Key Concepts in Natural Computation and Complex Systems
Explore the concepts of natural computation, attractors, Wolfram's classes, energy surface, complex systems, interactions, and biased randomness in adaptive systems. Understand adaptability, response to noise, and global coordination in dynamic environments.
Download Presentation
Please find below an Image/Link to download the presentation.
The content on the website is provided AS IS for your information and personal use only. It may not be sold, licensed, or shared on other websites without obtaining consent from the author. If you encounter any issues during the download, it is possible that the publisher has removed the file from their server.
You are allowed to download the files provided on this website for personal or commercial use, subject to the condition that they are used lawfully. All files are the property of their respective owners.
The content on the website is provided AS IS for your information and personal use only. It may not be sold, licensed, or shared on other websites without obtaining consent from the author.
E N D
Presentation Transcript
VII. Review of Key Concepts 3/18/2025 1
Natural Computation Tolerance to noise, error, faults, damage Generality of response Flexible response to novelty Adaptability Real-time response Optimality is secondary 3/18/2025 2
Attractors Classes point attractor cyclic attractor chaotic attractor Basin of attraction Imprinted patterns as attractors pattern restoration, completion, generalization, association 3/18/2025 3
Wolframs Classes Class I: point Class II: cyclic Class III: chaotic Class IV: complex (edge of chaos) persistent state maintenance bounded cyclic activity global coordination of control & information order for free 3/18/2025 4
Energy / Fitness Surface Descent on energy surface / ascent on fitness surface Lyapunov theorem to prove asymptotic stability / convergence Soft constraint satisfaction / relaxation Gradient (steepest) ascent / descent Adaptation & credit assignment 3/18/2025 5
Complex Systems Many interacting elements Local vs. global order: entropy Scale (space, time) Phase space Difficult to understand Open systems 3/18/2025 6
Many Interacting Elements Massively parallel Distributed information storage & processing Diversity avoids premature convergence avoids inflexibility 3/18/2025 7
Complementary Interactions Positive feedback / negative feedback Amplification / stabilization Activation / inhibition Cooperation / competition Positive / negative correlation 3/18/2025 8
Biased Randomness Exploration vs. exploitation Blind variation & selective retention Innovation vs. incremental improvement Pseudo-temperature Diffusion Mixed strategies 3/18/2025 9
Pattern Formation Excitable media Amplification of random fluctuations Symmetry breaking Specific difference vs. generic identity Automatically adaptive 3/18/2025 10
Emergence & Self-Organization Microdecisions lead to macrobehavior Circular causality (macro / micro feedback) Coevolution predator/prey, Red Queen effect gene/culture, niche construction, Baldwin effect 3/18/2025 11
Stigmergy Continuous (quantitative) Discrete (qualitative) Coordinated algorithm non-conflicting sequentially linked 3/18/2025 12
Emergent Control Stigmergy Entrainment (distributed synchronization) Coordinated movement through attraction, repulsion, local alignment in concrete or abstract space Cooperative strategies nice & forgiving, but reciprocal evolutionarily stable strategy 3/18/2025 13
Doing Research in Bio-inspired Computation 3/18/2025 14
Keeping Abreast of Research An interdisciplinary field, so it s not sufficient to read just computing journals General science: to keep abreast of potentially relevant research Complex systems: integrative and overarching research Specific bio-inspired journals: neural networks, cognitive science, evolutionary computing, artificial life, swarm intelligence, etc. There are more journals than you can read, so subscribe to science news feeds, etc. 3/18/2025 15
General Science Journals Science (AAAS) via library you have full internet access go to www.sciencemag.org for podcasts, webinars, etc. Nature via the library you have full internet access go to www.nature.com for podcasts, etc. also Nature Neuroscience, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, etc. Science News, Scientific American, Scientific American Mind, etc. 3/18/2025 16
Journals Especially Relevant to Bio-inspired Computing Natural Computing Artificial Life Adaptive Behavior Int. Journ. Bio-inspired Computation Intl. Journ. of Unconventional Computing many neural network journals Physica D Advances in Complex Systems Biological Cybernetics Complex Systems (Wolfram) Intl. Journ. of Nanotechnology and Molecular Computation (which I founded) 3/18/2025 17
End-of-course Survey! 3/18/2025 18
