Volume 21

This page is still being loaded...

Click on any thumbnail to view the corresponding full-size scan. Listed above each thumbnail are any index keywords that Ross indexed the pages under. Click any blue keyword to view the index entry for that keyword. Blue frames indicate pages that you have not viewed, or that are no longer in your browser's cache.

---

1957

Volume 21

5693+03 5693+04

Force meaning in psychology 5694 5695

Summary: What is meant by "force" in psychology. Spectacles, transforming The Multistable System [126]: Taylor's experiments with reversing spectacles showing the disorderliness of the multistable system. ●. Summary: When a set is called for, refuse to answer the question: which of these elements is the "actual" one? 5696 5697

Laterality Taylor's experiments on Summary: Evidence that learned reactions are related to one another in a primarily random way, order appearing only when the environment selects or enforces it. Summary: Example showing how adaptation must be measured against a defined class of problems. 5698 5699

Learning from another Summary: "Transfer of patterns" demands only a transfer of values. 5700 5701

Habituation operator matters, machine not Summary: The structure that is necessary and sufficient if the whole's later behaviour is to be much dependent on its earlier experience. (Note that all this is equivalent to saying that the system has memory) Summary: In habituation I have shown that the operator does matter and the system does not (within broad limits). 5702 5703

Equilibrium under compound operators Habituation as equilibrium Operator compound operator and equilibrium 5704 5705

Equilibrium and conditioned reflex Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium Summary: Implications of "going to equilibrium." 5706 5707

Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium Summary: When the alternation of two stimuli to a machine reaches equilibrium, the two effects and the equilibrium are related. 5724, 5729 5708 5709

Confluant and topology Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium Topology in machines Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium Summary: Every absolute system defines a topology, the "confluential", over the set of states. This topology may be similar to some other topology, well known over same set. 5710 5711

Equivalence relation and topology Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium Topology and equivalence relation Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium Summary: For general guidance, one can think of a "topology" as a more complex equivalence relation, allowing degrees of "equivalence." 5712 5713

Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium Summary: The intermediate degree of the conditioned response being brought "towards" the unconditioned Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium 5714 5715

Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium 5716 5716+01

Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium 5716+02 5717

Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium 5718 5719

Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium Summary: Basic theory of the conditioned reflex 5720 5721

Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium Summary: Some experiments on my theory. Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium 5722 5723

Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium 5724 5725

Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium Summary: Simultaneous presentation does not give conditioning. 5730, 5827, 5862 Reflex, conditioned as compound equilibrium Summary: A very new way of producing "conditioning". 5726 5727

Constraint finding Information advantages of losing Summary: Constraints are found by applying information-losing transformations and seeing whether they are still acceptable to the essential variables. 5756 5728 5729

Summary: If two forcing operators alternate, they will lose their distinction while forcing. Habituation cycles in Summary: Cycles under compound operators. 5734, 5893, 6088 5730 5731

Arc necessity for Summary: Arcs are necessary because, for adaptation to progress cumulatively, stores are necessary to hold the information that came from the essential variables. 5746 5732 5733

The Multistable System [127]: Multistable system, as defined in "Design for a Brain", is assumed to have its feedbacks discriminating. ●. The Multistable System [128]: Old definition of multistable system reviewed ten years later. ●. 5734 5735

Summary: The Multistable System of D.f.B. (Design for a Brain) is one whose corrective feedback has already been made discriminating. D.f.B. shows how a system will behave after discriminative feedback has been established in it. 5746, 5766.7 5736 5737

Arc and habituation Habituation and arcs Summary: How habituation will show in a multistable system of arcs. 5738 5739

Forcing a variable forcing homeostat Summary: An arc may "see" only a certain few out of a sequence of stimuli; these few are then "adjacent" for that arc, and may have unexpected effect, e.g. habituation. 5746 Summary: If a variable is forced to a value, perhaps it does not matter whether the forcing is "discreet" or via an ultrastable, vetoing feedback. Constraint in uncertainty analysis Uncertainty analysis Garner and McGill 5740 5741

Summary: Variety, uncertainty analysis, and information. 5794, 5820 5742 5743

Arc essentials of arcs DAMS Mark II (Dispersive and Multistable System) [12]: Basic necessities for an arc, or store, ●. 5744 5745

Personal notes [33]: Decision to make DAMS, Mark II. ●. Summary: Basic functional necessities for an arc, or store. 5746 5747

Personal notes [31]: Reviews of the "Introduction to Cybernetics". ●, ●, ●, ●. Hover mouse here to display note 5748 5748+01

Constraint reducibility as Reducibility degree of constraint 5748+02 5753

Summary: Any restriction on one part of a system is likely to show as "structure" in another part of it, Reducibility exemplifier. 5754 5755

Constraint identified by 'typical member' Summary: Axiom that the "typical member" identifies the sub-set and the constraint. Accumulation (of adaptations) mechanism necessary Adaptation mechanism for cumulative adaptation 5756 5757

Arc ? many Summary: Layout for accumulative adaptation. 5766.7, 5775 5758 5759

Cortex as store Summary: Additive mechanisms in the brain. 5763, 5765.1, 5766.1, 5768 Critical surface variation of Signal in ultrastable system 5760 5761

Summary: The problem of the moving critical states. 5778 Psychiatric applications [94]: Symptoms produced by attention at the gating or distributing mechanism. ●. Summary: Psychiatric application of the system that adapts additively. 5762 5763

DAMS Mark II (Dispersive and Multistable System) [13]: Long-term, slow-changing, information can act as director and localiser of short-term, quick-changing information. ●. Summary: Importance of information whose changes occur only at long intervals. Retroactive inhibition quantative estimate Translation test for correctness Psychiatric applications [95]: Injury that should lead to increased retroactive inhibition. ●. Summary: Psychiatric application. Summary: Operational meaning of "correct translation". 5764 5765

Memory may far exceed action Summary: Mechanisms for memory may well vastly outnumber those for action Accumulation (of adaptations) essential variables for Essential variables for accumulation of adaptation Summary: Essential variables for adaptation by accumulation. 5766 5767

Accumulation (of adaptations) number of variables Cortex size of Summary: Complexity of remembering old adaptations is independent of complexity within one adaptation. Arc ? many 5768 5769

Serial adaptation steered by environment Summary: Serial adaptation, and flow to the step-mechanisms. 5770 5771

Step-mechanism ? necessary 5772 5773

Summary: My proof (that adaptation demands step-functions) demands in fact only that there must be entities having a step-function aspect. This aspect may be one that is by no means obvious in the real object. 5781.7 Accumulation (of adaptations) in multistable system The Multistable System [129]: Multistable system re-specified to separate the aspect of :- (1) Having many almost independent essential variables. (2) Having SFs separated into sets. ●. 5774 5775

Summary: Design of DAMS. (Corrected 5778) 5779 Ancillary regulations may be invoked Summary: I may now use design and regulation freely in building DAMS, provided I admit its introduction. 5776 5777

Summary: Layout for DAMS, and for the system that accumulates adaptations. Arc must they interact? 5778 5779

Summary: Under certain conditions, communication between arcs is necessary. Design for a Brain second edition started Summary: So far I have used essential variables as little more than links determining how the environment affects the step-mechanism. 5780 5781

Step-mechanism ? necessary Summary: My claim that step-functions are necessary, must be made conditional. 5782 5783

Summary: Step-functions have done their job and may now retire. Operator as communication 5784 5785

Coefficient of stability Equilibrium index of 5786 5787

1958

Summary: Index [?] of degree of stability of a whole, and its behaviour. 5800 Organisation strategy for studying Strategy for complex system 5788 5789

Organisation irreducible forms Reducibility irreducible systems 5790 5791

Information more than 1 man-lifetime Regulation and reducibility 5792 5793

Information direction is irrelevant Summary: Some systems are not to be understood, or controlled, by the amount of information that can be accepted in 1 man lifetime. 5810 Constraint information as Protocol constraint in Summary: The symmetrical relation between transmitter and receiver, of McGill and Garner and Woodward, is: between two variables' variations a constraint has been perceived. 5820 5794 5795

Summary: Present position of the machine for solving super-problems. Evolution within computer Number competition between Survival within computer Zero survival of Natural Selection [87]: Competition between Odds and Evens under multiplication ●. 5796 5797

Summary: Survival of the fittest, demonstrated in a computer. 5801, 5828, 5961 Isomorphism in mathmatical physics Model in physics, Synge on 5798 5799

Polystable defined The Multistable System [3]: (Much of this section probably refers to the polystable - not distinguished till ●) The Multistable System [130]: Multistable system distinguished from polystable. ●. Adaptation to any operator Transformation adaptation to any Summary: Shrinkage to equilibrium, and adaptation to the operator that produces the shrinkage, are equivalent. 5961 5800 5801

5802 5803

Convergence (of lines of behaviour) quantity of 5804 5805

Adaptation rate of Summary: How fast does a system adapt to an operator? "Convergency". 5806 5807

Computing machines spontaneous generation in Intelligence spontaneous generation Life spontaneous generation in a computer Reproduction as specialised adaptation Spontaneous generation of life in computer Reducibility irreducible systems Summary: Spontaneous generation of brain in a computer. 5812, 5816.7, 5958 5808 5809

Summary: Another example of how a large, and irreducible, quantity of information may be necessary. Essential variables outside organism 5810 5811

Computing machines spontaneous generation in Intelligence spontaneous generation Summary: A variable may be essential to an organism and yet outside of it. Essential variables abstractly Life spontaneous generation in a computer Spontaneous generation of life in computer Survival within computer Transformation adaptation to any 5812 5813

Summary: Abstract formulation of "survival" and "essential variable". 5828, 5963, 5984 Death changes environment too Survival is of organism and environment 5814 5815

Summary: (1) A part, may be rich in stable subsets. (2) Death hits both organism and environment, Laws of nature that "change themselves" Operator that changes itself Transformation that changes itself 5816 5817

Summary: An operator may be thought of as "changing its properties" if it moves from one sub-set to another. 5844, 6109 5818 5819

Machine uncertainty analysis of Uncertainty analysis of machine 5820 5821

Summary: McGill and Garner's uncertainty analysis applied to machines. 5822 5823

Constraint D.I.E.(diagram of immediate effects) as Diagram of immediate effects (D.I.E.) as constraint Transformation D.I.E. (diagram of immediate effects) as constraint Summary: The D.I.E. (diagram of immediate effects) marks out a subset from the set of all transformations. 5982 5824 5825

Experience and habituation Habituation and law of experience Summary: Habituation and the conditioned reflex as consequences of the law of experience. Summary: All that a mechanism for the conditioned reflex needs is a clear bias. 5826 5827

Survival under operator Natural Selection [88]: Survival under random operator ●. Combinatorial dynamics envisaged Summary: Survival of the fittest in random operations. 5961 5828 5829

Summary: In the cortex, study only the unspecialised case. Information loss through net Network transmission through 5830 5831

Goal composite goal Summary: Transmission of variety through a random network, Let the net be not a chain but broad. 5832 5833

Experience makes every machine stable in a sense Stability every machine is Pattern (in general) recognition of Perceptron Summary: When the machine with input is determinate, the output-trajectory determined by a given input-trajectory is stable. 5834 5835

Recognition of pattern (odd-one-out) Summary: Demonstration of how, over any set, any subset can be marked off as having a "natural" grouping. Even bigger batch 5896, 6167 5836 5836A

Association explanation by confluants Confluant and conditioned reflex Equilibrium under regular transitions Reflex, conditioned and confluants Transition sequence of Trap = closed or stable set Hover mouse here to display note 5836B 5837

Confluant and conditioned reflex Equilibrium under regular transitions Confluant and conditioned reflex Equilibrium under regular transitions Habituation as special case Summary: The trap under a two-valued variation at the input. 5838 5839

Confluant and conditioned reflex Equilibrium under regular transitions Confluant and conditioned reflex Equilibrium under regular transitions 5840 5841

Confluant and conditioned reflex Equilibrium under regular transitions Confluant and conditioned reflex Equilibrium under regular transitions 5842 5843

Confluant and conditioned reflex Diffusion of pattern Equilibrium under regular transitions Input pattern in Inscription defined Isomorphism transitions and confluents Learning without feedback Pattern (in general) transmission of Anticipation automatic Confluant and conditioned reflex Continuity learning the structure Dimension learning it empirically Equilibrium under regular transitions Prediction automatic Summary: The pattern in the confluents tends to copy the pattern in the input-transitions. Stochastic case: 5873, 5892 5844 5845

Confluant and conditioned reflex Equilibrium under regular transitions Confluant and conditioned reflex Equilibrium under regular transitions Inscription and Jennings' law Resolution of physiological states Jenning's Law of physiological states 5846 5847

Confluant and conditioned reflex Equilibrium under regular transitions Confluant and conditioned reflex Equilibrium under regular transitions Summary: Jennings' law of the resolution of physiological states. 5880, 6101, 6137 5848 5849

Confluant and conditioned reflex Equilibrium under regular transitions Confluant and conditioned reflex Confluant of homeostat Equilibrium under regular transitions Summary: There are complications before "in same confluent" means "moving towards". 5850 5851

Field (of substitution) of homeostat Homeostat confluants of 5852 5853

Forcing a variable two types Summary: The homeostat's confluents. Confluant boundaries under forcing 5854 5855

Reflex, conditioned on homeastat 5856 5857

Summary: Paradoxical predictions for conditioned reflexes. Reflex, conditioned secondary conditioned reflex Trace reflex theory 5858 5859

Inscription in conditioning Summary: Simple, second-order, third order Conditioned Reflexes examined by the method of confluents. 6097 Summary: The conditioned dog must have these relations. 5860 5861

Reflex, conditioned and its "basic" mechanism 5862 5863

Constraint in canonical representation Constraint of near-equality Summary: Defeat of my attempt to uncover the "secret" of the conditioned reflex. 5864 5865

History restoring predictability Machine incompletely observable Memory restoring predictability Observable incomplete 5866 5867

5868 5869

Summary: Restoring single-valuedness of prediction, when parts of a machine with active input are not observable, by taking its history into account. 6050, 6069 Constraint in environment's transitions Environment constraints in transitions Kinaesthesia constraints in Space-time structure in Summary: Constraint in the environment will show (in certain conditions) in the organism's behaviour. 5870 5871

Summary: Examples of patterns that will spread into the nervous system. 5949 5872 5873

Summary: Transfer of pattern when input and machine are stochastic. 5874 5875

Homeostat Vienna model Summary: Fully joined systems must be known k steps back if k variables are unobservable. Inscription and ultrastability Ultrastability and inscription 5876 5877

5878 5879

Anticipation of adaptations Summary: Relation between adaptation and anticipation. 5880 5881

Stability conditional and partial 5882 5883

Inaccessible (set of states) conditional Summary: "Conditioned" stability can readily be defined rigorously. 6091 5884 5885

Summary: "Conditioned" inaccessibility can readily be defined rigorously. Summary: A system may have different subsets conditionally stable when the input has different constraints. 6091 5886 5887

Summary: Transfer of constraints from the world outside to that inside. Algebra machine and internal composition Associativity (mathematical) and machine Machine and its algebra Summary: A machine with input may correspond to an algebra. 5888 5889

Stability and evolution Summary: Statistical trends (in stochastic processes) are, to be evolving species, simply a method that may or may not be adapted for the job. Once adopted, they have the force of a law. 5890 5891

Constraint trasmission of Mapping of binary relation to mapping Pattern (in general) transmission of Relation transission of Summary: How a relation is transmitted by an operator. 5892 5893

Summary: Patterns on the transitions at the input lead to isomorphic patterns on the transitions internally. 5900, 5905 [deleted]. 5894 5895

Odd-one-out Pattern (in general) all are arbitrary Recognition of pattern (odd-one-out) 5896 5897

Summary: Pattern recognising. 6167, 6305 5898 5899

5900 5901

Summary: If a sequence of impulsive stimuli is constrained to certain transitions, the transitions of the representative point between equilibria tends to an isomorphic pattern. 5905 [deleted]. Model sand as model Topology useless to me 5902 5903

Summary: Present-day topology is obsessed by continuity, and is therefore of no use to me. (I must evidently develop my own theory of structure. This structure* was identified on 4934, in Bourbal's sense, and I have been developing it ever since, with "laws of experience" and such like. Restricted neither to continuity nor groups, nor numbers, nor algera, nor metric) 5949 * This structure was identified on 4934, in Bourbaki's sense, and I have been developing it ever since, with "laws of experience" and such like. Summary: Adaptation, and diffusion of structure may go on independently. [deleted] 5904 5905

Machine mathematics of Mathematics of machine Hierarchy (of Bourbaki) machine in hierarchy 5906 5907

Summary: Program for developing the mathematical theory of machines. 5908 5909

Equilibrium operation of going to Equilibrium Tilde-operation Tilde ~ operation 5910 5911

Independence another form Summary: Rigorous form of what is implied by the operator "let it get to equilibrium before applying the next stimulus". 5994, 6084 5912 5913

Proxy relation Relation "proxy" relation Summary: A new form of independence and the "proxy" relation. Isomorphism Hilton's extension Relation isomorphism generalised 5914 5915

Summary: Hilton's very wide definition of "isomorphism". 5916 5917

5918 5919

Relation between relations 5920 5921

Summary: "Isomorphism" as one of many relations that may hold between relations. Laws of nature of patterns Pattern (in general) laws of pattern 5922 5923

5924 5925

5926 5927

Summary: The theory of super-relations and the laws of pattern. Resemblance Summary: Do not confuse "patterns R are like patterns S", with "there is constraint in [RxS]. 6063 5928 5929

Transformation tables of ΦRΦ-1 5930 5931

5932 5933

5934 5935

5936 5937

5938 5938+01

5939 5939+01

Summary: The relationship S=ΦRΦ-1, studied from various angles. 5946 5940 5941

5942 5943

5944 5945

Transformation tables of ΦRΦ-1 5946 5947

Summary: Transition at input and transition between equilibria are related in the form S [subset] ΦRΦ-1. Not = , as given on 5893) 5949 [deleted] Summary: Algebraic form of "[T~'s] trajectories are not more than one step long". Adjacency 5948 5949

Summary: The constraint algebraically when a transition can only be to an "adjacent" state. 5950 5951

Lattice of stable sub-sets Stable set multiple stable sets 5952 5953

Atom in lattice theory Basin multiple Closure and 'basin' 5954 5955

Summary: Conditioning on the homeostat examined by the method of confluents. 5877 Summary: The set of stable sub-sets forms a lattice on which the representative point moves only downwards. (True both for determinate and stochastic transformations) 6091, 6093 5956 5957

Generation of life Life spontaneous generation in a computer Optimum selecting efficiently Spontaneous generation of life in computer 5958 5959

Adaptation spontaneous generation Intelligence spontaneous generation Regulation must have parts Summary: How to generate Life and Intelligence with probability 1 5960 5961

Adaptation demands parts Essential variables evolution of 5962 5963

Part and cleverness Summary: Intricate cleverness in an organism can be demonstrated only when the whole has been analysed into plenty of parts. 5985 5964 5965

Summary: Spontaneous generation of life and intelligence in analogue form. 5967, 5984 Random will not give intelligence Rubin and Sitgreaves' set of transformations will not give life 5966 5967

Summary: The typical, or modal, element from EE will not provide a system showing the spontaneous generation of intelligence. 5984 Coordinates change of Metric independent of product set Product set is fully general Set or Ensemble full generality of product Summary: A set may be expressed with full generality both by arbitrary labels and by any arbitrary product-set-form. The product set is fully general. Review 5978 5968 5969

Absolute system various divisions Analysis relativity of Joining relativity of Summary: We may see a whole with any set of components we like. Division of a whole into parts is relative, so far as labelling is concerned. Review 5977 5970 5971

Summary: Wholes are divisible into parts specifiable by the observer, arbitrarily. 5984 5972 5973

5974 5975

Summary: Any arbitrary system may allow the demonstration that it contains any arbitrarily selected part. Holism Review Organisation Review Part Review 5976 5977

5978 5979

5980 5981

Diagram of immediate effects (D.I.E.) as constraint 5982 5983

Summary: A review of the relations between "whole" and "part". 6019, 6025 Adaptation demands parts Summary: Abstractness can go too far. 'Adaptation' demands several parts. 5984 5985

Brain is stochastic Cortex is stochastic Summary: Cortex - not statistical but stochastic. 5986 5987

Constraint trasmission of Input property on Property on input 5988 5989

Summary: Imposing a property on the set of input-trajectories will necessarily impose a property on the set of output-trajectories. 6063.4 Child and space Space-time child's concept Summary: "Constraint" is a relation between an Observer and a set. 5990 5991

Topology and child Summary: Pidget on conception of space. Coordination in set theory Directive correlation (Sommerhoff) in set theory Organisation in set theory Regulation in set theory 5992 5993

Summary: Rigorous form of saying that behaviour is "organised". 6007, 6021 5994 5995

5996 5997

Memory Elsasser's estimates 5998 5999

Determinate and Elsasser quotation 6000 6001

Memory disorderly store possible Summary: Review of Elsasser. 6046 Gene information in 6002 6003

Relay information in Summary: "How much information in a brain?" is best preceeded by consideration of "how much information in a flip-flop?" 6043.8, 6179.9 6004 6005

Model physics requires multiple Summary: Notes from Birkhoff's Hydrodynamics. 6006 6007

Laws of nature information in Newton's law information in 6008 6009

Information amount in theory Model has two informational measures Summary: Every theory has two informational aspects: its passive, when it is learnt or otherwise acquired; and its active, when it is used as transducer. The two qualities of information are not linked necessarily. 6010 6011

Isomorphism Bourbaki's extended 6012 6013

Machine "similarity" generalised Relation between machines Similarity generalised Summary: The notion of two machines being "similar", or even just "related", has been completely generalised. 6014 6015

Summary: Relations between machines. Polystable DAMS (Dispersive and Multistable System) as polystable DAMS (Dispersive and Multistable System) [97]: DAMS was built by an ignoramus ●. 6016 6017

Equilibrium of DAMS (Dispersive and Multistable System) Summary: DAMS was built by an ignoramus. 6025 Equilibrium number possible in whole Organisation number of equilibria Summary: Parts that have only one state of equilibrium (for each given input) may build a whole with a multiplicity of equilibria. 6018 6019

Summary: In DAMS, I went for the cutting-up; I should have gone for the equilibria. 6028 Coordination in set theory Directive correlation (Sommerhoff) in set theory Regulation in set theory 6020 6021

Mathematics as dynamic system Summary: Sommerhoff's basic formulation given set theory. 6104 6022 6023

Proof nature of Summary: Wiener suggests that maths is a dynamic process, that may end in a cycle. Diagram of immediate effects (D.I.E.) and number of equilibria Equilibrium and D.I.E. (diagram of immediate effects) 6024 6025

6026 6027

Summary: Effect of D.I.E. on maximal equilibria of whole - cuts make the maximal number fall. 6028 6029

Eigen-theory in set theory 6030 6031

Summary: Eigen-theory generalised. 6109 Information transducer that conserves Machine information machine conserving Reducibility irreducible systems Summary: A physical system that is not completely analysable. 6065 6032 6033

Integration (mathematical) and set theory Summary: Algebraic property of the machine that transmits without loss of information. 6034 6035

Information in a set of functions Laplace transformation in set theory 6036 6037

Function coding it Transformation of a function Summary: Coding a function. 6038 6039

The subjective [7]: A system cannot be a representation of all its possibilities, for they outnumber its variety. ●. Self-awareness impossible 6040 6041

Memory allows input speed to be irrelevant Summary: Certain concepts about a machine demand a set, which can exist only in another machine. Such concepts can hardly be used by the machine if thinking about itself. Summary: Machine whose output is invariant for changes in the speed with which the input is sent in. There must be an intervening stage of memory. Atom number in brain Brain number of atoms 6042 6043

6043+01 6043+02

These images are reproduced courtesy of The Estate of W. Ross Ashby. Copyright 1972, 2008 © The Estate of W. Ross Ashby

---

Home | Journal | Bookshelf | Index | Other | Timeline | Symbols | Reprints | Refs | Abbreviations | ◄ | | ► | Help | Copyright