P' Fraundorf

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A simplex model for layered niche networks
P. Fraundorf UM-StL Center for Nano
Science Microscope Image and Spectroscopy Tech
Lab UM-StL Physics Astronomy email
pfraundorf_at_umsl.edu web http//www.umsl.edu/frau
ndor
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Outline

• Foundations of correlation-based complexity
• mutual information reversible thermalization
• convergent disciplines multiscale thought
• The attention-slice simplex for metazoans
• physical boundary-directed niche networks
• time/resource/attention slices
• conjectures and measurement

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Converging threads...

• Nanoscience where chemistry, physics, biology,
  engineering, medicine, CSI, ethics, and complex
  system studies of emergence run together...
• Astrobiology where Chaissons cosmic evolution
  (the natural history of invention) intersects our
  distant past, and our distant future...
• Informatics where the code-based sciences
  (genetics, computer science, linquistics),
  thermal physics, journalism, networks
  statistical inference join up...

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Foundations of correlation-based complexity

• Gibbs/Jaynes/Tribus Energy and Information
  Availability Free Energy plus Correlations
• Chaissons Cosmic Evolution Atoms, Galaxies,
  Stars, Planets, GeoCycles, Microbes, and
  Metazoans, all convert free energy to
  correlations.
• Odum brothers, Watson/Crick, Lorenz
  Complementary role for Steady-State Excitations
  and Replicable Molecular Codes Metazoan Skins
  Gene Pools as community subsystem boundaries.
• Shannon, McLuhan, Dawkins Evolution of Memetic
  Codes and Electronic Media emerging Meme Pool
  boundary structures.
• Margulis and others Symbiosis and multiscale
  regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes.
• Boyd Richerson, Diamond Multiscale guidance
  of meme expression in metazoan communities gt
  Crucial to Sustainability?

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Gibbs/Jaynes/Tribus Energy and Information
Generalized thermodynamic availability includes
free energies, correlations between subsystems,
as well as correlations between system and knower
i.e. awareness of complexity.
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Mutual information (multi-moment correlation
between subsystems) is well known to be a special
case of net surprisal, or Kullback-Leibler
divergence, a free-energy analog that measures
departures from expected in both thermal and
information systems. Information engines
manufacture these correlations by reversible
thermalization of available work. Correlations
between structures (e.g. a phenomenon and its
explanation, or an organism and its niche) within
and across boundary types (ranging from the edges
of molecules to the gap between cultures) are
de-localized structures. Development of
multi-scale correlations is a big part of the
natural history of invention. Symbiosis between
replicable codes (molecules or ideas) and steady
state excitations plays a key role in stabilizing
multi-scale correlations.
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Gambling theory (MaxEnt) review
future links story 1, 2, 3 puzzler 1, 2,
3 faq read more about it
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A UIUC intro-physics homework problem...

• ...solvable with three approaches
• p-chem Carnot engine and heat pump
• thermal physics heat entropy flows
• information physics equal net-suprisals

where...
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Graphical review of everyday enginesHeat
engines and heat pumps are familiar from many
introductory courses, but information engines
that create correlations between subsystems by
thermalizing available work are less familiar.
They are, however, at least as important in our
day-to-day lives.
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Natural units for temperature entropy
facilitate the application ofthermal physics to
information engines
The price of correlating two subsystems (e.g. a
code and and excitation) is for Szilards
vacuum-pump memory and in general Work/I
kTambient ln(2) e.g. in joules/bit.
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the excitation-code correlation is an old story

• If you know the state of a binary system (e.g.
  the x-component of a half-integral spin), then
  you and that binary system share one bit of
  mutual information.
• The isolated subsystem second law concerns the
  time dependence of uncertainty about its
  contents, and hence the mutual information shared
  by observer subsystem.
• A statement is true if and only if it
  correlates with the excitation to which it
  refers.
• The recent example by Lapilli et al (PRL 2006)
  confirms that different Hamiltonians (i.e.
  underlying excitations) can yield the same
  thermodynamics (macroscopic description), even
  over a range of temperatures.

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Chaissons Cosmic Evolution Atoms, Galaxies,
Stars, Planets, GeoCycles, Microbes, and
Metazoans, all involve conversion of a different
(e.g. energy-based) form of thermodynamic
availability into subsystem correlations.
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Astrobiology, stardust at home, and Don
Brownlees Rare Earth
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Faceted edge-on single-walled carbon nanocones in
the core of micron-sized graphite onions, formed
in the atmosphere of a red giant stars
manufacturing the galaxys carbon atoms. HREM,
diffraction, and EELS evidence for possible
dendritic solidification of liquid carbon drops...
Left HREM image of unlayered graphene core
material. Center Experimental and simulated
flat-sheet owder diffraction profiles. Right
Faceted cone and coherence spikes in its
reciprocal lattice.
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Multiscale Awareness in Time

• Chaissons cosmic evolution emergence (starting
  with neutral atoms, galaxies, stars, planets,
  geocycles, biocycles, motorcycles, etc.) as a
  natural history of invention.
• Ward and Brownlee astrophysical observations
  suggest that planets suitable for multi-cell life
  are rare, and that earth will support such life
  only for about a billion years (now half gone).

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As with spatial sizes, one can look forward and
back on many time scales as well. Here, we zoom
in by decades on the Chaisson Brownlee billion
year clocks.
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Correlated subsystem states (e.g. atoms,
galaxies, stars, planets, biogeochemical cycles,
cells, communities) develop as free energy is
spent. Thus the fossil fuel legacy of
multi-celled lifes 1st half may be useful for
its 2nd half. This brings us to...
Three decades of the million year clock centered
on today (above) telescope further down to three
decades on the thousand year clock (below) whose
last panel brackets the last and current
centuries.
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Multiscale Size and TimeFor those interested in
outreach beyond our communities at home, i.e. in
that innate frontier spirit, consider the
intellectual and practical challenge of galaxy
seeding with Milky Way nannites. We may get
messages back well before the age of metazoans on
earth is over. Now thats a challenge!
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Odum brothers, Watson/Crick, Lorenz
Complementary role for Steady-State Excitations
and Replicable Molecular Codes Emergence of
Metazoan Skins Gene Pools as community
subsystem boundaries.
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Single strand curls of a DNA molecule that may
help Lifeng Dong, a researcher at (S)MSU, attach
Platinum electrodes to the ends of single-walled
carbon nanotubes in future nano-electronic
devices.
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The many scales of organization in natural bone.
(credit J. Liu) Collagen triple helices
spontaneously form nanoscale bundles of protein,
which act as a template for the crystallization
of hydroxyapatite nanocrystals. The collagen
matrix is also recognized by undifferentiated
bone-marrow stem cells, which become bone-forming
osteoblasts after signals from bone-specific
proteins in the matrix.
then the leg bone connects to the hip bone
To duplicate the extraordinary durability and
strength of natural bone, researchers must design
synthetic materials that match these structural
levels of organization from the nanoscale
upwards. (Note that this figure shows the
dimensional, not sequential, principles of bone
construction.)
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Primary layers of correlation in animal
communities
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Shannon, McLuhan, Dawkins Evolution of idea
codes, media for their replication and
transmission, and emerging meme-pool boundary
structures.
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Margulis and many others Symbiosis and
multiscale guidance for gene expression in
eukaryotes made embryonic development, as well as
operation of metazoans with multi-organ
subsystems, possible.
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Boyd Richerson, Diamond Multiscale guidance
for meme expression in metazoan communities gt
Crucial to Sustainability?How might we
facilitate this?
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Pulling The Pieces Together

• Correlations and boundaries
• Attention/resource/time slice models
• Conjectures and their verification

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Given a way to inventory correlations in such a
layered niche network, informatics then says that
reversible thermalization fits beatifully into
the energy/information flow picture...
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physical boundary-directed niche networks

• The right figure takes a clue from the way our
  species (e.g. Schaik in Sci Am 4/2006)
  conceptualizes its own networks.
• The left column lists three geometically complex
  physical boundaries metazoan skin, gene pool,
  and meme pool.
• At right, find six niche layers that each
  individual can concurrently occupy.

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...are already in development in their
respective fields. Of course, inventories useful
across layers will only evolve after sufficient
hammering by experts in these fields.
Methods to inventory correlations within
constituent subsystems ...
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These layers of correlation-based complexity also
stack temporally, putting the natural history of
invention into the same integrative context
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The foregoing discussion of layered niche
networks raises some questions

• How long have all six layers been evident with
  humans? For example, just as metazoans and the
  Cambrian bloom were prefaced by certain
  technological developments in our symbiosis with
  molecular codes, so intra-cultural behaviors have
  leveled-up with the development of spoken
  language, and inter-cultural behaviors with the
  development of written and electronic
  communcation.
• If shared human development predates the
  availability of six distinct layers, does that
  mean that as individuals we cannot be expected to
  do all six well at the same time?
• Can objective measures of standing crop be
  developed which improve upon census and/or GDP?
• Chaisson has observed that complexity correlates
  phenomenologically with free energy rate density.
  Will a lower per capita free energy rate mean we
  cant maintain all six layers?

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Idea codes have been developed to maintain each
niche layer

• We have separate bits of lore for taking care of
  ourselves, our friends, our family, our
  community, our culture, and our profession.
• Just as biologists have discovered that molecular
  codes have a life and perspective of their own,
  so do increasingly mobile idea codes. Taking
  their perspective into account is crucial.
• Ad hoc observation Problems, including
  extremism, may be linked to codes which dismiss
  one or more of these layers. But how can we
  quantify this stuff?

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Spatial vs time-slice modeling
Spatial correlation models (left) might work well
in population ecology, e.g. for plants and
predator/prey modeling, but the dynamical and
delocalized nature of layered network
correlations suggest that fractional resource/
attention models will be needed as well (next).
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The Attention-Slice Simplex
A one simplex in 2-space, a two simplex in
3-space, and an un-embedded three simplex
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Why those six and only six levels i.e. self,
pair, family, hierarchy, culture, profession?
One possible answer Three and only three
emergent physical boundary types skin,
gene-pool, meme-pool.
Examples with only four levels
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Initial work underway in behavioral ecology and
affect control theory might help, for example, in
getting a handle on the interaction between
electronic media and human communities today.
Attention-slice models and the 5-simplex
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Two illustrative idea dynamics(i) level-blurring
(ii) ancient heritage

• Science is careful observation of nature,
  followed by reporting in ways informed to the
  literature.
• It is normally integrated into culture and
  politics after embrace by a community of
  specialists in the field.
• If we teach science as consensus rather than as
  observation, we blur levels and open doors to
  political and religious input as well.

• A symbiotic relationship with xenophobic ideas
  was likely an important survival trait for your
  ancestors over recent, as well as myriad stone
  age, generations.
• Xenophobia is an idea easily replicated among
  humans that can act as a virus in the huge
  population of todays electronic world.
• Awareness of our evolved relationship to ideas
  (and niche levels) might help put it into context.

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Possibly testable conjectures?

• Niche multiplicity (geometric average of
  individual values) might serve as a natural
  measure of community health.
• Humans so far are better adapted to 5 rather than
  6 levels.
• Multiplicity might go down as available work per
  capita goes up.
• Conceptual focus on all six levels might (i)
  increase niche multiplicity, (ii) decrease the
  amplitude of media induced oscillations, and
  (iii) dampen the tendency of news media to focus
  on questions which blur the distinction between
  levels.

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How might we assess the correlation-focus of
individuals and communities? Possibilities
include (i) population surveys, (ii) behavioral
observation,(iii) data on communication focus
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Recap Convergent disciplines, like nanoscience,
astrobiology informatics, support that...

• Correlations (created by reversible
  thermalization of free energy) between subsystems
  may be used to monitor evolving complexity's
  standing crop.
• Symbiosis between steady state excitations and
  replicable codes is a recurrent theme on earth,
  where correlations are sometimes represented by a
  layered network defined with respect to physical
  boundaries of wide-ranging size complexity.
• Five of the six niche layers for individuals
  (looking inward and outward from the physical
  boundaries of metazoan skin, gene pool, and meme
  pool) have been distinct for much of human
  evolution.
• Blurring of these levels may result from
  declining free energy per capita. Monitoring
  community correlations, and informing idea
  expression, on all 6 levels may be a key to
  sustainability.

arXiv physics/0603068
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