Category: Papers

Opinion Diffusion on Multilayer Social Networks

In this paper, to reveal the influence of multilayer network structure on opinion diffusion in social networks, we study an opinion dynamics model based on DeGroot model on multilayer networks. We find that if the influence matrix integrating the information of connectedness for each layer and correlation between layers is strongly connected and aperiodic, all agents’ opinions will reach a consensus. However, if there are stubborn agents in the networks, regular agents’ opinions will finally be confined to the convex combinations of the stubborn agents’. Specifically, if all stubborn agents hold the same opinion, even if the agents only exist on a certain layer, their opinions will diffuse to the entire multilayer networks. This paper not only characterizes the influence of multilayer network topology and agent attribute on opinion diffusion in a holistic way, but also demonstrates the importance of coupling agents which play an indispensable role in some social and economic situations.

Read More: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219525917500151

 

HAI-BO HU, CANG-HAI LI, and QING-YING MIAO, Advs. Complex Syst. 20, 1750015 (2017) [25 pages]
https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219525917500151
OPINION DIFFUSION ON MULTILAYER SOCIAL NETWORKS

Source: www.worldscientific.com

Slime mould: the fundamental mechanisms of cognition

The slime mould Physarum polycephalum has been used in developing unconventional computing devices for in which the slime mould played a role of a sensing, actuating, and computing device. These devices treated the slime mould rather as an active living substrate yet the slime mould is a self-consistent living creature which evolved for millions of years and occupied most part of the world, but in any case, that living entity did not own true cognition, just automated biochemical mechanisms. To “rehabilitate” the slime mould from the rank of a purely living electronics element to a “creature of thoughts” we are analyzing the cognitive potential of P. polycephalum. We base our theory of minimal cognition of the slime mould on a bottom-up approach, from the biological and biophysical nature of the slime mould and its regulatory systems using frameworks suh as Lyon’s biogenic cognition, Muller, di Primio-Lengeler\’s modifiable pathways, Bateson’s “patterns that connect” framework, Maturana’s autopoetic network, or proto-consciousness and Morgan’s Canon.

 

Slime mould: the fundamental mechanisms of cognition
Jordi Vallverdu, Oscar Castro, Richard Mayne, Max Talanov, Michael Levin, Frantisek Baluska, Yukio Gunji, Audrey Dussutour, Hector Zenil, Andrew Adamatzky

Source: arxiv.org

The Emergence of Consensus: A Primer

The origin of population-scale coordination has puzzled philosophers and scientists for centuries. Recently, game theory, evolutionary approaches and complex systems science have provided quantitative insights on the mechanisms of social consensus. However, the literature is vast and scattered widely across fields, making it hard for the single researcher to navigate it. This short review aims to provide a compact overview of the main dimensions over which the debate has unfolded and to discuss some representative examples. It focuses on those situations in which consensus emerges ‘spontaneously’ in absence of centralised institutions and covers topic that include the macroscopic consequences of the different microscopic rules of behavioural contagion, the role of social networks, and the mechanisms that prevent the formation of a consensus or alter it after it has emerged. Special attention is devoted to the recent wave of experiments on the emergence of consensus in social systems.

Source: arxiv.org

What is consciousness, and could machines have it?

The controversial question of whether machines may ever be conscious must be based on a careful consideration of how consciousness arises in the only physical system that undoubtedly possesses it: the human brain. We suggest that the word “consciousness” conflates two different types of information-processing computations in the brain: the selection of information for global broadcasting, thus making it flexibly available for computation and report (C1, consciousness in the first sense), and the self-monitoring of those computations, leading to a subjective sense of certainty or error (C2, consciousness in the second sense). We argue that despite their recent successes, current machines are still mostly implementing computations that reflect unconscious processing (C0) in the human brain. We review the psychological and neural science of unconscious (C0) and conscious computations (C1 and C2) and outline how they may inspire novel machine architectures.

 

What is consciousness, and could machines have it?
Stanislas Dehaene, Hakwan Lau, Sid Kouider

Science  27 Oct 2017:
Vol. 358, Issue 6362, pp. 486-492
DOI: 10.1126/science.aan8871

Source: science.sciencemag.org

Expanding and reprogramming the genetic code

Nature uses a limited, conservative set of amino acids to synthesize proteins. The ability to genetically encode an expanded set of building blocks with new chemical and physical properties is transforming the study, manipulation and evolution of proteins, and is enabling diverse applications, including approaches to probe, image and control protein function, and to precisely engineer therapeutics. Underpinning this transformation are strategies to engineer and rewire translation. Emerging strategies aim to reprogram the genetic code so that noncanonical biopolymers can be synthesized and evolved, and to test the limits of our ability to engineer the translational machinery and systematically recode genomes.

 

Expanding and reprogramming the genetic code
Jason W. Chin
Nature 550, 53–60 (05 October 2017)
doi:10.1038/nature24031

Source: www.nature.com