Machine:
>>> The Discovery of Artificial Intelligence"
>>>
>>> by
>>>
>>> Dan Rockmore
>>> SFI External Faculty and Department of Mathematics, Dartmouth  
>>> College
>>>
>>> <http://www.santafe.edu/events/abstract/499>http://
>>> www.santafe.edu/events/abstract/499
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Activities-announce mailing list
>>> <mailto:Activities-announce at santafe.edu>Activities-
>>> announce at santafe.edu
>>> http://www.santafe.edu/mailman/listinfo/activities-announce
>>
>> "For some reason the most vocal Christians among us never mention the
>> Beatitudes.  But with tears in their eyes they demand that the Ten
>> Commandments be posted in public places.  And of course that's  
>> Moses, not
>> Jesus.  I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the  
>> Mount,
>> the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere."
>>
>>  Kurt Vonnegut, "A Man Without A Country"
>>
>>
>> ============================================================
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org



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Fwd: [Activities-announce] SFI FILM SCREENING---Tomorrow

Stephen Guerin
Pamela and I talked this week about screening "Mind in the Machine" at Wedtech
in early December when she returns to Santa Fe. I'll send out an announcement
when we have a fixed date.

-Steve

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Owen Densmore [mailto:owen at backspaces.net]
> Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 9:59 PM
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Fwd: [Activities-announce] SFI FILM
> SCREENING---Tomorrow
>
> Me too!  How about a wedtech in the not too distant future?
>
> On Sep 1, 2006, at 7:03 PM, Jenny Quillien wrote:
>
> > Hello Pamela
> > We're just back from a trip to the far far northeast
> (Newfoundland).  
> > I hope you will still show your copy to Friam. I may not be
> the only
> > one who missed it.
> > Looking forward to seeing you again,
> > Jenny
> >
> >
> > At 02:27 PM 8/29/2006, you wrote:
> >> I was going to offer to show my copy at the Friam
> Wednesday gathering
> >> sometime, but it looks like SFI is premiering it here.  I play a
> >> modest role in it.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Begin forwarded message:
> >>
> >>> From: Della Ulibarri <<mailto:dlu at santafe.edu>dlu at santafe.edu>
> >>> Date: August 29, 2006 11:46:55 AM MDT
> >>> To: <mailto:inhouse at cyprus.santafe.edu>inhouse at cyprus.santafe.edu,
> >>> <mailto:activities-announce at santafe.edu>activities-
> >>> announce at santafe.edu
> >>> Subject: [Activities-announce] SFI FILM SCREENING---Tomorrow
> >>>
> >>> *** FILM SCREENING ***
> >>>
> >>> Wednesday, August 30, 2006, 12:15pm . Noyce Conference Room
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> "Mind in The Machine:
> >>> The Discovery of Artificial Intelligence"
> >>>
> >>> by
> >>>
> >>> Dan Rockmore
> >>> SFI External Faculty and Department of Mathematics, Dartmouth  
> >>> College
> >>>
> >>> <http://www.santafe.edu/events/abstract/499>http://
> >>> www.santafe.edu/events/abstract/499
> >>>
>



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have we moved on?

Phil Henshaw-2
I was curious about the film you were talking about, "Mind in the
Machine", and Googled it, coming across several things including its
origin and a simple statement by an Australian journalist (quoted below)
of Turing's idea of the test one would apply to measure success in
reproducing intelligence.

I read the statement as saying if you're able to imitate something by
some other means (say behaviors of people by computers), in a way that
an observer doesn't notice the discrepancy, you've made the real thing.
I expect that's not quite accurate, and the current thinking has
evolved.   Can anyone say where the concept is headed?  



Phil


http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/allen/story.htm

"The theoretical basis of artificial intelligence goes back to the
British mathematician, Alan Turing. In 1950, he proposed a test by which
he claimed we could determine whether or not a machine could think. The
Turing test, as it has become known, is quite simple. If a computer can
perform in such a way that an expert cannot distinguish its performance
from that of a human who has a certain cognitive ability - say the
ability to do subtraction - then the computer has the same ability as
the human. If we could design programs which simulate human cognition in
such a way as to pass the Turing test, then those programs would no
longer be models of the mind, they would literally be minds, in the same
sense that the human mind is a mind. "

"Turing was probably being deliberately provocative in proposing this
test. In 1950 the idea that a machine could beat a human in any skill
that required intelligence seemed complete fancy. Even so, the Turing
test became a challenge that would motivate the field of AI research for
decades. "


Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
680 Ft. Washington Ave
NY NY 10040                      
tel: 212-795-4844                
e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
explorations: www.synapse9.com    





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have we moved on?

Martin C. Martin-2


Phil Henshaw wrote:

> I was curious about the film you were talking about, "Mind in the
> Machine", and Googled it, coming across several things including its
> origin and a simple statement by an Australian journalist (quoted below)
> of Turing's idea of the test one would apply to measure success in
> reproducing intelligence.
>
> I read the statement as saying if you're able to imitate something by
> some other means (say behaviors of people by computers), in a way that
> an observer doesn't notice the discrepancy, you've made the real thing.
> I expect that's not quite accurate, and the current thinking has
> evolved.   Can anyone say where the concept is headed?  

The field of Artificial Intelligence no longer talks at all about
general intelligence, the human mind, or anything like that.  The lone
exception might the the natural language community, who of course are
try to replicate something human specific.  But they still don't talk
about "human equivalence" or anything like that.

After the hype for AI in the 60s and 70s, there was a backlash in the
80s.  Kind of what happened to ideas like "virtual reality" or "dot
com."  In search of respectability, AI has become largely applied
statistics and focused on near term results.

For someone like me who wants to explore principles and methods that
point the way to full intelligence, this is all very depressing.  Like
wanting to study cognitive psychology during behaviorism.

Best,
Martin



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have we moved on?

Phil Henshaw-2
Got it!   But it's like making your way through a maze by running into
walls.  There's no point in being disappointed and just sitting down
when confronted by them.   I think locating the walls helps, i.e.
finding the barriers and disconnects in our thinking.   I've been
focused on one in particular, the lack of any working theoretical model
of things organized from the inside.  I think that's where the start may
be.  We all suffer from a core intellectual deficit on that account, to
quote another post:

"I think it's comes from the biological human view of the world.  The
basic structure of thinking comes from our being 'observers', locked up
inside a brain, each of us reconstructing an imaginary model of the
world around us from our own observations and experiences.  That's a
problematic viewpoint for relating to any other thing built the same
way, i.e. organized from the inside.  What's going on inside other
things is invisible from the outside, and our [brain] builds its whole
world view from an outside perspective!!   Given that handicap, it's
quite natural for there to be more than one might guess missing from our
awareness."

"...The theoretical sciences don't even have an image of anything
organized from the inside!  That part of the world is invisible to us
and so we're structurally unaware of the internally organized systems
we're part of and surround us.  It's ridiculous to work with a world
composed of several billion original, different and faulty universes,
but I think we're stuck with it and should try poking around to see what
other surprises there may be!  :)"

make any sense?
 

>
> Phil Henshaw wrote:
> > I was curious about the film you were talking about, "Mind in the
> > Machine", and Googled it, coming across several things
> including its
> > origin and a simple statement by an Australian journalist (quoted
> > below) of Turing's idea of the test one would apply to
> measure success
> > in reproducing intelligence.
> >
> > I read the statement as saying if you're able to imitate
> something by
> > some other means (say behaviors of people by computers), in
> a way that
> > an observer doesn't notice the discrepancy, you've made the real
> > thing. I expect that's not quite accurate, and the current
> thinking has
> > evolved.   Can anyone say where the concept is headed?  
>
> The field of Artificial Intelligence no longer talks at all about
> general intelligence, the human mind, or anything like that.  
> The lone
> exception might the the natural language community, who of course are
> try to replicate something human specific.  But they still don't talk
> about "human equivalence" or anything like that.
>
> After the hype for AI in the 60s and 70s, there was a backlash in the
> 80s.  Kind of what happened to ideas like "virtual reality" or "dot
> com."  In search of respectability, AI has become largely applied
> statistics and focused on near term results.
>
> For someone like me who wants to explore principles and methods that
> point the way to full intelligence, this is all very
> depressing.  Like
> wanting to study cognitive psychology during behaviorism.
>
> Best,
> Martin
>
>




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have we moved on?

Martin C. Martin-2
Hey Phil,

If I understand you correctly, I think you're very right.  The
information we have about the world is behavior and appearances, and for
most interesting things the mechanism is completely hidden from us.  We
can observe inputs and outputs, but not the source code.  We can see
fuel go in and motion come out, but can't see the engine, let alone
anything else.

Perhaps the core of intelligence is coming up with models of the world
and exploiting them.  That's a view that's right up my alley.

But say that to most AI researchers, and they'll stare at you
uncomprehendingly.  They want a well defined problem, such as using all
users purchases at Amazon to suggest other purchases for a single user.
    And they'll come up with an algorithm that makes good suggestions
most of the time.  The idea that the computer should be trying to make
sense of the world -- eh?  What are you talking about?  Or maybe "oh,
that's that flakey research from the 60s and 70s.  We've moved beyond
that."  I have a friend who does research in believable virtual
characters, and he gets that.

Best,
Martin

Phil Henshaw wrote:

> Got it!   But it's like making your way through a maze by running into
> walls.  There's no point in being disappointed and just sitting down
> when confronted by them.   I think locating the walls helps, i.e.
> finding the barriers and disconnects in our thinking.   I've been
> focused on one in particular, the lack of any working theoretical model
> of things organized from the inside.  I think that's where the start may
> be.  We all suffer from a core intellectual deficit on that account, to
> quote another post:
>
> "I think it's comes from the biological human view of the world.  The
> basic structure of thinking comes from our being 'observers', locked up
> inside a brain, each of us reconstructing an imaginary model of the
> world around us from our own observations and experiences.  That's a
> problematic viewpoint for relating to any other thing built the same
> way, i.e. organized from the inside.  What's going on inside other
> things is invisible from the outside, and our [brain] builds its whole
> world view from an outside perspective!!   Given that handicap, it's
> quite natural for there to be more than one might guess missing from our
> awareness."
>
> "...The theoretical sciences don't even have an image of anything
> organized from the inside!  That part of the world is invisible to us
> and so we're structurally unaware of the internally organized systems
> we're part of and surround us.  It's ridiculous to work with a world
> composed of several billion original, different and faulty universes,
> but I think we're stuck with it and should try poking around to see what
> other surprises there may be!  :)"
>
> make any sense?
>  
>> Phil Henshaw wrote:
>>> I was curious about the film you were talking about, "Mind in the
>>> Machine", and Googled it, coming across several things
>> including its
>>> origin and a simple statement by an Australian journalist (quoted
>>> below) of Turing's idea of the test one would apply to
>> measure success
>>> in reproducing intelligence.
>>>
>>> I read the statement as saying if you're able to imitate
>> something by
>>> some other means (say behaviors of people by computers), in
>> a way that
>>> an observer doesn't notice the discrepancy, you've made the real
>>> thing. I expect that's not quite accurate, and the current
>> thinking has
>>> evolved.   Can anyone say where the concept is headed?  
>> The field of Artificial Intelligence no longer talks at all about
>> general intelligence, the human mind, or anything like that.  
>> The lone
>> exception might the the natural language community, who of course are
>> try to replicate something human specific.  But they still don't talk
>> about "human equivalence" or anything like that.
>>
>> After the hype for AI in the 60s and 70s, there was a backlash in the
>> 80s.  Kind of what happened to ideas like "virtual reality" or "dot
>> com."  In search of respectability, AI has become largely applied
>> statistics and focused on near term results.
>>
>> For someone like me who wants to explore principles and methods that
>> point the way to full intelligence, this is all very
>> depressing.  Like
>> wanting to study cognitive psychology during behaviorism.
>>
>> Best,
>> Martin
>>
>>
>
>



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have we moved on?

Parks, Raymond
Martin C. Martin wrote:
...
> But say that to most AI researchers, and they'll stare at you
> uncomprehendingly.  They want a well defined problem, such as using all
> users purchases at Amazon to suggest other purchases for a single user.

   A while back, a DARPA program manager (an agent person, at that),
sent out the notice to his program that the textbook on agents that he
wrote before moving to DARPA was available on Amazon.  The beauty of
this was the "people who purchased this" recommendations, which started
with "Clean Underwear".  He reported this and I subsequently checked
and, sure enough, Amazon recommended that purchasers of his book would
also like to purchase clean underwear.  I suspect this was the default
for something that had no purchasers, showing the sense of humour of the
programmers.  However, I have seen many other nearly as absurd
recommendations from that type of AI.  Clearly, the absurdity arises
because they do not model the real world, just data mine blindly.  Those
recommendation systems clearly do not pass the Turing test.

--
Ray Parks                   rcparks at sandia.gov
IDART Project Lead          Voice:505-844-4024
IORTA Department            Mobile:505-238-9359
http://www.sandia.gov/scada Fax:505-844-9641
http://www.sandia.gov/idart Pager:800-690-5288



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have we moved on?

David Breecker
Perhaps the author is anal retentive, and this is revealed in his book;
making the affiliative recommendation even smarter than we could have
expected.  Turing would have loved it.

(Just kidding; my own strange sense of humor).
David

----- Original Message -----
From: "Raymond Parks" <[hidden email]>
To: "The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group" <friam at redfish.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 11:49 AM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] have we moved on?


> Martin C. Martin wrote:
> ...
>> But say that to most AI researchers, and they'll stare at you
>> uncomprehendingly.  They want a well defined problem, such as using all
>> users purchases at Amazon to suggest other purchases for a single user.
>
>   A while back, a DARPA program manager (an agent person, at that),
> sent out the notice to his program that the textbook on agents that he
> wrote before moving to DARPA was available on Amazon.  The beauty of
> this was the "people who purchased this" recommendations, which started
> with "Clean Underwear".  He reported this and I subsequently checked
> and, sure enough, Amazon recommended that purchasers of his book would
> also like to purchase clean underwear.  I suspect this was the default
> for something that had no purchasers, showing the sense of humour of the
> programmers.  However, I have seen many other nearly as absurd
> recommendations from that type of AI.  Clearly, the absurdity arises
> because they do not model the real world, just data mine blindly.  Those
> recommendation systems clearly do not pass the Turing test.
>
> --
> Ray Parks                   rcparks at sandia.gov
> IDART Project Lead          Voice:505-844-4024
> IORTA Department            Mobile:505-238-9359
> http://www.sandia.gov/scada Fax:505-844-9641
> http://www.sandia.gov/idart Pager:800-690-5288
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>




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nature walks!

Phil Henshaw-2
In reply to this post by Stephen Guerin

I am dually impressed at Amazon's ability to know what undergarments
it's random visitors might be advised to try....:) (just marvelous!) but
still I have some questions about reality 101.

If molecules in thermal motion follow random walks, do fluids composed
of molecules in thermal motion do so as well?   I've run into the
strangest confusion among Darwinian theorists, both from journals of
paleontology and evolutionary biology.  I have a quite good paper that's
unpublishable because I stick my neck out to say populations have no
non-extraordinary mechanisms for changing by random walks.

a) am I wrong and there are some?   a.1)clue me in..
b) do you know a journal for people literate in evolution theory that
might be willing to consider the issue based on physical mechanisms?


Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
680 Ft. Washington Ave
NY NY 10040                      
tel: 212-795-4844                
e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
explorations: www.synapse9.com    





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Do you know? Do 'swarms' follow random walks?

Phil Henshaw-2
Has anyone checked to see if any alife 'swarms' display accumulative
variance?

If you were to design one to do that, would it have a structure
comparable to populations of organisms living in ecologies?

-In case anyone's curious I have a high quality direct measure of
accumulative variance.


Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
680 Ft. Washington Ave
NY NY 10040                      
tel: 212-795-4844                
e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
explorations: www.synapse9.com    


> -----Original Message-----
> From: friam-bounces at redfish.com
> [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Phil Henshaw
> Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 8:30 PM
> To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
> Subject: [FRIAM] nature walks!
>
>
>
> I am dually impressed at Amazon's ability to know what
> undergarments it's random visitors might be advised to
> try....:) (just marvelous!) but still I have some questions
> about reality 101.
>
> If molecules in thermal motion follow random walks, do fluids composed
> of molecules in thermal motion do so as well?   I've run into the
> strangest confusion among Darwinian theorists, both from
> journals of paleontology and evolutionary biology.  I have a
> quite good paper that's unpublishable because I stick my neck
> out to say populations have no non-extraordinary mechanisms
> for changing by random walks.
>
> a) am I wrong and there are some?   a.1)clue me in..
> b) do you know a journal for people literate in evolution
> theory that might be willing to consider the issue based on
> physical mechanisms?
>
>
> Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 680 Ft. Washington Ave
> NY NY 10040                      
> tel: 212-795-4844                
> e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
> explorations: www.synapse9.com    
>
>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
>




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Do you know? Do 'swarms' follow random walks?

Stephen Guerin
Hi Phil,

> Has anyone checked to see if any alife 'swarms' display
> accumulative variance?

I haven't come across the term 'accumulative variance' before. Do you have a web
pointer?

As a swarm organizes, the agents' directions and velocities become more
correlated with each other. ie agents become more constrained as they lose
degrees of freedom. Would you interpret this to be decreasing variance?

-Steve



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Phil Henshaw [mailto:sy at synapse9.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 8:24 PM
> To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
> Subject: [FRIAM] Do you know? Do 'swarms' follow random walks?
>
> Has anyone checked to see if any alife 'swarms' display
> accumulative variance?
>
> If you were to design one to do that, would it have a
> structure comparable to populations of organisms living in ecologies?
>
> -In case anyone's curious I have a high quality direct
> measure of accumulative variance.
>
>
> Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 680 Ft. Washington Ave
> NY NY 10040                      
> tel: 212-795-4844                
> e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
> explorations: www.synapse9.com    
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: friam-bounces at redfish.com
> > [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Phil Henshaw
> > Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 8:30 PM
> > To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
> > Subject: [FRIAM] nature walks!
> >
> >
> >
> > I am dually impressed at Amazon's ability to know what
> undergarments
> > it's random visitors might be advised to
> > try....:) (just marvelous!) but still I have some questions about
> > reality 101.
> >
> > If molecules in thermal motion follow random walks, do
> fluids composed
> > of molecules in thermal motion do so as well?   I've run into the
> > strangest confusion among Darwinian theorists, both from
> journals of
> > paleontology and evolutionary biology.  I have a quite good paper
> > that's unpublishable because I stick my neck out to say populations
> > have no non-extraordinary mechanisms for changing by random walks.
> >
> > a) am I wrong and there are some?   a.1)clue me in..
> > b) do you know a journal for people literate in evolution
> theory that
> > might be willing to consider the issue based on physical mechanisms?
> >
> >
> > Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > 680 Ft. Washington Ave
> > NY NY 10040                      
> > tel: 212-795-4844                
> > e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
> > explorations: www.synapse9.com    
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ============================================================
> > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
> >
> >
>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
>



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|

Do you know? Do 'swarms' follow random walks?

Stephen Guerin
Phil,

I now see where 'accumulated variance' is used in the context of Principal
Components Analysis where it represents how much of the variance is explained by
a set of component vectors. Is this how you're using the term?

Given this usage, I would guess that if you described the agents' states with
position and velocity vectors, a given number of principal components would have
increasing accumulated variance as the swarm becomes more organized.

Or, perhaps you are talking about describing the motion of the swarm as a single
entity? In that case, I would say it depends on the parameters of the model.
Some settings yield swarms that break symmetry in linear momentum and move at a
constant rate in a given direction. Other settings in a model yield more
stationary swarms that buzz around much like gnats around a light. These swarms
may exhibit random-walk dynamics.

FWIW, We have a swarm model/visualization at
http://www.redfish.com/projects/SwarmEffects/ where you can vary agent behaviors
to get different macro swarms. Focus on changing the "Average Position", "Avoid"
and "Average Direction" sliders. These sliders weight how much a given behavior
contributes to a summed vector that is an agent's next move.

-Steve



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephen Guerin [mailto:stephen.guerin at redfish.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 11:55 PM
> To: sy at synapse9.com; 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity
> Coffee Group'
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Do you know? Do 'swarms' follow random walks?
>
> Hi Phil,
>
> > Has anyone checked to see if any alife 'swarms' display
> accumulative
> > variance?
>
> I haven't come across the term 'accumulative variance'
> before. Do you have a web pointer?
>
> As a swarm organizes, the agents' directions and velocities
> become more correlated with each other. ie agents become more
> constrained as they lose degrees of freedom. Would you
> interpret this to be decreasing variance?
>
> -Steve
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Phil Henshaw [mailto:sy at synapse9.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 8:24 PM
> > To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
> > Subject: [FRIAM] Do you know? Do 'swarms' follow random walks?
> >
> > Has anyone checked to see if any alife 'swarms' display
> accumulative
> > variance?
> >
> > If you were to design one to do that, would it have a structure
> > comparable to populations of organisms living in ecologies?
> >
> > -In case anyone's curious I have a high quality direct measure of
> > accumulative variance.
> >
> >
> > Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > 680 Ft. Washington Ave
> > NY NY 10040                      
> > tel: 212-795-4844                
> > e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
> > explorations: www.synapse9.com    
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: friam-bounces at redfish.com
> > > [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Phil Henshaw
> > > Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 8:30 PM
> > > To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
> > > Subject: [FRIAM] nature walks!
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > I am dually impressed at Amazon's ability to know what
> > undergarments
> > > it's random visitors might be advised to
> > > try....:) (just marvelous!) but still I have some questions about
> > > reality 101.
> > >
> > > If molecules in thermal motion follow random walks, do
> > fluids composed
> > > of molecules in thermal motion do so as well?   I've run into the
> > > strangest confusion among Darwinian theorists, both from
> > journals of
> > > paleontology and evolutionary biology.  I have a quite good paper
> > > that's unpublishable because I stick my neck out to say
> populations
> > > have no non-extraordinary mechanisms for changing by random walks.
> > >
> > > a) am I wrong and there are some?   a.1)clue me in..
> > > b) do you know a journal for people literate in evolution
> > theory that
> > > might be willing to consider the issue based on physical
> mechanisms?
> > >
> > >
> > > Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > > 680 Ft. Washington Ave
> > > NY NY 10040                      
> > > tel: 212-795-4844                
> > > e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com          
> > > explorations: www.synapse9.com    
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ============================================================
> > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at
> > > cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives,
> unsubscribe, maps at
> > > http://www.friam.org
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > ============================================================
> > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays
> 9a-11:30 at cafe
> > at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
> > http://www.friam.org
> >
> >
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
>



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|

Do you know? Do 'swarms' follow random walks?

Robert Holmes
Phil,

Following on from Steve's comments, the mean distance of a randomly-walking
point from its origin is of the order sqrt(N) where N is the number of steps
in its walk. Steve's flocks don't exhibit this behaviour, so it's safe to
say that no, swarms do not generally display random walk behaviour.

Robert

On 9/7/06, Stephen Guerin <stephen.guerin at redfish.com> wrote:

>
> Phil,
>
> I now see where 'accumulated variance' is used in the context of Principal
> Components Analysis where it represents how much of the variance is
> explained by
> a set of component vectors. Is this how you're using the term?
>
> Given this usage, I would guess that if you described the agents' states
> with
> position and velocity vectors, a given number of principal components
> would have
> increasing accumulated variance as the swarm becomes more organized.
>
> Or, perhaps you are talking about describing the motion of the swarm as a
> single
> entity? In that case, I would say it depends on the parameters of the
> model.
> Some settings yield swarms that break symmetry in linear momentum and move
> at a
> constant rate in a given direction. Other settings in a model yield more
> stationary swarms that buzz around much like gnats around a light. These
> swarms
> may exhibit random-walk dynamics.
>
> FWIW, We have a swarm model/visualization at
> http://www.redfish.com/projects/SwarmEffects/ where you can vary agent
> behaviors
> to get different macro swarms. Focus on changing the "Average Position",
> "Avoid"
> and "Average Direction" sliders. These sliders weight how much a given
> behavior
> contributes to a summed vector that is an agent's next move.
>
> -Steve
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Stephen Guerin [mailto:stephen.guerin at redfish.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 11:55 PM
> > To: sy at synapse9.com; 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity
> > Coffee Group'
> > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Do you know? Do 'swarms' follow random walks?
> >
> > Hi Phil,
> >
> > > Has anyone checked to see if any alife 'swarms' display
> > accumulative
> > > variance?
> >
> > I haven't come across the term 'accumulative variance'
> > before. Do you have a web pointer?
> >
> > As a swarm organizes, the agents' directions and velocities
> > become more correlated with each other. ie agents become more
> > constrained as they lose degrees of freedom. Would you
> > interpret this to be decreasing variance?
> >
> > -Steve
> >
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Phil Henshaw [mailto:sy at synapse9.com]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 8:24 PM
> > > To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
> > > Subject: [FRIAM] Do you know? Do 'swarms' follow random walks?
> > >
> > > Has anyone checked to see if any alife 'swarms' display
> > accumulative
> > > variance?
> > >
> > > If you were to design one to do that, would it have a structure
> > > comparable to populations of organisms living in ecologies?
> > >
> > > -In case anyone's curious I have a high quality direct measure of
> > > accumulative variance.
> > >
> > >
> > > Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > > 680 Ft. Washington Ave
> > > NY NY 10040
> > > tel: 212-795-4844
> > > e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com
> > > explorations: www.synapse9.com
> > >
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: friam-bounces at redfish.com
> > > > [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Phil Henshaw
> > > > Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 8:30 PM
> > > > To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
> > > > Subject: [FRIAM] nature walks!
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > I am dually impressed at Amazon's ability to know what
> > > undergarments
> > > > it's random visitors might be advised to
> > > > try....:) (just marvelous!) but still I have some questions about
> > > > reality 101.
> > > >
> > > > If molecules in thermal motion follow random walks, do
> > > fluids composed
> > > > of molecules in thermal motion do so as well?   I've run into the
> > > > strangest confusion among Darwinian theorists, both from
> > > journals of
> > > > paleontology and evolutionary biology.  I have a quite good paper
> > > > that's unpublishable because I stick my neck out to say
> > populations
> > > > have no non-extraordinary mechanisms for changing by random walks.
> > > >
> > > > a) am I wrong and there are some?   a.1)clue me in..
> > > > b) do you know a journal for people literate in evolution
> > > theory that
> > > > might be willing to consider the issue based on physical
> > mechanisms?
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
> > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > > > 680 Ft. Washington Ave
> > > > NY NY 10040
> > > > tel: 212-795-4844
> > > > e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com
> > > > explorations: www.synapse9.com
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > ============================================================
> > > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at
> > > > cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives,
> > unsubscribe, maps at
> > > > http://www.friam.org
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ============================================================
> > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays
> > 9a-11:30 at cafe
> > > at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
> > > http://www.friam.org
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > ============================================================
> > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
> >
> >
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
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Do you know? Do 'swarms' follow random walks?

James Steiner
In reply to this post by Phil Henshaw-2
On 9/6/06, Phil Henshaw <sy at synapse9.com> wrote:
> Has anyone checked to see if any alife 'swarms' display accumulative
> variance?
>
> If you were to design one to do that, would it have a structure
> comparable to populations of organisms living in ecologies?

One of my models, "chain-of-fools" is a swarm where the members simply
try to follow each other--rather, each follows one specific other, in
a chain. But with some settings, the group does some interesting
things, including random-walk like movement. I think some of it has to
do with rounding errors in the math, but it's still interesing.

http://www.turtlezero.com/models/models.php?model=chain-of-fools

If it weren't for the boundaries of the screen, the chain would travel
all over. Would this count?

~~James
_____________________
http://www.turtlezero.com


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Do you know? Do 'swarms' follow random walks?

Phil Henshaw-2
In reply to this post by Robert Holmes
I'm using the definitions used to study Darwinian evolution, which may
slightly differ from yours.  I'm not sure.   There the term describes
random variation that is accumulative, such as the endpoint of a random
process is considered as the beginning point for the next iteration of
the same random process.   It's is said to be modeled on Brownian
motion.  
 
My problem is that the current standard for evolution theory is to
assume that populations vary by random walks under this definition too.
I'm saying, wait a minute. Individual particles of dust, and molecules,
may bounce randomly and subsequent paths may be an accumulation of the
mean free paths of those random events, but a glass of water doesn't
behave like one of its molecules.    There you've got a larger system,
and evolution theory seems to ignore that to the point they are quite
unable to get the idea of considering the physical feasibility of their
default assumption.  
 
I see the problem of population random walk as being that you'd have to
explain how that might feasibly result as the sum of all the
progressions of its members.   The statistics are crystal clear that the
mean value of any property of a population of individuals displaying
random walk in that property does not change at all.   The collection of
random walks moves equally in all directions.   They people who use the
idea don't want to talk about that.    I think the only way a population
can produce a random walk is if all its members are closely following
some third variable that happens to have a mean free path and random
interactions....
 
I wrote a couple papers on it in relation to reconstructing the shapes
of processes underlying data curves:
methods -http://www.synapse9.com/fdcs-ph99-1.pdf
application-http://www.synapse9.com/GTRevis-2006fin.pdf, but can't get
the latter one published on this and similar objections.... just not the
way 'we' think seems to be the problem, and I'm trying to double check
to make sure I'm not nuts or just missing something.

Phil


Phil,

Following on from Steve's comments, the mean distance of a
randomly-walking point from its origin is of the order sqrt(N) where N
is the number of steps in its walk. Steve's flocks don't exhibit this
behaviour, so it's safe to say that no, swarms do not generally display
random walk behaviour.

Robert


On 9/7/06, Stephen Guerin <stephen.guerin at redfish.com> wrote:

Phil,

I now see where 'accumulated variance' is used in the context of
Principal
Components Analysis where it represents how much of the variance is
explained by
a set of component vectors. Is this how you're using the term?

Given this usage, I would guess that if you described the agents' states
with
position and velocity vectors, a given number of principal components
would have
increasing accumulated variance as the swarm becomes more organized.

Or, perhaps you are talking about describing the motion of the swarm as
a single
entity? In that case, I would say it depends on the parameters of the
model.
Some settings yield swarms that break symmetry in linear momentum and
move at a
constant rate in a given direction. Other settings in a model yield more
stationary swarms that buzz around much like gnats around a light. These
swarms
may exhibit random-walk dynamics.

FWIW, We have a swarm model/visualization at
http://www.redfish.com/projects/SwarmEffects/ where you can vary agent
behaviors
to get different macro swarms. Focus on changing the "Average Position",
"Avoid"
and "Average Direction" sliders. These sliders weight how much a given
behavior
contributes to a summed vector that is an agent's next move.

-Steve



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephen Guerin [mailto:stephen.guerin at redfish.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 11:55 PM
> To: sy at synapse9.com  <mailto:sy at synapse9.com> ; 'The Friday Morning
Applied Complexity

> Coffee Group'
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Do you know? Do 'swarms' follow random walks?
>
> Hi Phil,
>
> > Has anyone checked to see if any alife 'swarms' display
> accumulative
> > variance?
>
> I haven't come across the term 'accumulative variance'
> before. Do you have a web pointer?
>
> As a swarm organizes, the agents' directions and velocities
> become more correlated with each other. ie agents become more
> constrained as they lose degrees of freedom. Would you
> interpret this to be decreasing variance?
>
> -Steve
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Phil Henshaw [mailto:sy at synapse9.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 8:24 PM
> > To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
> > Subject: [FRIAM] Do you know? Do 'swarms' follow random walks?
> >
> > Has anyone checked to see if any alife 'swarms' display
> accumulative
> > variance?
> >
> > If you were to design one to do that, would it have a structure
> > comparable to populations of organisms living in ecologies?
> >
> > -In case anyone's curious I have a high quality direct measure of
> > accumulative variance.
> >
> >
> > Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > 680 Ft. Washington Ave
> > NY NY 10040
> > tel: 212-795-4844
> > e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com
> > explorations: www.synapse9.com
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: friam-bounces at redfish.com
> > > [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Phil Henshaw
> > > Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 8:30 PM
> > > To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
> > > Subject: [FRIAM] nature walks!
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > I am dually impressed at Amazon's ability to know what
> > undergarments
> > > it's random visitors might be advised to
> > > try....:) (just marvelous!) but still I have some questions about
> > > reality 101.
> > >
> > > If molecules in thermal motion follow random walks, do
> > fluids composed
> > > of molecules in thermal motion do so as well?   I've run into the
> > > strangest confusion among Darwinian theorists, both from
> > journals of
> > > paleontology and evolutionary biology.  I have a quite good paper
> > > that's unpublishable because I stick my neck out to say
> populations
> > > have no non-extraordinary mechanisms for changing by random walks.
> > >
> > > a) am I wrong and there are some?   a.1)clue me in..
> > > b) do you know a journal for people literate in evolution
> > theory that
> > > might be willing to consider the issue based on physical
> mechanisms?
> > >
> > >
> > > Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > > 680 Ft. Washington Ave
> > > NY NY 10040
> > > tel: 212-795-4844
> > > e-mail: pfh at synapse9.com
> > > explorations: www.synapse9.com
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ============================================================
> > > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at
> > > cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives,
> unsubscribe, maps at
> > > http://www.friam.org
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > ============================================================
> > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays
> 9a-11:30 at cafe
> > at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
> > http://www.friam.org
> >
> >
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
>


============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org



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