Affective Field Theory of Emotion

 "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love. Albert Einstein"

While developing a philosophical understanding of emotion it has come to mind that research over the years has provided a model consideration for understanding the valence affect. This valence affect with regard to the Decision making process that from a cognitive standpoint is inclusive of logical and emotive forces. This process was a long one in which I thought to place ourselves,  in terms of a self evident point of expression,  so as to suggest,  the next question rests on a Inductive realization with which the history has thus far been explained.

So the totality of this entry is an examination with regard to emotion and its necessity in the logic analysis approach to such a question. To what is self evident. To what is decisive.

The next step is always important.  So I had to demonstrate the current historical examination for what has been done with regard to emotion so that I could reveal some of the work that I had done in the years past.

 This work then is a stepping point toward a new and entertaining thought about what the next technologies might reveal about our emotive and logical state of being as we make our decisions with all that we had gained with in experience. So the next step is a series of posts that will reflect this attempt by me to objectify what has thought to been totally subjective and without regard.

"No aspect of our mental life is more important to the quality and meaning of our existence than emotions. They are what make life worth living, or sometimes ending. So it is not surprising that most of the great classical philosophers—Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza, Descartes, Hobbes, Hume—had recognizable theories of emotion, conceived as responses to certain sorts of events of concern to a subject, triggering bodily changes and typically motivating characteristic behavior. What is surprising is that in much of the twentieth-century philosophers of mind and psychologists tended to neglect them—perhaps because the sheer variety of phenomena covered by the word “emotion” and its closest neighbors tends to discourage tidy theory. In recent years, however, emotions have once again become the focus of vigorous interest in philosophy, as well as in other branches of cognitive science. In view of the proliferation of increasingly fruitful exchanges between researchers of different stripes, it is no longer useful to speak of the philosophy of emotion in isolation from the approaches of other disciplines, particularly psychology, neurology, evolutionary biology, and even economics. While it is quite impossible to do justice to those approaches here, some sidelong glances in their direction will aim to suggest their philosophical importance. de Sousa, Ronald, "Emotion", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),"

"If the view that emotions are a kind of perception can be sustained, then the connection between emotion and cognition will have been secured. But there is yet another way of establishing this connection, compatible with the perceptual model. This is to draw attention to the role of emotions as providing the framework for cognitions of the more conventional kind. de Sousa (1987) and Amélie Rorty (1980) propose this sort of account, according to which emotions are not so much perceptions as they are ways of seeing—species of determinate patterns of salience among objects of attention, lines of inquiry, and inferential strategies (see also Roberts 2003).de Sousa, Ronald, "Emotion", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Emotion"

.

"Under the Heading of #6. Perceptual Theories-A crucial mandate of cognitivist theories is to avert the charge that emotions are merely “subjective.” But propositional attitudes are not the only cognitive states. A more basic feature of cognition is that is has a “mind-to-world direction of fit.” The expression is meant to sum up the contrast between cognition and the conative orientation, in which success is defined in terms of the opposite, world-to-mind, direction of fit (Searle 1983). We will or desire what does not yet exist, and deem ourselves successful if the world is brought into line with the mind's plan

The exploration of questions raised by these characteristics is a thriving ongoing collaborative project in the theory of emotions, in which philosophy will continue both to inform and to draw on a wide range of philosophical expertise as well as the parallel explorations of other branches of cognitive science. Conclusion: Adequacy Conditions on Philosophical Theories of Emotion -de Sousa, Ronald, "Emotion", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Emotion"

"Thus, secondary reflection is one important aspect of our access to the self. It is the properly philosophical mode of reflection because, in Marcel's view, philosophy must return to concrete situations if it is to merit the name “philosophy.” These difficult reflections are “properly philosophical” insofar as they lead to a more truthful, more intimate communication with both myself and with any other person whom these reflections include (Marcel 1951a, pp. 79–80). Secondary reflection, which recoups the unity of experience, points the way toward a fuller understanding of the participation alluded to in examples of the mysterious.Primary and Secondary Reflection-Treanor, Brian, "Gabriel (-Honoré) Marcel", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), forthcoming Marcel Gabriele."

"Early decision theorists recognized the importance of emotion and discussed it in detail (e.g., Bentham, 1789; Jevons, 1871; Smith, 1759). Nevertheless, emotions did not make it into decision research because they were seen as intrinsically unstable and unpredictable, partly because they could not be measured objectively. Today, most problems with unpredictability and immeasurability of emotions have been solved. Emotions can be reliably measured in various verbal (e.g., via rating scales) and non-verbal ways (e.g., via FACS or facial EMG’s; Larsen & Fredrickson, 1999; Parrott, & Hertel, 1999). More- over, the impact of emotion on behavior is actually sim- pler and more systematic than previously thought. Emo- tions behave lawfully (Frijda, 1988, 2006), and their con- sequences are clear, stable and quite predictable. This has opened up opportunities for an integrative account of the different emotional influences on decision making. We present such an account in this article.On emotion specificity in decision making: Why feeling is for doing-(PDF) Marcel Zeelenberg∗1, Rob M. A. Nelissen1, Seger M. Breugelmans2, & Rik Pieters3 1 Department of Social Psychology and TIBER, Tilburg University 2 Department of Developmental, Clinical and Cross-cultural Psychology, Tilburg University 3 Department of Marketing and TIBER, Tilburg University"

 

"We can now restate our opening questions. Is the special felt qualitative tendency in valence, as it is structurally represented in descriptive theories, an intrinsic feature of emotion experience as such; that is, something that exists prior to the self-reports that describe it? Or is it instead created and structured by features of second-order awareness, such as these self- reports? The argument here is that valence is created by attention in sec- ond-order awareness. There is nothing scientifically objective or precise that we can say about valence apart from its elaboration in second-order awareness. Second-order awareness does not create the underlying phenomenology of emotion experience, but it does shape and articulate what exactly it means to us. This conclusion would appear to threaten the scientific foundation of descriptive theories of affect, because it undermines the objectivity of the phenomenon they claim to study. It also contradicts the driving assumption of several dominant neuroscientific theories of valence, according to which valence is an intrinsic objective property of affective experience.Emotion Experience and the Indeterminacy of Valence by LOUIS C. CHARLAND"

 "Emotions are the key to the human decision making processes since decisions and actions are primary irrational and not cognitive-The Emotions in Emotions Analytics"

" The sort of mental processes described as cognitive are largely influenced by research which has successfully used this paradigm in the past, likely starting with Thomas Aquinas, who divided the study of behavior into two broad categories: cognitive (how we know the world), and affective (how we understand the world via feelings and emotions)[disputed ].[citation needed] Consequently, this description tends to apply to processes such as memory, association, concept formation, pattern recognition, language, attention, perception, action, problem solving and mental imagery.[14][15] Traditionally, emotion was not thought of as a cognitive process. This division is now regarded as largely artificial, and much research is currently being undertaken to examine the cognitive psychology of emotion; research also includes one's awareness of one's own strategies and methods of cognition called metacognition and includes metamemory. 

Research into cognition is usually scientific and quantitative, or involves creating models to describe or explain certain behaviors. Cognition"

***

 The part of the body in which the soul directly exercises its functions is not the heart at all, or the whole of the brain. It is rather the innermost part of the brain, which is a certain very small gland situated in the middle of the brain's substance and suspended above the passage through which the spirits in the brain's anterior cavities communicate with those in its posterior cavities. The slightest movements on the part of this gland may alter very greatly the course of these spirits, and conversely any change, however slight, taking place in the course of the spirits may do much to change the movements of the gland” (AT XI:351, CSM I:340). The Passions of the Soul "

 "The word endocrine derives from the Greek words ἐνδο- endo- "inside, within," and κρίνειν krinein "to separate, distinguish".Endocrine system -"

 "The thymus was known to the ancient Greeks, and its name comes from the Greek word θυμός (thumos), meaning "anger",[22] or "heart, soul, desire, life", possibly because of its location in the chest, near where emotions are subjectively felt; or else the name comes from the herb thyme (also in Greek θύμος or θυμάρι), which became the name for a "warty excrescence", possibly due to its resemblance to a bunch of thyme Thymus -"

"The James–Lange theory has remained influential. Its main contribution is the emphasis it places on the embodiment of emotions, especially the argument that changes in the bodily concomitants of emotions can alter their experienced intensity. Most contemporary neuroscientists would endorse a modified James–Lange view in which bodily feedback modulates the experience of emotion." (p. 583)James–Lange theory -"

"Phillip Bard contributed to the theory with his work on animals. Bard found that sensory, motor, and physiological information all had to pass through the diencephalon (particularly the thalamus), before being subjected to any further processing. Therefore, Cannon also argued that it was not anatomically possible for sensory events to trigger a physiological response prior to triggering conscious awareness and emotional stimuli had to trigger both physiological and experiential aspects of emotion simultaneously.[33]Cannon–Bard theory -"

"Maranon found that most of these patients felt something but in the absence of an actual emotion-evoking stimulus, the patients were unable to interpret their physiological arousal as an experienced emotion. Schachter did agree that physiological reactions played a big role in emotions. He suggested that physiological reactions contributed to emotional experience by facilitating a focused cognitive appraisal of a given physiologically arousing event and that this appraisal was what defined the subjective emotional experience. Emotions were thus a result of two-stage process: general physiological arousal, and experience of emotion.Two-factor theory -"

 ***

TEDxSF - Roz Picard - Emotion Technology -http://youtu.be/ujxriwApPP4

Empatica is an affective computing company, focused on human data analytics. We develop groundbreaking wearable devices with medical quality sensing.- "  Skin conductance response in regular subjects differs when given fair and unfair offers, respectively. However, psychopaths have been shown to have no difference in skin conductance between fair and unfair offers.[2] This may indicate that the use of lie detectors relying on skin conductivity gives psychopaths an advantage that non-psychopaths do not have in criminal investigations.-"  "Whether scientific method is at all suited for the study of the subjective aspect of emotion, feelings, is a question for philosophy of science and epistemology. In practise, the use of self-report (i.e. questionnaires) has been widely adopted by researchers. Additionally, web-based research is being used to conduct large-scale studies on the components of happiness for example. Alongside this researchers also use fMRI, EEG and physiological measures of skin conductance, muscle tension and hormone secretion. This hybrid approach should allow researchers to gradually pinpoint the affective phenomenon. There are also a few commercial systems available that claim to measure emotions, for instance using automated video analysis (nViso) or skin conductance (Affectiva).Affective Science -" " Founded in 2011, Nymi is a spinoff from the University of Toronto, focused on delivering unique and usable digital identity solutions. The company's first product is the Nymi Band, a wearable technology device that delivers Persistent Identity experiences by using the wearer's unique electric cardiac signature as a biometric. Nymi is proudly based in Toronto and is privately-funded by Ignition Partners, Relay Ventures, MasterCard and Salesforce Ventures. http://www.nymi.com/news/now-nymi/" "Affective computing is the study and development of systems and devices that can recognize, interpret, process, and simulate human affects. It is an interdisciplinary field spanning computer science, psychology, and cognitive science.[1] While the origins of the field may be traced as far back as to early philosophical enquiries into emotion,[2] the more modern branch of computer science originated with Rosalind Picard's 1995 paper[3] on affective computing.[4][5] A motivation for the research is the ability to simulate empathy. The machine should interpret the emotional state of humans and adapt its behaviour to them, giving an appropriate response for those emotions.Affective Computing -" The advances made and put forth here paint a different picture then the one assumed here in regard to the development of emotions that work toward identifying innate characteristics of the person? As well, as factors that are now discernible physiologically with regard to the economics of barter and trade. This observation goes back to principle inherent in wireless communication(as fractal antennas) and the work of Benoit Mandelbrot who brought forward through recognition, its utilization of fractals and development by Seth Cohen.  *** " In view of the proliferation of increasingly fruitful exchanges between researchers of different stripes, it is no longer useful to speak of the philosophy of emotion in isolation from the approaches of other disciplines, particularly psychology, neurology, evolutionary biology, and even economics.  Twentieth-century Anglo-American philosophy and psychology tended to incorporate emotions into other, better understood mental categories. Under the influence of a “tough-minded” ideology committed to behaviorism, it seemed easier to look for adequate theories of action or will, as well as theories of belief or knowledge, than to construct adequate theories of emotion. Economic models of rational decision and agency inspired by Bayesian theory are essentially assimilative models, viewing emotion either as a species of belief, or as a species of desire. That enviably resilient Bayesian model has been cracked, in the eyes of many philosophers, by such refractory phenomena as akrasia or “weakness of will.” In cases of akrasia, traditional descriptive rationality seems to be violated, insofar as the “strongest” desire does not win, even when paired with the appropriate belief (Davidson 1980). Emotion is ready to pick up the slack. Recent work, often drawing support from the burgeoning study of the emotional brain, has recognised that while emotions typically involve both cognitive and conative states, they are distinct from both, if only in being significantly more complex. Emotion- de Sousa, Ronald, "Emotion", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)"  "The subjective theory of value is a theory of value which advances the idea that the value of a good is not determined by any inherent property of the good, nor by the amount of labor required to produce the good, but instead value is determined by the importance an acting individual places on a good for the achievement of their desired ends- In the philosophy of decision theory, Bayesian inference is closely related to discussions of subjective probability, often called "Bayesian probability". Bayesian probability provides a rational method for updating beliefs. Bayesian epistemology is an epistemological movement that uses techniques of Bayesian inference as a means of justifying the rules of inductive logic.Bayesian Inference"  "Decision theory in economics, psychology, philosophy, mathematics, and statistics is concerned with identifying the values, uncertainties and other issues relevant in a given decision, its rationality, and the resulting optimal decision. It is closely related to the field of game theory as to interactions of agents with at least partially conflicting interests whose decisions affect each other. Decision  Theory -" "In economics, the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, emotions are analyzed in some sub-fields of microeconomics, in order to assess the role of emotions on purchase decision-making and risk perception Disciplinary approaches -"   "Broadly speaking, there are two views on Bayesian probability that interpret the 'probability' concept in different ways. For objectivists, probability objectively measures the plausibility of propositions, i.e. the probability of a proposition corresponds to a reasonable belief everyone (even a "robot") sharing the same knowledge should share in accordance with the rules of Bayesian statistics, which can be justified by requirements of rationality and consistency.[2][5] Requirements of rationality and consistency are also important for subjectivists, for which the probability corresponds to a 'personal belief'.[6] For subjectivists however, rationality and consistency constrain the probabilities a subject may have, but allow for substantial variation within those constraints. The objective and subjective variants of Bayesian probability differ mainly in their interpretation and construction of the prior probability.Objective and subjective Bayesian probabilities -" *** "Contemporary analytic philosophers of mind generally use the term “belief” to refer to the attitude we have, roughly, whenever we take something to be the case or regard it as true. To believe something, in this sense, needn't involve actively reflecting on it: Of the vast number of things ordinary adults believe, only a few can be at the fore of the mind at any single time. Nor does the term “belief”, in standard philosophical usage, imply any uncertainty or any extended reflection about the matter in question (as it sometimes does in ordinary English usage). Many of the things we believe, in the relevant sense, are quite mundane: that we have heads, that it's the 21st century, that a coffee mug is on the desk. Forming beliefs is thus one of the most basic and important features of the mind, and the concept of belief plays a crucial role in both philosophy of mind and epistemology.Belief -"  Forming beliefs is thus one of the most basic and important features of the mind, and the concept of belief plays a crucial role in both philosophy of mind and epistemology. The “mind-body problem”, for example, so central to philosophy of mind, is in part the question of whether and how a purely physical organism can have beliefs. Much of epistemology revolves around questions about when and how our beliefs are justified or qualify as knowledge. Belief -  Nevertheless, many contemporary philosophers of science and analytic philosophers are strongly critical of Popper's philosophy of science.[14] Popper's mistrust of inductive reasoning has led to claims that he misrepresents scientific practice. Among the professional philosophers of science, the Popperian view has never been seriously preferred to probabilistic induction, which is the mainstream account of scientific reasoning.Falsifiability - See also: The Logic of Scientific Discovery (PDF)

Plinko and the Galton(quincunx) Board

See Plinko Probability 2.02 

A working replica of the machine  

(following a slightly modified design.)

There is this randomness that seems to take hold over my thoughts regarding probability. The thoughts question how we can even know with certainty when something is going end in a result.  To know this before hand.

In a way this is what drew me to outcomes  seen and expressed as scenarios given in context of Game theory in terms of negotiation.  I would like to give a little shout out to the work John Baez is doing in that regard.

Predicting economic events with some certainty(?) and here the questions of Nassim Taleb and the Black Swan raises its head again. Fractal Antennas. A lot of things have elevated the discussion for me as to wonder how we have graduated  to a degree to a level of perception that was not so obvious before.

Both the theorists and the experimentalists looked only at the pile of tokens that landed in a particular slot at the bottom of the Plinko board. While the experimentalists had a set of guidelines about how the tokens should have gotten there and excluded any tokens that didn’t follow the rules, the theorists didn’t care as much about that. They were primarily concerned with the mass of the initial particles, the mass of the final particles and the ratio between them.

When the initial massive particles decay into lighter ones, the total energy must be conserved. Sometimes this energy goes missing; if the missing energy adds up to a certain amount, it could mean that a supersymmetric particle carried it away without being detected.See:Keep it simple, SUSY

It also deals with Particle physics and collision processes as the link suggests at the bottom of this entry. So it seems we are getting some kind of hold on this probability and outcome in terms of what was a random act can now become specific and predictable.

If you get the opportunity to watch the latest show of Touch I thought it interesting,  as I see this fellow searching all over for a machine that is mechanical and not electronic,  to use for a project for Amelia.

What is capture in the picture here below is what made this interesting. While a fictional story,  Amelia is capable of being able to determine the randomness of a dropped ball,  even before the result is known. This kidnapping is somehow recognized as a necessary evil when taking Amelia. They want to teach another computer to be able track the neurons as she relays the pockets with which the balls drop as some underlying algorithmic process sequencing.

 

The idea for me while it is nice it is so plain that we could map such an abstract mind to have encompassed such probabilities. It is again with such forth sight that I came to such a vision as an  encompassing one, held above such statistics.  Natures way. If you must, a overlord position using the recognition of Powers of ten,  for as such a view is to contain,  all must contain such outcomes.

So this part of this post is not finished, as ideas will spring up as people and scientists talk about different things. For me,  it is about seeing these "abstract things" as viable entries into the recognizable as functions of our everyday lives.

See Also:

• TVO S James Gates on Does Reality have a Genetic Basis

• Plinko Sounds a Bit like the Galton Board

What is Life?

WHAT IS LIFE? ERWIN SCHRODINGER

First published 1944 What is life? 

The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell. Based on lectures delivered under the auspices of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies at Trinity College, Dublin, in February 1943.

What Is Life? is a 1944 non-fiction science book written for the lay reader by physicist Erwin Schrödinger. The book was based on a course of public lectures delivered by Schrödinger in February 1943, under the auspices of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies at Trinity College, Dublin. The lectures attracted an audience of about 400, who were warned "that the subject-matter was a difficult one and that the lectures could not be termed popular, even though the physicist’s most dreaded weapon, mathematical deduction, would hardly be utilized."^[1] Schrödinger's lecture focused on one important question: "how can the events in space and time which take place within the spatial boundary of a living organism be accounted for by physics and chemistry?"^[1]

In the book, Schrödinger introduced the idea of an "aperiodic crystal" that contained genetic information in its configuration of covalent chemical bonds. In the 1950s, this idea stimulated enthusiasm for discovering the genetic molecule. Although the existence of DNA had been known since 1869, its role in reproduction and its helical shape were still unknown at the time of Schrödinger's lecture. In retrospect, Schrödinger's aperiodic crystal can be viewed as a well-reasoned theoretical prediction of what biologists should have been looking for during their search for genetic material. Both James D. Watson,^[2] and independently, Francis Crick, co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, credited Schrödinger's book with presenting an early theoretical description of how the storage of genetic information would work, and each respectively acknowledged the book as a source of inspiration for their initial researches.^[3]

Contents 1 Background 2 Content 3 Schrödinger's "paradox" 4 See also 5 References 5.1 Other cited literature 6 External links

Background

The book is based on lectures delivered under the auspices of the Institute at Trinity College, Dublin, in February 1943 and published in 1944. At that time DNA was not yet accepted as the carrier of hereditary information, which only was the case after the Hershey–Chase experiment of 1952. One of the most successful branches of physics at this time was statistical physics, and quantum mechanics, a theory which is also very statistical in its nature. Schrödinger himself is one of the founding fathers of quantum mechanics.
Max Delbrück's thinking about the physical basis of life was an important influence on Schrödinger.^[4] Geneticist and 1946 Nobel-prize winner H.J. Muller had in his 1922 article "Variation due to Change in the Individual Gene"^[5] already laid out all the basic properties of the heredity molecule that Schrödinger derives from first principles in What is Life?, properties which Muller refined in his 1929 article "The Gene As The Basis of Life"^[6] and further clarified during the 1930s, long before the publication of What is Life?^{[7] [verification needed]} But the role of the macromolecule DNA as the genetic material was not yet suspected in 1929, rather, some form of protein was expected to be the genetic material at that time.

Content

In chapter I, Schrödinger explains that most physical laws on a large scale are due to chaos on a small scale. He calls this principle "order-from-disorder." As an example he mentions diffusion, which can be modeled as a highly ordered process, but which is caused by random movement of atoms or molecules. If the number of atoms is reduced, the behaviour of a system becomes more and more random. He states that life greatly depends on order and that a naive physicist may assume that the master code of a living organism has to consist of a large number of atoms.

In chapter II and III, he summarizes what was known at this time about the hereditary mechanism. Most importantly, he elaborates the important role mutations play in evolution. He concludes that the carrier of hereditary information has to be both small in size and permanent in time, contradicting the naive physicist's expectation. This contradiction cannot be resolved by classical physics.

In chapter IV, Schrödinger presents molecules, which are indeed stable even if they consist of only a few atoms, as the solution. Even though molecules were known before, their stability could not be explained by classical physics, but is due to the discrete nature of quantum mechanics. Furthermore mutations are directly linked to quantum leaps.
He continues to explain, in chapter V, that true solids, which are also permanent, are crystals. The stability of molecules and crystals is due to the same principles and a molecule might be called "the germ of a solid." On the other hand an amorphous solid, without crystalline structure, should be regarded as a liquid with a very high viscosity. Schrödinger believes the heredity material to be a molecule, which unlike a crystal does not repeat itself. He calls this an aperiodic crystal. The aperiodic nature allows to encode an almost infinite number of possibilities with a small number of atoms. He finally compares this picture with the known facts and finds it in accordance with them.
In chapter VI Schrödinger states:

...living matter, while not eluding the "laws of physics" as established up to date, is likely to involve "other laws of physics" hitherto unknown, which however, once they have been revealed, will form just as integral a part of science as the former.

He knows that this statement is open to misconception and tries to clarify it. The main principle involved with "order-from-disorder" is the second law of thermodynamics, according to which entropy only increases in a closed system (such as the universe). Schrödinger explains that living matter evades the decay to thermodynamical equilibrium by homeostatically maintaining negative entropy (today this quantity is called information^[8]) in an open system.

In chapter VII, he maintains that "order-from-order" is not absolutely new to physics; in fact, it is even simpler and more plausible. But nature follows "order-from-disorder", with some exceptions as the movement of the celestial bodies and the behaviour of mechanical devices such as clocks. But even those are influenced by thermal and frictional forces. The degree to which a system functions mechanically or statistically depends on the temperature. If heated, a clock ceases to function, because it melts. Conversely, if the temperature approaches absolute zero, any system behaves more and more mechanically. Some systems approach this mechanical behaviour rather fast with room temperature already being practically equivalent to absolute zero.

Schrödinger concludes this chapter and the book with philosophical speculations on determinism, free will, and the mystery of human consciousness. He believes he must reconcile two premises: (1) the body fully obeys the laws of quantum mechanics, where quantum indeterminacy plays no important role except to increase randomness at the quantum scale; and (2) there is "incontrovertible direct experience" that we freely direct our bodies, can predict outcomes, and take responsibility for our choice of action. Schrödinger rejects the idea that the source of consciousness should perish with the body because he finds the idea "distasteful". He also rejects the idea that there are multiple immortal souls that can exist without the body because he believes that consciousness is nevertheless highly dependent on the body. Schrödinger writes that, to reconcile the two premises,

The only possible alternative is simply to keep to the immediate experience that consciousness is a singular of which the plural is unknown; that there is only one thing and that what seems to be a plurality is merely a series of different aspects of this one thing...

Any intuitions that consciousness is plural, he says, are illusions. Schrödinger is sympathetic to the Hindu concept of Brahman, by which each individual's consciousness is only a manifestation of a unitary consciousness pervading the universe - which corresponds to the Hindu concept of God. Schrödinger concludes that "...'I' -am the person, if any, who controls the 'motion of the atoms' according to the Laws of Nature. However, he also qualifies the conclusion as "necessarily subjective" in its "philosophical implications." In the final paragraph, he points out that what is meant by "I" is not the collection of experienced events but "namely the canvas upon which they are collected." If a hypnotist succeeds in blotting out all earlier reminiscences, he writes, there would be no loss of personal existence - "Nor will there ever be."^[9]

Schrödinger's "paradox"

In a world governed by the second law of thermodynamics, all isolated systems are expected to approach a state of maximum disorder. Since life approaches and maintains a highly ordered state - some argue that this seems to violate the aforementioned Second Law implicating a paradox. However, since life is not an isolated system, there is no paradox. The increase of order inside an organism is more than paid for by an increase in disorder outside this organism. By this mechanism, the Second Law is obeyed, and life maintains a highly ordered state, which it sustains by causing a net increase in disorder in the Universe. In order to increase the complexity on Earth - as life does - you need energy. Most of the energy for life here on Earth is provided by the Sun.

 

See also

• Entropy and life
• Gibbs free energy
• James D. Watson
• Quantum Aspects of Life

 

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Margulis, Lynn. & Sagan, Dorion. (1995). What Is Life? (pg. 1). Berkeley: University of California Press.
2. ^ Watson, James D. (2007), Avoid Boring People: (Lessons from a life in science), New York: Knopf, p. 353, ISBN 978-0-375-41284-4. Page 28 details how Watson came to appreciate the significance of the gene.
3. ^ Julian F. Derry (2004). "Book Review: What Is Life? By Erwin Schrödinger". Human Nature Review. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
4. ^ Dronamraju KR (November 1999). "Erwin Schrödinger and the origins of molecular biology". Genetics 153 (3): 1071–6. PMC 1460808. PMID 10545442.
5. ^ American Naturalist 56 (1922)
6. ^ Proceedings of the International Congress of Plant Sciences 1 (1929)
7. ^ Schwartz, James (2008). In Pursuit of the Gene. From Darwin to DNA. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-02670-4.
8. ^ Shannon, Claude; Weaver, Warren (1949), The Mathematical Theory of Communication, ISBN 0-252-72546-8
9. ^ Schrödinger references The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley as a "beautiful book" leveling with the view he has taken in the last chapter.

 

Other cited literature

• Erwin Schrödinger (1944), "What Is Life? : The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell". Based on lectures delivered under the auspices of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies at Trinity College, Dublin, in February 1943.

 

External links

• Österr. Zentralbibliothek für Physik Scan of the title and first part of the contents
• What-Is-Life PDF of What Is Life?
• The Book Page Text of What Is Life?
• Josef Seifert
• Lukas K. Buehler (2000-2007). "The physico-chemical basis of life". WhatIsLife.com. Retrieved 2007-10-22.
• (Italian) Critical interdisciplinary review of Schrödinger's "What Is life?"
• Review by Julian F. Derry
• Quantum Aspects of Life
• Schroedinger's influence on biology

See Also:

• Steve Hsu: Alice is Schrödinger's cat who may have fallen to a black hole
• James Weatherall: Physics of Wall Street

 

Fractals and Antennas and The Economy

 The intuitive framework has to recognize that you have already worked the angles and that such intuition is gathered from all that has been worked. This contradicts what you are saying. I am not saying it is right just that I have seen this perspective in development with regard to scientists as they push through the wall that has separated them from moving on. This then details a whole set of new parameters in which the thinking mind can move forward with proposals.

 
 I never quite could get the economy either, until I understood the idea of Fractals as a gesture of the underlying pattern of all of the economy in expression. Of course that is my point of view.  I might of called it the algorithm before.

 The idea here is that all thing are expression of the underlying pattern and you might call the end result psychology or sociology of thinking and life as a result.

 It seems that the accumulated reference of mind as a place in it's evolution is to see that all the statistical information is already parametrized by the judgements in which you give them personally?

 Ultimately this is the setting for which your conclusions guide your perspective, yet, it is when we look back, one can choose too, "guide their brain?"

If you did not pick it up, Benoit was able to reduce the economy too, and used an inductive deductive facility in regard to what is self evident. But I would point out what you might have interpreted as illusory in terms of the graph he sees on the board was instrumental to his penetrating the pattern in the economy.

Just raising the name of Nassim Nicholas Taleb and the idea of the Black Swan in relation to the basis of the economy Benoit raises deeper questions and does garner a look for me. I don't know what to expects is opening up the door to understanding more about such erudition's but they are with regard to the economy.

 Taleb was collaborating with Benoit Mandelbrot on a general theory of risk management Collaborations

A simple assumption about heads and tails, leads to bell curves and such?

Taleb, N. N. (2008) Edge article: Real Life is Not a Casino

So you are looking at both sides of the coin.

More on the Black Swan here.

 While these writings are disparate pieces, do they indeed come together under this post book review?? As a scientist and mathematics person are you not intrigued about "the pattern?" I was shocked.....yet is made sense.

Now Nassim adds dimension to the subject. "He calls for cancellation of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, saying that the damage from economic theories can be devastating".

Game theory if you know how it works it is used in all types of negotiation.

• The Black Swan

See Also:

• Process Fractal vs Geometry Fractals

Rara Avis in Terris Nigroque Simillima Cygno

Statistical and applied probabilistic knowledge is the core of knowledge; statistics is what tells you if something is true, false, or merely anecdotal; it is the "logic of science"; it is the instrument of risk-taking; it is the applied tools of epistemology; you can't be a modern intellectual and not think probabilistically—but... let's not be suckers. The problem is much more complicated than it seems to the casual, mechanistic user who picked it up in graduate school. Statistics can fool you. In fact it is fooling your government right now. It can even bankrupt the system (let's face it: use of probabilistic methods for the estimation of risks did just blow up the banking system).THE FOURTH QUADRANT: A MAP OF THE LIMITS OF STATISTICS [9.15.08]  By Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Nassim Nicholas Taleb - What is a "Black Swan?"

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SEE Also:

• The Black Swan 
• Plinko Sounds a Bit like the Galton Board

Plinko Sounds a Bit like the Galton Board

This independence created by philosophical insight is—in my opinion—the mark of distinction between a mere artisan or specialist and a real seeker after truth. (Einstein to Thornton, 7 December 1944, EA 61-574)
See also: Entheorizing

So nature has it's way in which it may express itself, yet, to settle on how such selections are parametrized in expression is to "know in advance" what you are looking for. How to approach it for the simplest summation of that event that may help one to arrive at a conclusion. So this procedure has done that.

The search looks at a class of events called jets plus missing energy – proton collisions that result in a shower of hadronic particles plus a stable, neutral particle that escapes detection – and ignores events that show signs of electrons or muons.See:Keep it simple, SUSY

This CMS event display from October 2010 captured a collision that produced very energetic jets - showers of particles that leave energy deposits in the detectors - and an exceptional amount of missing energy, represented by the blue line at the bottom left. Experimentalists and theorists are continuing to analyze collision events such as this one in search of new physics.(Image courtesy CMS/CERN.)

Both the theorists and the experimentalists looked only at the pile of tokens that landed in a particular slot at the bottom of the Plinko board. While the experimentalists had a set of guidelines about how the tokens should have gotten there and excluded any tokens that didn’t follow the rules, the theorists didn’t care as much about that. They were primarily concerned with the mass of the initial particles, the mass of the final particles and the ratio between them.

When the initial massive particles decay into lighter ones, the total energy must be conserved. Sometimes this energy goes missing; if the missing energy adds up to a certain amount, it could mean that a supersymmetric particle carried it away without being detected.See:Keep it simple, SUSY

So the coordination in thought process is to know what events help us to distinguish where such events allow for missing energy to be in evidence,  so as to direct our attention to that amount of energy that is missing.

This has been known for quite sometime, as to the dimensional significance of new areas of probability concerns, as to extend our rationalizations on extra dimensions of a space, that we have been to this point limited on explanations and sought after by those looking to explain the abstract world that as yet remains unseen other then in this venue.

Naysayers comment loudly on abstraction in mathematical explanations but it helps one to be able to know what space we are talking about so don't let them persuade you into thinking it's not worth the time or expense  of theoretical thought to venture into such areas as being irresponsible action around scientific thought.

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Black swan theory

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Black Swan theory)

A black swan, a member of the species Cygnus atratus, which remained undocumented until the eighteenth century

The Black Swan Theory or Theory of Black Swan Events is a metaphor that encapsulates the concept that The event is a surprise (to the observer) and has a major impact. After the fact, the event is rationalized by hindsight.

The theory was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain:

1. The disproportionate role of high-impact, hard to predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance and technology
2. The non-computability of the probability of the consequential rare events using scientific methods (owing to the very nature of small probabilities)
3. The psychological biases that make people individually and collectively blind to uncertainty and unaware of the massive role of the rare event in historical affairs

Unlike the earlier philosophical "black swan problem", the "Black Swan Theory" (capitalized) refers only to unexpected events of large magnitude and consequence and their dominant role in history. Such events, considered extreme outliers, collectively play vastly larger roles than regular occurrences.^[1]

See Also:The Black Swan

In this article I talk about the Demarcation problem:

The demarcation problem (or boundary problem[1]) in the philosophy of science is about how and where to draw the lines around science. The boundaries are commonly drawn between science and non-science, between science and pseudoscience, between science and philosophy and between science and religion.[2] A form of this problem, known as the generalized problem of demarcation subsumes all four cases.

After over a century of dialogue among philosophers of science and scientists in varied fields, and despite broad agreement on the basics of scientific method,[3] the boundaries between science and non-science continue to be debated.[4]

Hind sight dictates that the solution for consideration is parametrized by the selection and location where such events might be identified to help discern that such location exist in space

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Bean machine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The bean machine, as drawn by Sir Francis Galton

The bean machine, also known as the quincunx or Galton box, is a device invented by Sir Francis Galton to demonstrate the central limit theorem and the normal distribution.

The machine consists of a vertical board with interleaved rows of pins. Balls are dropped from the top, and bounce left and right as they hit the pins. Eventually, they are collected into one-ball-wide bins at the bottom. The height of ball columns in the bins approximates a bell curve.

Overlaying Pascal's triangle onto the pins shows the number of different paths that can be taken to get to each pin.

A large-scale working model of this device can be seen at the Museum of Science, Boston in the Mathematica exhibit.

Distribution of the balls

A working replica of the machine (following a slightly modified design.)

If a ball bounces to the right k times on its way down (and to the left on the remaining pins) it ends up in the kth bin counting from the left. Denoting the number of rows of pins in a bean machine by n, the number of paths to the kth bin on the bottom is given by the binomial coefficient . If the probability of bouncing right on a pin is p (which equals 0.5 on an unbiased machine) the probability that the ball ends up in the kth bin equals . This is the probability mass function of a binomial distribution.
According to the central limit theorem the binomial distribution approximates normal distribution provided that n, the number of rows of pins in the machine, is large.

Games

Several games have been developed utilizing the idea of pins changing the route of balls or other objects:

• Bagatelle
• Pachinko
• Plinko
• Payazzo
• Pazzo-lolo

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Galton box

• An 8-foot-tall (2.4 m) Probability Machine (named Sir Francis) comparing stock market returns to the randomness of the beans dropping through the quincunx pattern. from Index Funds Advisors IFA.com
• A simulation with explanations
• Another simulation from John Carroll University
• Quincunx and its relationship to normal distribution from Math Is Fun
• Dynamical turbulent flow on the Galton board with friction
• Animations for the Bean Machine by Yihui Xie using the R package animation

Follow Up to the Economic Manhattan Project

Dr.Conway,  I thought this might be helpful for you to see the whole works. Not often is perspective in science used to arise above what has been normally happening with the economy to see it in a new light. Imagine using the term "Economic Manhattan Project," for us to consider how seriously this undertaking is presented?

 

Photo by Steve Hsu->

The first photo is the morning panel discussion. From left to right, Eric Weinstein, Nouriel Roubini, Richard Freeman and Nassim Taleb.

The Economic Crisis and its Implications for The Science of Economics.

May 1 - 4, 2009
Perimeter Institute

Concerns over the current financial situation are giving rise to a need to evaluate the very mathematics that underpins economics as a predictive and descriptive science. A growing desire to examine economics through the lens of diverse scientific methodologies - including physics and complex systems - is making way to a meeting of leading economists and theorists of finance together with physicists, mathematicians, biologists and computer scientists in an effort to evaluate current theories of markets and identify key issues that can motivate new directions for research. Perimeter Institute was suggested to be the gathering point and conference organizers plan to foster a very careful, dispassionate discussion, in an atmosphere governed by the modesty and open mindedness that characterizes the scientific community.

The conference will begin on May 1, 2009, with a day of talks by leading experts to an invited audience on the status of economic and financial theory in light of the current situation. Three days of private, focused discussions and workshops will ensue, aimed at addressing complex questions and defining future research agendas for the world that can help address and resolve them.

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Perimeter posted some recommended reading as follows:

• Liquidity and Leverage
  September 2007
  Tobias Adrian and Hyun Song Shin


• An Historical Perspective On The Crisis Of 2007-2008
  Cambridge 2008
  Michael D. Bordo


• Origins and Responses to the Crisis
  Berkeley 2008
  Barry Eichengreen


• Information, Liquidity, And The (Ongoing) Panic Of 2007
  Cambridge 2009
  Gary B. Gorton


• Has Financial Development Made the World Riskier?
  September 2005
  Raghuram G. Rajan


• The Financial And The Policy Responses; An Empirical Analysis Of What Went Wrong
  Cambridge 2009
  John B. Taylor

***

This is a follow up to the conference that has already taken place.

PIRSA:C09006 - The Economic Crisis and It's Implications for The Science of Economics

The Perimeter Institute conference on economics is being organized in an effort to better evaluate the state of economics as a predictive and descriptive science in light of the current market crisis. We believe that this requires careful, dispassionate discussion, in an atmosphere governed by the modesty and open mindedness that characterizes the scientific community. To do this we aim to bring leading economists and theorists of finance together with physicists, mathematicians, biologists and computer scientists to evaluate current theories of markets, and identify key issues that can motivate new directions for research. The conference will begin on May 1, 2009, with a day of invited talks by leading experts to a public audience of around 200 on the status of economic and financial theory in light of the crisis. We will then continue for three days of focused discussion and workshops with an invited group of around 30, aimed at defining research agendas that address that question and beginning work on them. See: Welcome to the Economic Manhattan Project

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Let's keep the issue of economy alive here and the struggle between facets of our society that might develop perspective about a counter culture that exists. This was a inherent struggle diagnosed in Robert Pirsig and John Nash to show, that the ability of any society can become fraught with the struggle to be, always assertively saying who are are by name.

So to continue from the factual explorations science had undertaken, too the story of Angel and Daemons is to realize the struggle society can manifest with itself in an open dialogue with respect to position. It is about being aware first, then knowing that an emotive struggle is to be realized as the ever emotive charge seals memory to its place.

One cannot imagine the full scope with which might respond to criticism about a particular position and point of view. The lesson about Fear is an important one. This distinction needed to be seen in relation to what was being said and could have been mistakenly seen as so.

Yet, it should be noted that while not speaking directly to the fear or that it could it have been thought enduring too, by comment, it was never my intention. That such an action taken by scientist is an example in my books where science is working outside the box to help us see if they can add or change conceptual frameworks that are stuck in the current economic reality.

Learning about Pirsig's use in literary style about rhetoric and oration was a lesson in itself about what and who is speaking. It was about not being stagnant in view of, but taking on the challenge to bring new hope to a current treadmill that mice are running, or "busy bees" are working.

There is a distinction that I had come across in terms of Pessimism and Optimism. It seemingly shows the negative on the one hand, requires one to take stock of, while on the other half of the partnership, is to see that optimism is eventually reached.

One should know that if they take the proper steps in accounting, they can indeed see a brighter future. This in no way should be seen as "fear mongering," but of a responsibility to self and others to check the current situation and to act accordingly.

Of course, you might have seen some of my own pithy attempts at addition? These are listed under the label of Economics. They take to heart that seeing above the dilemma, is to see applicability that would not normally have been entertained.


Emotive Struggle

Is not something we can underscore without realizing the impact such emotions may have on a society as a whole. To see that the ideology of the struggle to become better persons, is to unshackle ourselves from those things which hold and bind us to our current, and existing state of mind. That such brief moments of the real you are the respite with which we seek to advance who we are, is to remind ourselves of the person by name we had become.

Are we then not in appearance locked in the battle to become "another person" amongst the struggles of dualism that perpetuate our continuing to run that wheel of life? It would seem then such "a Daemon" that would appear to exist as a counter culture to advancement, would keep us and forever keep us locked in that dualism. You see?

Seeing the images of emotively charge packets are but the process with which to forever remain in that cyclical universe. Is to realize that going "outside the box" is to shock the system and slap it into recognition of moving away from it's "normal attributive" position. If one were to imagine this cloud gathering itself around anyone, then it would have to appear that it always appeared at one spot continually, while the idea is to shift this perspective and shake it from what it has always known.

"Bag Model," for the Economy

“In this edition, as a fifth appendix, a presentation of my views on the problem of space in general and the gradual modifications of our ideas on space resulting from the influence of the relativistic view-point. I wished to show that space-time is not necessarily something to which one can ascribe a separate existence, independently of the actual objects of physical reality. Physical objects are not in space, but these objects are spatially extended. In this way the concept of “empty space” loses its meaning”. A. Einstein (June 9th, 1952)

Photo by Steve Hsu-

The first photo is the morning panel discussion. From left to right, Eric Weinstein, Nouriel Roubini, Richard Freeman and Nassim Taleb.

The Economic Crisis and its Implications for The Science of Economics.

May 1 - 4, 2009
Perimeter Institute

Concerns over the current financial situation are giving rise to a need to evaluate the very mathematics that underpins economics as a predictive and descriptive science. A growing desire to examine economics through the lens of diverse scientific methodologies - including physics and complex systems - is making way to a meeting of leading economists and theorists of finance together with physicists, mathematicians, biologists and computer scientists in an effort to evaluate current theories of markets and identify key issues that can motivate new directions for research. Perimeter Institute was suggested to be the gathering point and conference organizers plan to foster a very careful, dispassionate discussion, in an atmosphere governed by the modesty and open mindedness that characterizes the scientific community.

The conference will begin on May 1, 2009, with a day of talks by leading experts to an invited audience on the status of economic and financial theory in light of the current situation. Three days of private, focused discussions and workshops will ensue, aimed at addressing complex questions and defining future research agendas for the world that can help address and resolve them.

See: Reflections from PI’s economics conference, May 1-4 2009

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The economy is in a ideological struggle to be free:) The more you try to pull it apart the stronger it resists.:)But in a collision, what happens. The rest, you know about?:)

Jets Provide Evidence for Quark Confinement Models

Deep inelastic scattering experiments provided the evidence that the proton and neutron are made up of three more fundamental particles called quarks . One type of experiment in the proton-antiproton colliders produces jets of mesons which correlate with the models of quark confinement. As visualized in the bag model for quark confinement, an individual quark cannot be pulled free because the energy required to do it is much greater than the pair production energy of a quark-antiquark pair. If in a high energy collision, something scatters directly off one of the constituent quarks, it will give it a high energy. With an energy many times the pair production energy, it will create a jet of quark-antiquark pairs (mesons).

See:Evidence for Quark Theory

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At times the economy can flow quite easily, while other times, it resists. It is the elastic nature that defines the symbiotic relation of a cultural thinking about what the economy can actually permit, and what of itself, it shall not.

This is a "toposense" synesthesically imbued as relevant too, an expression of what can surround the "psychology of society?" What proof do I have that such thinking geometrically induced shall not find itself "in movement" as it is thought about, as well? Dynamically this was lead too. How one can move in straight lines and such, was moved to a new mode of thinking that excels toward a movement in thought. It is done, as if theoretically moved toward a QGP recognition of the dynamical recognition, as if, the theory of strings.

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See Also:

Coin, as a Constituent of Symmetry

The Other Side of the Coin

The Toposense of Spacetime

Topo-sense?