Luis M. Rocha @lmrocha@qoto.org

@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

Very well done. Uses only US data, but I wish people in other places would be more careful passing along these accepted wisdom myths. #pandemic #COVID #mentalhealth #schoolclosures

https://youtu.be/-h5xyGdVfvo?si=wjvBIlUeG7UFmlvL

I have not read the details, just the abstract, but I will note that my undergraduate training was in robotics, automation, and AI, and it checks :)
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2304748120

#The link between climate change and #infectiousdisease should raise a call to action for scientists and governments to evaluate the risks of the inevitable effects of climate change on #epidemics and #pandemics. Emergency response to climate disasters should automatically include public health actions to mitigate outbreaks. In addition, health systems should adapt to changing disease transmission patterns and the global mobility of people, animals, and goods. "
https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.adk4500

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/24/lockdowns-face-masks-unequivocally-cut-spread-covid-study-finds?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

@manlius @johncarlosbaez @j_bertolotti @lamaral @thilo @c4computation @tchambers so true....

@manlius

An off-center, conceptual treatment of biological senescence (as a system-level transition) by Rosen Congress to mind:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304020808712258

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02461066

More generally, the Rosen view is that in complex systems, model failure is a signal that the system is undergoing a transition---i.e. when past data suddenly does not work well to predict the present (think the failure of Google flu). But precise measures of model failure before it happens are not around, besides what you mention (e.g. à la Marten Scheffer).

@johncarlosbaez @j_bertolotti @lamaral @thilo @c4computation @tchambers

https://www.publico.pt/2023/08/21/opiniao/opiniao/maleficios-vacina-covid19-2060703 #vacinas #COVID19

Do you see power lines (or cable tv or internet fiber) hanging above ground in Europe? No, they are buried, especially near human populations and where there is fire risk. Only high voltage transmission towers near production facilities are seen above ground. But those are designed to withstand high winds, earthquakes, and such---unlike the ancient "technology" of wooden poles barely lifting old cables used by American utilities. It is only the insularity of the USA, including reporting in media such as this article, that prevents the population from understanding that other countries have fixed this problem. It just takes investment from the utility companies to bury the cable and avoid such unnecessary and recurrent tragedy.

Experts Scrutinize Hawaiian Electric as They Search for the Maui Wildfire Cause https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/14/us/hawaiian-electric-maui-wildfire.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

"History of water" is one of the best books I've ever read. A complex view of the world was there all along for Europeans, but control of narrative brought eurocentrism (devouring Europe with religious, national and racial identitism). #history #humanism #identity #XVICentury

https://www.edwardwilsonlee.com/historyofwater

P.S. A tradução portuguesa está muito cuidada.
https://expresso.pt/revista/culturas/livros/2022-11-20-As-viagens-de-Camoes-e-Damiao-de-Gois-um-livro-fascinante-de-Edward-Wilson-Lee-3e1b5dfe

Why an Unremarkable Racist Enjoyed the Backing of Billionaires https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/12/opinion/richard-hanania-eugenics-billionaires.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

@pholme yes, we are mostly or entirely in agreement, I think :) Though I never spoke against mechanistic validation. I'm just saying that a pandemic, per the best models we have of them, are complex systems in the way we have discussed: they include several irreducible levels as constituents. A reduction to molecular or to social does not do as good a predictive job as modeling several levels. (BTW, I disagree there are only 3 levels in those models, with the transportation or technological layers involved, but that is a minor disagreement :) to be clear, I think complex systems are and should be amenable to (multi-layered) mechanistic modeling---emergence in this sense (necessity of different models for different levels of experience) is not magic. As a parallel, consider that complementarity in wave-particle duality did not preclude the mechanistic prediction that either explanation affords; indeed, that was the whole point.

@pholme I generally agree, but the best models of COVID spread (e.g. to predict casualties per location) do include multiple levels in what one may call a computational theory of actionable conked systems models (cf Vespignani). In such multiscale models (or theory) you have simultaneously variables to model molecular transmission, human contact, transportation networks and psychological behavior like mask adherence according to political preference data (per US state, for instance.) True, the tongue-in-cheek link to Godel is not there, but certainly approximations to deal with computational complexity are very much part of such computational models and implicit (complexity) theory :)

@pholme very cool. I agree with being very careful to not evoke many levels in explanation, unless one needs to. But I do think that a complex system is one where you need more than one level to explain a phenomenon---which becomes pragmatically, epistemologically irreducible to a single mode of explanation (Pattee's control hierarchies). Wave-particle duality is an early example. But the pandemic is a great recent example, whereby a biochemical event (zoonotic transfer) led to very long multi-level control/causal chains from immune response and organ failure, to human transport networks, social and political change.

First hour of a live DJ set last July at Roterdão Club in Lisbon's Pink Street. It starts with respect for the great #TinaTurner, for a party aimed mostly at shaking the #booty.

‘Shake it!’ by E-Trash is on #SoundCloud https://soundcloud.com/placebooracle/shake-it

#DJ #Disco #Funk #House #Equality

https://www.ted.com/talks/al_gore_what_the_fossil_fuel_industry_doesn_t_want_you_to_know?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
#climatechange #fossilfuels

https://www.publico.pt/2023/08/05/mundo/noticia/revolta-toalhas-grecia-quer-praias-gente-2059286