Evolving Neural Arrays A new mechanism for learning complex action sequences

Incremental evolution has proved to be an extremely useful mechanism in complex actions sequence learning. Its performance is based on the decomposition of the original problem into increasingly complex stages whose learning is carried out sequentially, starting from the simplest stage and thus increasing its generality and difficulty. The present work proposes neural array applications as a novel mechanism for complex actions sequence learning. Each array is composed by several neural nets obtained by means of an evolving process allowing them to acquire various degrees of specialization. Neural nets constituting the same array are organized so that, in each assessment, there is only one in charge of its response. The proposed strategy is applied to problems presented by obstacle evasion and target reaching as a means to show the capability of this proposal to solve complex problems. The measurements carried out show the superiority of evolving neural arrays over traditional neuroevolving methods that handle neural network populations – SANE is being particularly used as a comparative reference due to its high performance. Neural array capability to recover from previous defective evolving stages has been tested, evincing highly plausible final successful outcomes – even in those adverse cases. Finally, conclusions are presented as well as some future lines of work.

The origins of music

Music is a fascinating topic for evolutionary theory, natural philosophy, and narrative construction: music is a highly valued feature of all known living cultures, pervading many aspects of daily life, playing many roles. And music is ancient. The oldest known musical instruments appear in the archaeological record from 40,000 years ago (40 Kya) and from these we can infer even earlier musical artefacts/activities, as yet unrepresented in the archaeological record. I argue that, following research couched in the social brain hypothesis framework, a theoretical basis is emerging for the proposition that the (incremental) evolution of proto-music took hold in the late mid-Pleistocene, roughly 400 Kya, and perhaps earlier. Subsequently, musical activities and traditions incrementally evolved throughout modernity (from 250 Kya onwards), global dispersal from Africa (currently thought to be from 60-100 Kya onwards), and the Holocene (from 12 Kya). In this article I provide an overview of recent research and a sketch of music’s evolutionary career. I identify avenues for future research, including work in the evolution of the emotions, and the application of signalling theory to music archaeology.

The Incremental Evolution of National Receivership Law and the Elusive Search for Federal Purpose

There was a period when provincial legislation that trespassed too deeply into the federal field of bankruptcy and insolvency law was likely to be declared to be ultra vires as an invasion of the exclusive federal power in relation to that field. The five-to-four split in the 1978 Supreme Court of Canada decision in Robinson v Countrywide Factors Ltd was very much a turning point. Thereafter, the constitutionality of provincial legislation was almost invariably determined through the application of the paramountcy principle. Pursuant to this principle, a provincial statute is rendered inoperative to the extent that it conflicts with the federal statute. The Supreme Court of Canada has created a two-branched test for determining the presence of a conflict. Under the first branch, there is an operational conflict when it is impossible to comply with both the federal and the provincial statute. Under the second branch, there is a conflict when the operation of the provincial statute frustrates the purpose of the federal statute. Either type of conflict will render the provincial statute inoperative...