scholarly journals Are basic actors brainbound agents? Narrowing down solutions to the problem of probabilistic content for predictive perceivers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Britten-Neish
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Experience ◽  
Extended Mind ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Conditional Probability Density ◽  
Single Action ◽  
Density Distributions ◽  
Consciousness Studies ◽  
Personal Level ◽  
Probability Density Distributions ◽  
The Mind

AbstractClark (Journal of Consciousness Studies, 25(3–4), 71–87, 2018) worries that predictive processing (PP) accounts of perception introduce a puzzling disconnect between the content of personal-level perceptual states and their underlying subpersonal representations. According to PP, in perception, the brain encodes information about the environment in conditional probability density distributions over causes of sensory input. But it seems perceptual experience only presents us with one way the world is at a time. If perception is at bottom probabilistic, shouldn’t this aspect of subpersonally represented content show up in consciousness? To address this worry, Clark argues that representations underlying personal-level content are constrained by the need to provide a single action-guiding take on the environment. However, this proposal rests a conception of the nature of agency, famously articulated by Davidson (1980a, b), that is inconsistent with a view of the mind as embodied-extended. Since Clark and other enactivist PP theorists present the extended mind as an important consequence of the predictive framework, the proposal is in tension with his complete view. I claim that this inconsistency could be resolved either by retaining the Davidsonian view of action and abandoning the extended-embodied approach, or by adopting a more processual, world-involving account of agency and perceptual experience than Clark currently endorses. To solve the puzzle he raises, Clark must become a radical enactivist or a consistent internalist.

scholarly journals Innovations in the psychopathology of schizophrenia: a primer for busy clinicians

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Peter Wilson ◽  
Clara Humpston ◽  
Rajan Nathan
Keyword(s):  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Levels Of Analysis ◽  
Social Interventions ◽  
Personal Level ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Psychopathology Of Schizophrenia ◽  
Process Based Models

SUMMARY Significant developments in schizophrenia psychopathology are ready to be incorporated into clinical practice. These advances allow a way forward through the well-described challenges experienced with current diagnostic and psychopathological frameworks. This article discusses approaches that will enable clinicians to access a wider and richer spectrum of patient experience; describes process-based models of schizophrenia in the domains of both the brain and the mind; and considers how different levels of analysis might be linked via the predictive processing framework. Multiple levels of analysis provide different targets for varying modalities of treatment – dopamine blockade at the molecular level, psychological therapy at the level of the mind, and social interventions at the personal level. Psychiatry needs to align itself closer to neuroscientific research. It should move from a symptom-based understanding to a model based on process. That is – after having asked about a patient's symptoms and experience clinicians need to introduce steps involving a consideration of what might be the brain and mind processes underlying the experience.

scholarly journals Agency, Responsibility, Selves, and the Mechanical Mind

Philosophies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Fiorella Battaglia
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Technology ◽  
Extended Mind ◽  
Human Machine Interaction ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
Legal Perspective ◽  
Area Of Concern ◽  
Third Person Perspective ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain

Moral issues arise not only when neural technology directly influences and affects people’s lives, but also when the impact of its interventions indirectly conceptualizes the mind in new, and unexpected ways. It is the case that theories of consciousness, theories of subjectivity, and third person perspective on the brain provide rival perspectives addressing the mind. Through a review of these three main approaches to the mind, and particularly as applied to an “extended mind”, the paper identifies a major area of transformation in philosophy of action, which is understood in terms of additional epistemic devices—including a legal perspective of regulating the human–machine interaction and a personality theory of the symbiotic connection between human and machine. I argue this is a new area of concern within philosophy, which will be characterized in terms of self-objectification, which becomes “alienation” following Ernst Kapp’s philosophy of technology. The paper argues that intervening in the brain can affect how we conceptualize the mind and modify its predicaments.

scholarly journals Extending the extended consciousness debate: perception, imagination, and the common kind assumption

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Deery
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Experience ◽  
Phenomenal Consciousness ◽  
Psychological Theory ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Mental Event ◽  
The World ◽  
Predictive Approach ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain

AbstractFor some, the states and processes involved in the realisation of phenomenal consciousness are not confined to within the organismic boundaries of the experiencing subject. Instead, the sub-personal basis of perceptual experience can, and does, extend beyond the brain and body to implicate environmental elements through one’s interaction with the world. These claims are met by proponents of predictive processing, who propose that perception and imagination should be understood as a product of the same internal mechanisms. On this view, as visually imagining is not considered to be world-involving, it is assumed that world-involvement must not be essential for perception, and thus internalism about the sub-personal basis is true. However, the argument for internalism from the unity of perception and imagination relies for its strength on a questionable conception of the relationship between the two experiential states. I argue that proponents of the predictive approach are guilty of harbouring an implicit commitment to the common kind assumption which does not follow trivially from their framework. That is, the assumption that perception and imagination are of the same fundamental kind of mental event. I will argue that there are plausible alternative ways of conceiving of this relationship without drawing internalist metaphysical conclusions from their psychological theory. Thus, the internalist owes the debate clarification of this relationship and further argumentation to secure their position.

A Phenomenological Theory of Socioeconomic Systems with Spatial Interactions

1982 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 869-888 ◽  
Author(s):  
P F Lesse
Keyword(s):  
Lagrange Multipliers ◽  
Average Cost ◽  
Phenomenological Theory ◽  
Traffic Flows ◽  
Spatial Interactions ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Density Distributions ◽  
Expected Values ◽  
Probability Density Distributions ◽  
The Relationship

This paper deals with a class of models which describe spatial interactions and are based on Jaynes's principle. The variables entering these models can be partitioned in four groups: (a) probability density distributions (for example, relative traffic flows), (b) expected values (average cost of travel), (c) their duals (Lagrange multipliers, traffic impedance coefficient), and (d) operators transforming probabilities into expected values. The paper presents several dual formulations replacing the problem of maximizing entropy in terms of the group of variables (a) by equivalent extreme problems involving groups (b)-(d). These problems form the basis of a phenomenological theory. The theory makes it possible to derive useful relationships among groups (b) and (c). There are two topics discussed: (1) practical application of the theory (with examples), (2) the relationship between socioeconomic modelling and statistical mechanics.

Assembly variation analysis of complicated products based on rigid–flexible hybrid vector loop

2018 ◽  
Vol 233 (10) ◽  
pp. 2099-2114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenyu Liu ◽  
Shien Zhou ◽  
Chan Qiu ◽  
Jianrong Tan
Keyword(s):  
Probability Density ◽  
Loop Model ◽  
Feature Points ◽  
Variation Analysis ◽  
Manufacturing Error ◽  
Density Distributions ◽  
Mechanical Products ◽  
Flexible Parts ◽  
Probability Density Distributions ◽  
Product Assembly

The performance of mechanical products is closely related to their key feature errors. It is essential to predict the final assembly variation by assembly variation analysis to ensure product performance. Rigid–flexible hybrid construction is a common type of mechanical product. Existing methods of variation analysis in which rigid and flexible parts are calculated separately are difficult to meet the requirements of these complicated mechanical products. Another methodology is a result of linear superposition with rigid and flexible errors, which cannot reveal the quantitative relationship between product assembly variation and part manufacturing error. Therefore, a kind of complicated products’ assembly variation analysis method based on rigid–flexible vector loop is proposed in this article. First, shapes of part surfaces and sidelines are estimated according to different tolerance types. Probability density distributions of discrete feature points on the surface are calculated based on the tolerance field size with statistical methods. Second, flexible parts surface is discretized into a set of multi-segment vectors to build vector-loop model. Each vector can be orthogonally decomposed into the components representing position information and error size. Combining the multi-segment vector set of flexible part with traditional rigid part vector, a uniform vector-loop model is constructed to represent rigid and flexible complicated products. Probability density distributions of discrete feature points on part surface are regarded as inputs to calculate assembly variation values of products’ key features. Compared with the existing methods, this method applies to the assembly variation prediction of complicated products that consist of both rigid and flexible parts. Impact of each rigid and flexible part’s manufacturing error on product assembly variation can be determined, and it provides the foundation of parts tolerance optimization design. Finally, an assembly example of phased array antenna verifies effectiveness of the proposed method in this article.

scholarly journals A new Description of Probability Density Distributions of Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMC)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uwe Berger ◽  
Gerd Baumgarten ◽  
Jens Fiedler ◽  
Franz-Josef Lübken
Keyword(s):  
Probability Density ◽  
Mass Density ◽  
Particle Radius ◽  
Number Density ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Statistical Probability ◽  
Polar Mesospheric Clouds ◽  
Density Distributions ◽  
Mesospheric Clouds ◽  
Probability Density Distributions

Abstract. In this paper we present a new description about statistical probability density distributions (pdfs) of Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMC) and noctilucent clouds (NLC). The analysis is based on observations of maximum backscatter, ice mass density, ice particle radius, and number density of ice particles measured by the ALOMAR RMR-lidar for all NLC seasons from 2002 to 2016. From this data set we derive a new class of pdfs that describe the statistics of PMC/NLC events which is different from previously statistical methods using the approach of an exponential distribution commonly named g-distribution. The new analysis describes successfully the probability statistic of ALOMAR lidar data. It turns out that the former g-function description is a special case of our new approach. In general the new statistical function can be applied to many kinds of different PMC parameters, e.g. maximum backscatter, integrated backscatter, ice mass density, ice water content, ice particle radius, ice particle number density or albedo measured by satellites. As a main advantage the new method allows to connect different observational PMC distributions of lidar, and satellite data, and also to compare with distributions from ice model studies. In particular, the statistical distributions of different ice parameters can be compared with each other on the basis of a common assessment that facilitate, for example, trend analysis of PMC/NLC.

scholarly journals Enacting Media. An Embodied Account of Enculturation Between Neuromediality and New Cognitive Media Theory

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joerg Fingerhut
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Generative Models ◽  
Media Theory ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Moving Images ◽  
The World ◽  
Media Work ◽  
The Mind

This paper argues that the still-emerging paradigm of situated cognition requires a more systematic perspective on media to capture the enculturation of the human mind. By virtue of being media, cultural artifacts present central experiential models of the world for our embodied minds to latch onto. The paper identifies references to external media within embodied, extended, enactive, and predictive approaches to cognition, which remain underdeveloped in terms of the profound impact that media have on our mind. To grasp this impact, I propose an enactive account of media that is based on expansive habits as media-structured, embodied ways of bringing forth meaning and new domains of values. We apply such habits, for instance, when seeing a picture or perceiving a movie. They become established through a process of reciprocal adaptation between media artifacts and organisms and define the range of viable actions within such a media ecology. Within an artifactual habit, we then become attuned to a specific media work (e.g., a TV series, a picture, a text, or even a city) that engages us. Both the plurality of habits and the dynamical adjustments within a habit require a more flexible neural architecture than is addressed by classical cognitive neuroscience. To detail how neural and media processes interlock, I will introduce the concept of neuromediality and discuss radical predictive processing accounts that could contribute to the externalization of the mind by treating media themselves as generative models of the world. After a short primer on general media theory, I discuss media examples in three domains: pictures and moving images; digital media; architecture and the built environment. This discussion demonstrates the need for a new cognitive media theory based on enactive artifactual habits—one that will help us gain perspective on the continuous re-mediation of our mind.

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