Luis M. Rocha @lmrocha@qoto.org

We continue hiring, #FacultyPositions in #ComplexSystems #NetworkScience #SystemsScience Areas of interest include: Computational Social Science, Biomedical Complexity, etc. DM me for more and check: https://binghamton.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp?JOBID=167724

Without a College Degree, Life in America Is Staggeringly Shorter https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/03/opinion/life-expectancy-college-degree.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

@hirokisayama Grant report submitted :)

https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2023/10/276620-biomedical-digital-twins/fulltext

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/19/highway-to-hell-dutch-climate-activist-fights-sedition-charge

Our work with @joanagsa , Johan Bollen and Ian Wood still food for thought.
"humans have grown more industrialized, claimed more agency over reproduction, and reshaped climate we are living in, the calendar of our own #fertility changed, by KatherineJWu https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2023/09/human-birth-babies-seasonality-surge/675420/

Esta coisa das figuras do estado virem visitar os #emigrantes é só para consumo em Portugal. Se tivessem verdadeiro interesse (além das remessas) e nos considerassem cidadãos, não nos privavam do direito ao voto igual aos outros cidadãos. #cidadania https://www.publico.pt/2022/02/22/opiniao/opiniao/emigrante-portugues-cidadao-10-classe-deixa-democraticamente-apatridas-1996334

David Bowie gave the Rock Hall the coldest of shoulders. Part of the 1996 induction class, he did not attend while touring in Europe. He never released a statement about the induction or even acknowledged its existence, sending Madonna to receive it.
https://youtu.be/7D8RLzOHk1Y?si=RZWF2jdG3N32C7Sa

We gotta love that Diesel...

Revealed: almost everyone in Europe is breathing toxic air https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/20/revealed-almost-everyone-in-europe-breathing-toxic-air?CMP=share_btn_tw

https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/4492/binghamton-reaches-highest-rank-ever-on-u.s-news-world-report-list

2 open faculty positions at the Full or Associate professor level. #AI/ML and #datascience in #complexsystems domains, e.g. healthcare, public health, health disparities and equity, pandemic prevention and preparedness, etc. http://binghamton.interviewexchange.com/jobofferdetails.jsp?JOBID=167549

What a surprise that the high priests of American rock and roll are sexist and racist. Why do you think #Bowie sent Madonna to receive his induction to the rock and roll Hall of Fame? Anyone into #disco, urban and club music knows this and ignores rolling stone magazine.

Jann Wenner Removed From Rock Hall Board After Times Interview https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/16/arts/music/jann-wenner-removed-rock-hall.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

In US I pay 4X more for telecom/internet/TV than in Portugal, while getting 1/4 speed, 1/10 quality (in Portugal price includes HBO, MAX, Prime, dvr), and 100x abuse from "customer service" https://youtu.be/V5DeDLI8_IM?si=dEzBC6kHFo1wCtuw #spectrum

O que #Portugal precisa nem é da epopeia mítica e protonacionalista de Camões, nem do reverso da mesma medalha paroquial e umbiguista que é o velho de Restelo. O que precisa é de mais Damiões de Góis, que abraçam o mundo como ele é, diverso, multicultural, miscegenado, em movimento, sem vacas sagradas e muito para além da prainha do Restelo. Não seja tão ludista JPP ! Já parece o Sr. Águia dos Marretas. Imagino que Damião de Góis se fosse vivo adoraria a tertúlia global do Twitter.

https://www.publico.pt/2023/09/09/opiniao/opiniao/apologia-velho-restelo-2062723

I am fascinated by the recent evidence showing that Polyplody may grant evolutionary advantages in the presence of drastic fitness changes (e.g. cataclysms):
https://www.science.org/content/article/cells-extra-genomes-may-help-tissues-respond-injuries-species-survive-cataclysms.

One option is that extra chromosomes may increase connectivity of gene regulatory networks--- fascinating work from van de Peer on that note: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.28.538696, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220257.

The results are similar to ours a long time ago with RNA Editing , where we experimented with drastic fitness changes (simulated cataclysms) and emergence of memory: https://doi.org/10.1162/evco.2007.15.3.253, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74913-4_7.

RNA Editing, we started arguing long ago, also adds additional regulatory variety and proves advantageous in drastic fitness changes---though RNA editing works by adding more variants, not greater number of regulatory possibilities (network connectivity) as it is hypothesized for polyploidy. Maybe this explains why the latter is maladaptive in stable fitness landscapes, whereas RNA Editing often isn't?

#Evolution #EvolutionarySystems #Polyploidy #Fitness #GenomeComplexity #Gemome

@manlius I agree words are difficult here. But a UTM is not just about converting finite states to other finite states. That is the machine (the head) part of the UTM. The magic is the addition of the external tape, which depends on an arbitrary code (agreed upon by users). It can be written onto or mutated independently, thus you cannot predict its future states, unless you'd know the states of everything that can alter it. Tape is also as large as you can make it, or infinite in the formal version.

I agree with Von Neumann, Pattee, Sydney Brenner that this separate tape is what makes living systems a form of general purpose computers (a.k.a. open ended evolution.) The code is pretty much the same for all life as we know it.

Regarding game of life and the like. Per se, it models the mechanistic finite state transitions of matter. One can implement a UTM on it, but that requires establishing an external arbitrary code (consensually agreed by all readers) between finite states of its artificial "matter" (stable dynamical patterns like gliders) and logical truth values (a minimum of true and false and basic logic gates). In other words, specific patterns of the game of life "matter" are used to encode logical expressions---that are modular in the sense that can be arranged as building blocks for infinite logic trees . But this is precisely what we do with physical computers since Babbage&Lovelace: encode modular logic in bistable metal cog wheels, vacuum tubes, or semi-conductors, etc.

The genetic code does not encode mathematical logic, like all our computers do, but rather the "logic" of aminoacid sequences. These are highly modular too and can be used to build molecular switches and much more. But not really (rate-independent) logic, rather rate-dependent biochemistry. Still, the code itself is just an arbitrary (we believe) translation of 64 possible codons to 20 aminoacids, a simple machine. It is the separate, effectively infinite tape that gives life its open-endedness since new machines can always be encoded, varied, and selected.

I suppose all this just to say that Turing machines are not (just) machines but we can make them from machines :) as Von Neumann said, machines that can increase in complexity (which simple machines can't.)

@manlius @PessoaBrain @tiago @thilo @kordinglab @NicoleCRust @hirokisayama @WiringtheBrain *before->behavior

@manlius @PessoaBrain @tiago @thilo @kordinglab @NicoleCRust @hirokisayama @WiringtheBrain

Formally, I think of machine as a (cybernetic) mechanism. That is, when before is state-determined, with (relatively small) finite time memory dependency---in other words, behavior depends on a few time steps. Forest fires, hurricanes and the like can be modeled by mechanisms.

In this view, a Turing machine is not a machine, as it has infinite memory and its (complex) behavior depends on an arbitrary code between memory and instructions, with conditional branching and unpredictable changes/mutations to tape. To see this difference it is useful for me to compare Babbage's difference engine (a machine) with Babbage/Lovelace 's analytical engine (a general-purpose computer). As Babbage said, the "snake eating its own tail" is a completely different device :)

When people tell you it makes no difference who you vote for, and
Bernie Sanders, AOC, and colleagues are just window dressing, don't forget none of this would happen without their pressure.
https://theintercept.com/2023/08/29/insulin-medicare-drug-price-negotiation/

A visão sobre o que deve ser ensino superior em Portugal é mesmo muito pouco ambiciosa. Era bom lembrar que a nossa constituição é suposto garantir acesso ao ensino superior para todos, não só para aqueles que têm "talento, capacidade e garra." O numerus clausus em si nunca é posto em causa, quando é à partida uma exclusão por uma medida que não está de todo provada medir qualquer capacidade ou talento. Vários países da OCDE não têm numerus clausus (e.g. Bélgica), muito menos de fasquia tão elevada. Finalmente, assume-se que a universidade catalisa talento, mas a universidade portuguesa tende a ser onde vai morrer a criatividade e respeito pela individualidade e capacidade dos alunos. Baseada como é na exclusão por numerus clausus, está amarrada a uma cultura de autoridade, descarregamento passivo de matéria e notas para quem baixa a bolinha. É tudo menos um ambiente para quem tem imaginação e "garra". #ensino #EnsinoSuperior

https://www.publico.pt/2023/08/26/opiniao/editorial/ensino-superior-estado-nao-vender-ilusoes-2061349