Bruce Maclennan

University of Tennessee | UTK · Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

One of the most common information representations in the brain is the topographic or computational map, in which neurons are arranged systematically according to the values they represent. By representing quantitative relationships spatially, computational maps enable the brain to compute complex, nonlinear functions to the accuracy required. This...

We argue that embryological morphogenesis provides a model of how massive swarms of microscopic agents can be coordinated to assemble complex, multiscale hierarchical structures. This is accomplished by understanding natural morphogenetic processes in mathematical terms, abstracting from the biological specifics, and implementing these mathematical...

The 0-1 integer linear programming feasibility problem is an important NP-complete problem. This paper proposes a continuous-time dynamical system for solving that problem without getting trapped in non-solution local minima. First, the problem is transformed to an easier form in linear time. Then, we propose an "impulse algorithm" to escape from l...

The worldview emerging from neurophenomenology is consistent with the phenomenological insights obtained by Neoplatonic theurgical operations. For example, gods and daimons are phenomenologically equivalent to the archetypes and complexes investigated in Jungian psychology and explicated by evolutionary psychology. Jung understood the unconscious m...

A revitalized practice of natural philosophy can help people to live a better life and promote a flourishing ecosystem. Such a philosophy is natural in two senses. First, it is natural by seeking to understand the whole of nature, including mental phenomena. Thus, a comprehensive natural philosophy should address the phenomena of sentience by embra...

A revitalized practice of natural philosophy can help people to live a better life and promote a flourishing ecosystem. Such a philosophy is natural in two senses. First, it is natural by seeking to understand the whole of nature, including mental phenomena, In particular, a comprehensive natural philosophy should address the phenomena of sentience...

This paper proposes a brain-inspired approach to quantum machine learning with the goal of circumventing many of the complications of other approaches. The fact that quantum processes are unitary presents both opportunities and challenges. A principal opportunity is that a large number of computations can be carried out in parallel in linear superp...

This chapter considers the question of whether a robot could feel pain or experience other emotions and proposes empirical methods for answering this question. After a review of the biological functions of emotion and pain, the author argues that autonomous robots have similar functions that need to be fulfilled, which require systems analogous to...

In this paper we present a neurally plausible model of robot reaching inspired by human infant reaching that is based on embodied artificial intelligence, which emphasizes the importance of the sensory-motor interaction of an agent and the world. This model encompasses both learning sensory-motor correlations through motor babbling and also arm mot...

Physical competence is acquired through animals' embodied interaction with their physical environments, and psychological competence is acquired through situated interaction with other agents. The acquired neural models essential to these competencies are implicit and permit more fluent and nuanced behavior than explicit models. The challenge is to...

Mankind’s dependence on artificial intelligence and robotics is increasing rapidly as technology becomes more advanced. Finding a way to seamlessly intertwine these two worlds will help boost productivity in society and aid in a variety of ways in modern civilization. Androids, Cyborgs, and Robots in Contemporary Culture and Society is an essentia...

Unconventional computing is about breaking boundaries in thinking, acting and computing. Typical topics of this non-typical field include, but are not limited to physics of computation, non-classical logics, new complexity measures, novel hardware, mechanical, chemical and quantum computing. Unconventional computing encourages a new style of thinki...

Achieving greater speeds and densities in the post-Moore’s Law era will require computation to be more like the physical processes by which it is realized. Therefore we explore the essence of computation, that is, what distinguishes computational processes from other physical processes. We consider such issues as the topology of information process...

In this paper we present a neurally plausible model of human infant reaching that is based on embodied artificial intelligence, which emphasizes the importance of the sensorimotor interaction of an agent and the world. This model encompasses both learning sensorimotor correlations through motor babbling and also arm motion planning using spreading...

Emotions are important cognitive faculties that enable animals to behave intelligently in real time. The author argues that many important current and future applications of autonomous robots will require them to have a rich emotional repertoire, but this raises the question of whether it is possible for robots to experience their emotions consciou...

This chapter proposes a computerized tool to promote inspiration in a specific, but very important, kind of scientific creativity, for significant scientific breakthroughs are often enabled by conceptual revolutions. The creative process is often divided into four phases: preparation, incubation, inspiration, and verification/elaboration. The propo...

Connectionist approaches to cognitive modeling make use of large networks of simple computational units, which communicate by means of simple quantitative signals. Higher-level information processing emerges from the massively parallel interaction of these units by means of their connections, and a network may adapt its behavior by means of local c...

The philosophy of science should accommodate itself to the facts of human existence, using all aspects of human experience to adapt more effectively, as individuals, species, and global ecosystem. This has several implications: (1) Our nature as sentient beings interacting with other sentient beings requires the use of phenomenological methods to i...

The endpoint toward which reconfigurable systems should develop is programmable matter, that is, complex systems whose physical properties and structure can be controlled in a systematic way. This can be accomplished by recognizing that computational processes can be used to assemble and reconfigure complex, hierarchically structured systems. Progr...

Future computing paradigms and technologies will have to be more like the physical processes by which they are realized, and because these processes are primarily continuous, post-Moore’s law computing will involve an increased use of analog computation. Traditionally analog computers have computed ordinary differential equations of time, but analo...

This paper addresses the problem of how to coordinate the behavior of very large numbers of microrobots in order to assemble complex, hierarchically structured physical objects. The approach is patterned after morphogenetic processes during embryological development, in which masses of simple agents (cells) coordinate to produce complex three-dimen...

Emotions are important cognitive faculties that enable animals to behave intelligently in real time. The author argues that many important current and future applications of autonomous robots will require them to have a rich emotional repertoire, but this raises the question of whether it is possible for robots to experience their emotions consciou...

Applied Behavior Analysis-based early interventions are evidence based, efficacious therapies for autism. They are, however, labor intensive and often inaccessible at the recommended levels. In this paper we present ongoing doctoral research aimed at development of the formal, computational representation for Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) that co...

Use of quantum probability as a top-down model of cognition will be enhanced by consideration of the underlying complex-valued wave function, which allows a better account of interference effects and of the structure of learned and ad hoc question operators. Furthermore, the treatment of incompatible questions can be made more quantitative by analy...

Glossary Definition of the Subject Introduction Fundamentals of Analog Computing Analog Computation in Nature General-Purpose Analog Computation Analog Computation and the Turing Limit Analog Thinking Future Directions Bibliography

Today's artefacts, from small devices to buildings and cities, are, or are becoming, cyber-physical socio-technical systems, with tightly interwoven material and computational parts. Currently, we have to laboriously build such systems, component by component, and the results are often difficult to maintain, adapt, and reconfigure. Even "soft" ware...

We discuss the problem of assembling complex physical systems that are structured from the nanoscale up through the macroscale, and argue that embryological morphogenesis provides a good model of how this can be accomplished. Morphogenesis (whether natural or artificial) is an example of embodied computation, which exploits physical processes for c...

A serious challenge to nanotechnology is the problem of assembling complex physical systems that are structured from the nanoscale up through the macroscale, but embryological morphogenesis provides a good model of how it can be accomplished. We review the fundamental processes in embryological development and argue that these processes, or approxi...

Post-Moore’s Law computing will require an assimilation between computational processes and their physical realizations, both to achieve greater speeds and densities and to allow computational processes to assemble and control matter at the nanoscale. Therefore, we need to investigate “embodied computing, ” which addresses the essential interrelati...

Embodied computation is computation in which information processing emerges from and directly governs physical processes. As an example we present artificial morphogenesis, which uses computational processes analogous to those in embryological development in order to assemble complex physical structures. We discuss the requirements for a formalism...

In this paper we present Myro-C++, developed at the University of Tennessee. Myro-C++ is a C++ port of the Python Myro library that was written by the Institute for Personal Robots in Education (IPRE) at Georgia Tech and Bryn Mawr College. Myro-C++ is publicly available, open source software, released under the GPLv3 open source license. At the tim...

Embryological development provides an inspiring example of the creation of complex hierarchical structures by self-organization. Likewise, biological metamorphosis shows how these complex systems can radically restructure themselves. Our research investigates these principles and their application to artificial systems in order to create intricatel...

The creation of physical objects with a complex hierarchical structure from the nanoscale up to the macroscale presents many challenges that must be met in order to reap the full benefits of nanotechnology. To accomplish this we can learn from a natural process that already accomplishes it: embryological morphogenesis, which teaches us means by whi...

In this paper, the author describes a systematic and general approach to nanostructure synthesis and control through autonomous molecular combinatory computing. Combinatory computing is based on simple network (graph) substitution operations, deriving from combinatory logic (Curry, Feys, & Craig, 1958), which are sufficient for any computation. Whe...

We argue that post-Moore's Law computing technology will require the ex- ploitation of new physical processes for computational purposes, which will be facilitated by new models of computation. After a brief discussion of computa- tion in the broad sense, we present a model of generalized computation, and a corresponding machine model, which can be...

Aesthetic values are difficult to define and to identify in engineering activities for several reasons. One reason is that the professional aesthetics discourse is narrowly focused on the fine arts including literature, such that, particularly for many Anglo-Saxon aestheticists, aesthetics has become equivalent to the study of the fine arts or art...

"Hypercomputation" is often defined as transcending Turing computation in the sense of computing a larger class of functions than can Turing machines. While this possibility is important and interesting, this paper argues that there are many other important senses in which we may "transcend Turing computation." Turing computation, like all models,...

Enormous progress has been made in recent years in the nanostructuring of materials, and a variety of techniques are available for fabricating bulk materials with a desired nanostructure. However, the higher levels of organization have been neglected, and nanostructured materials are assembled into macroscopic structures using techniques that are n...

Based on results from evolutionary psychology, we discuss important functions that can be served by consciousness in autonomous robots. These include deliberately controlled action, conscious awareness, self-awareness, metacognition, and ego consciousness. We distinguish intrinsic intentionality from consciousness, but argue it is also important to...

Based on results from evolutionary psychology we discuss important functions that can be served by consciousness in autonomous robots. We distinguish intrinsic intentionality from consciousness, but argue it is also important. Finally we explore the hard problem for robots (i.e., whether they can experience subjective awareness) from the perspectiv...

Synthetic ethology was developed as a methodology for constructing experi- ments in which artificial agents could exhibit real (i.e., not simulated) intention- ality and other mental phenomena. This report has two purposes. The first is to review the motivations for synthetic ethology as an experimental methodology and to explain how it can be used...

My goal in this presentation is to recontextualize the concept of computation. I will begin by reviewing the historical roots of Church-Turing computation to remind us that the theory exists in a frame of relevance, which underlies the assumptions on which it rests and the questions it is suited to answer. I will argue that, although this frame of...

We propose certain non-Turing models of computation, but our intent is not to advocate models that surpass the power of Turing Machines (TMs), but to de- fend the need for models with orthogonal notions of power. We review the na- ture of models and argue that they are relative to a domain of application and are ill-suited to use outside that domai...

Molecular combinatory computing makes use of a small set of chemical reactions that together have the ability to implement arbitrary computations. Therefore it provides a means of "programming" the synthesis of nanostructures and of controlling their behavior by programmatic means. We illustrate the approach by several simulated nano-assembly appli...

We argue that fundamental differences of kind prevent subjective experience from being reduced to neural phenomena. Nevertheless, it is possible to perform a quantitative reduction of subjective experience to smaller units of subjectivity in parallel with a reduction of neurological processes to more elementary neurological events. Protophenomena a...

We argue that color, in the sense most behaviorally relevant for humans and other animals, includes much than reflectance. For all animals color is an indicator of the substance and state (including internal state) of objects, for which purpose reflectance is just one among many relevant optical properties. Further, linguistic evidence shows that f...

It has been argued that neural networks and other forms of analog computation may transcend the limits of Turing-machine computation; proofs have been offered on both sides, subject to differing assumptions. In this article I argue that the important comparisons between the two models of computation are not so much mathematical as epistemological....

We demonstrate how combinatory molecular computation allows parallel self- assembly of several kinds of nanomembranes and nanotubes. One such nanomem- brane is a square grid constructed of cross-linked horizont al and vertical chains. We show that a relatively minor change causes it to self-assemble into a nanotube with the same cross-linked struct...

Connectionist approaches to cognitive modeling make use of large networks of simple computational units, which communicate by means of simple quantitative signals. Higher-level information processing emerges from the massively-parallel interaction of these units by means of their connections, and a network may adapt its behavior by means of local c...

This report addresses and resolves several issues in the use of combinators for molecular computation. The issues include assumptions about binding sites and linking groups, "capping" of unused sites, replication and sharing of structures in a molecular context, creation of cyclic structures, disassembly of unneeded structures, representation of Bo...

This report contains, in summary form, definitions, schematic reactions, and equivalences of all combinators in use by this project. It will be updated as new combinators, equivalences, etc. are used.

My goal is to outline an evolutionary neuropsychological foundation for spiritual and religious experiences. Central to this account are concepts from archetypal psychology, which, on the one hand, explain the structure of common religious experiences, but, on the other, are grounded in ethology and evolutionary biology. From this it follows that c...

The fifty-seven original essays in this book provide a comprehensive overview of the interdisciplinary field of animal cognition. The contributors include cognitive ethologists, behavioral ecologists, experimental and developmental psychologists, behaviorists, philosophers, neuroscientists, computer scientists and modelers, field biologists, and ot...

We explain how a small set of molecular building blocks will allow the implementation of "universally programmable intelligent matter," that is, matter whose structure, properties, and behavior can be programmed, quite literally, at the molecular level.

The continuous models of knowledge and cognition for information representation and processing in natural and artificial neural networks are discussed. A principle of continuity is adopted, which constrains all models to be continuous. The principle of continuity and knowledge of neural processes, suggests that information processing is considered...

This report presents synthetic ethology as a new tool for the investigation of animal cognition. In synthetic ethology a population of simulated organisms is created inside a computer and allowed to evolve within a specified environment. Since we create the organisms and the world they inhabit, we are free to make them as simple or as complex as re...

Computationalism is based on the idea that cognition is computation, but connectionism raises the question of whether or not a physical system obeying dierential equations is computing. This issue may be addressed by drawing several important distinctions: (1) among various forms of discrete and continuous computational processes, (2) between these...

The issue of symbol grounding is not essentially different in analog and digital computation. The principal difference between the two is that in analog computers continuous variables change continuously, whereas in digital computers discrete variables change in discrete steps (at the relevant level of analysis). interpretations are imposed on anal...

Introduction Field computation (FC) may be defined informally as computation in which data is represented in fields, that is, as continua of continuously variable quantity. Thus, a visual image is an example of a field, and a Fourier transform is an example of a simple (nonrecurrent) field computation. A more complex example is a relaxation process...

In the first part of this commentary I argue that a neurophenomenological analysis of color reveals additional asymmetries that preclude undetectable color transformations, without appealing to weak arguments based on Basic Color Categories (BCCs); that is, I suggest additional factors that must be included in and which break the remaining asymmetr...

We describe four series of experiments to study the emergence of inherently meaningful communicationby synthetic evolution in a population of artificial agents, which are controlled either by finite state machines or by neural net- works. We found that the agents can evolve the ability to use single symbols and, to a limited extent, pairs of symbol...

As defined in MacLennan (1987), a field computer is a (spatial) continuum-limit neural net. This paper investigates field computers whose temporal dynamics is also continuum-limit, being governed by an integro-differential equation. Such systems are motivated both as a means of studying neural nets and as a model for cognitive processing. As this p...

to the problem at hand? (2) Is the system approximately discrete or approximately continuous (or neither) at that level? One conclusion we can draw is that it can't matter whether an analog computer system (such as a neural net) is "really" being simulated by a digital computer, or for that matter whether a digital computer is "really " being simul...

ABSTRACT 1 Introduction This paper addresses the principal problem of consciousness, which is to reconcile our experience of subjective awareness with the scientific world view; it is essentially the same as Chalmer's "Hard Problem." This problem arises because subjective This report based on a presentation at the International Conference on Consci...

We review the concepts of field computation, a model of computation that processes information represented as spatially continuous arrangements of continuous data. We show that many processes in the brain are described usefully as field computation. Throughout we stress the connections between field computation and quantum mechanics, especially inc...

This article will attempt: (1) to explain the importance of new information processing technology, (2) to discuss its potential impact on computing, and (3) to suggest research necessary to its successful implementation. 1.2 Artificial Intelligence: Old and New

This paper addresses the principal problem of consciousness, which is to reconcile our experience of subjective awareness with the scientific world view; it is essentially the same as Chalmer's "Hard Problem." This problem arises because subjective experience has a special epistemological status, since it is the personal (and private) substratum of...

I discuss neuroscientific and phenomenological arguments in support of Millikan's thesis. I then consider invariance as a unifying theme in perceptual and conceptual tracking, and how invariants may be extracted from the environment. Finally, some wider implications of Millikan's nondescriptionist approach to language are presented, with speci...

SKI-combinator trees are a simple model of computation, which are computationally complete (in a Turing sense), but are suggestive of basic biochemical processes and can be used as a vehicle for understanding processes of biological (and prebiotic) self-organization. After a brief overview of SKI-combinator trees, we describe the results of a serie...

The crucial role played by aesthetics in programming language design and the importance of elegance in programming languages are defended on the basis of analogies with structural engineering, as presented in Billington's The Tower and the Bridge. 1 The Value of Analogies Programming language design is a comparatively new activity --- it has existe...

Values are critical for intelligent behavior, since values determine interests, and interests determine relevance. Therefore we address relevance and its role in intelligent behavior in animals and machines. Animals avoid exhaustive enumeration of possibilities by focusing on relevant aspects of the environment, which emerge into the (cognitive) fo...

We show that communication may evolve in a population of simple machines that are physically capable of sensing and modifying a shared environment, and for which there is selective pressure in favor of cooperative behavior. The emergence of communication was detected by comparing simulations in which communication was permitted with those in which...

A complete understanding of communication, language, intentionality andrelated mental phenomena will require a theory integrating mechanistic explanationswith ethological phenomena. For the foreseeable future, the complexitiesof natural life in its natural environment will preclude such an understanding.An approach more conducive to carefully contr...

Field computation deals with information processing in terms of fields, continuous distributions of data. Many neural phenomena are conveniently described as fields, including neuron activity from large (brain area) to small (dendritic) scales. Further, it is often useful to describe motor control and sensorimotor coordination in terms of external...

The `hard problem' is hard because of the special epistemological status of consciousness, which does not, however, preclude its scientific investigation. Data from phenomenologically trained observers can be combined with neurological investigations to establish the relation between experience and neurodynamics. Although experience cannot be reduc...

The `hard problem' is hard because of the special epistemological status of consciousness, which does not, however, preclude its scientific investigation. Data from phenomenologically trained observers can be combined with neurological investigations to establish the relation between experience and neurodynamics. Although experience cannot be reduc...

30.53> Notice that, unlike the real numbers, there is no natural sense in which the complex numbers can be ordered. 2 CHAPTER 3. BASIC COMPLEX ANALYSIS 3.2 Geometrical Interpretations The simplest use of the Argand diagram is to understand the addition and subtraction of complex numbers. Definition 3.2.1 (Complex addition) Addition (or subtraction)...

ce) An inner-product space is a real linear space with an inner product. 2 CHAPTER 3. HILBERT SPACES Exercise 3.1.1 If x and y are n-dimensional real vectors, show that x Delta y = n X k=1 x k y k is an inner product. This demonstrates that E n is an inner-product space. Exercise 3.1.2 If U and V are column vectors, show that U T V is an inner prod...

30.14> pseudo-metric is function satisfying the weaker condition d(x; x) = 0 instead of Self-identity. 2 CHAPTER 1. BASIC CONCEPTS OF TOPOLOGY Exercise 1.1.1 Give an example of a function that is a pseudo-metric but not a metric. Exercise 1.1.2 For a given nondirected graph, define the distance between two vertices to be the number of edges in the...

1.58> For every x 2 L there is a Gammax 2 L such that Gammax Phi x = 0 = x Phi Gammax: 2 CHAPTER 2. BANACH SPACES commutative sum: x Phi y = y Phi x. right distribution: aOmega (x Phi y) = (aOmega x) Phi (aOmega y). left distribution: (a + b)Omega x = (aOmega x) Phi (bOmega x), where + is the addition operation of the field. associative product: aO...