Complex systems require complex solutions and global problems require global thinking. The application of holistic analyses to complex adaptive systems obligates us to come up with solutions that are themselves complex adaptive systems. An evolutionary feedback loop is the only plausible way to align adaptive technical solutions with “real-world” volatility and uncertainty. Obtaining contextual tenure […]
Notice from the arc and trajectory of flow that it is adaptive, dynamic and as a complex, open system in constant flux quite uncannily similar to a living entity. This is one among many instances of dynamical systems that indicate in their reflexive growth and endless iterative creativity that what might appear to be an […]
A favourite pastime of mine is sitting in cafes, reading relatively complex academic books and pondering deep thoughts. I consider the noise and distraction of my environment as resistance training, as an incentive to concentrate mental focus upon the hidden layers of experience that dwell so intimately, viscerally and yet innocuously in these everyday moments, […]
The cognitive potential of any system is not so much a product of its informational architecture as it is a function of the dissipative dynamics that sustain it. This is where the black box of intelligence comes in – it is not so much a lack in our understanding of how the brain works, but […]
In general, people’s thinking is teleological and focused on specific details, rather than the big picture. This is due to the fact that people are distracted by individual instances and fail to see the overarching patterns that tie them together. As the hyper-extended cognition of (a) technology and communications system, language recursively shapes the way […]
It remains as something of an intractable and enigmatic fact that all systems of description, all linguistic artefacts and logical entities must conform in some way to the basic structure of a tautology. This in itself is an interesting enough conceptual waypoint but even while we find ourselves forever gazing into the half-mirrored labyrinths of […]
Context: A Gut Bacteria That Improves Memory in Bees The model of intelligence and cognition that is emerging is one in which all component processes, information and/or energy-processing (i.e. computational) sub-procedures and dependencies are contributing factors. The catch is that the sum total of all dependencies is uncountable and as unpalatable as this remains to […]
Truth is a mischievous beast. Everywhere asserted, almost nowhere justified and in those rare instances when it might have been said to have been proven or unambiguously defined, it requires we suspend ourselves on contraptions and hooks of such intricate complexity that it is quite easy to forget what we were initially discussing or seeking […]
Context: Superconducting Silicon-Photonic Chip Developed for Quantum Communication It is interesting that there really seems to be no best way of negotiating computation at this scale. The effervescing diversity of technical innovations in this context is instructive. Even as technology converges towards an accelerating point, it radiates out upon as many branches of technical speciation […]
Some fascinating video lectures from Jeff Lichtman of Harvard University on the topic of connectomics are linked below. The reflections on technological aspirations to machine intelligence are implicit. Connectomics: seeking neural circuit motifs • Brains are initially maximally interconnected as wired networks and it is the imprinting of experience that prunes this connectivity to more […]
Context: When and why did human brains decrease in size 3,000 years ago? Ants may hold clues If information processing and storage is offset to an environmental context, brain size becomes less important. I would probably ask the (corollary) question in this context as to the extent that cultural (as information processing and knowledge transmission) […]
Context: COP26: Bezos pledges $2bn for restoring nature Yes, thanks Jeff, but it is likely going to cost several orders of magnitude more than that to even begin to effect substantive systemic change. It is something of an unresolvable existential irony that it is precisely the system(s) of value and wealth that we so viscerally […]
Daedelus Kite 