Category Trees - Classifiers that Branch on Category

This paper presents a batch classifier that splits a dataset into tree branches depending on the category type. It has been improved from the earlier version and fixed a mistake in the earlier paper. Two important changes have been made. The first is to represent each category with a separate classifier. Each classifier then classifies its own subset of data rows, using batch input values to create the centroid and also represent the category itself. If the classifier contains data from more than one category however, it needs to create new classifiers for the incorrect data. The second change therefore is to allow the classifier to branch to new layers when there is a split in the data, and create new classifiers there for the data rows that are incorrectly classified. Each layer can therefore branch like a tree - not for distinguishing features, but for distinguishing categories. The paper then suggests a further innovation, which is to represent some data columns with fixed value ranges, or bands. When considering features, it is shown that some of the data can be classified directly through fixed value ranges, while the rest must be classified using a classifier technique and the idea allows the paper to discuss a biological analogy with neurons and neuron links. Tests show that the method can successfully classify a diverse set of benchmark datasets to better than the state-of-the-art.

The Life of Language: Saussure and Evolution

<p>The stimulus for this thesis came from a quite unexpected source. Originally I embarked on a comparative study of the two philosophers primarily responsible for the divergence of the Continental and Anglo-American traditions of language based philosophy: Ferdinand de Saussure and Gottlob Frege. But when I began a careful reading of Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics (1974 – the Course) I was struck by the extent to which his synchronic theory of language appeared to reflect an awareness of linguistic evolution as analogous to biological evolution. That seemed to me to be particularly interesting for two reasons. First, I was aware of the empirical success that linguists and biologists have had in the late twentieth century in exploiting this analogy, particularly in tracing the geographical origins of ethnic groups (Cavalli-Sforza, 2000). Second, Saussure is usually identified with a view of language as something essentially arbitrary and conventional – something essentially human (Saussure, 1974, p. 16). By that account linguistic evolution would seem to have little in common with natural evolutionary processes. Yet far from rejecting the analogy, Saussure seemed to be taking a position within it, promoting a view of linguistic evolution that was akin to a contemporary Darwinian understanding, as opposed to a more archaic view, of biological evolution (Saussure, 1974, p. 4). The questions then arose: to what extent is Saussure’s theory of language a theory that could underpin and explain the linguistic-biological analogy? To what extent should it be such a theory? And what does the linguisticbiological analogy suggest about the philosophical appropriation of Saussure’s theory? These are the guiding questions of this thesis. The answers I advance make for what I hope is an interesting and even provocative re-reading of Saussure’s theory of language.</p>

The Life of Language: Saussure and Evolution

<p>The stimulus for this thesis came from a quite unexpected source. Originally I embarked on a comparative study of the two philosophers primarily responsible for the divergence of the Continental and Anglo-American traditions of language based philosophy: Ferdinand de Saussure and Gottlob Frege. But when I began a careful reading of Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics (1974 – the Course) I was struck by the extent to which his synchronic theory of language appeared to reflect an awareness of linguistic evolution as analogous to biological evolution. That seemed to me to be particularly interesting for two reasons. First, I was aware of the empirical success that linguists and biologists have had in the late twentieth century in exploiting this analogy, particularly in tracing the geographical origins of ethnic groups (Cavalli-Sforza, 2000). Second, Saussure is usually identified with a view of language as something essentially arbitrary and conventional – something essentially human (Saussure, 1974, p. 16). By that account linguistic evolution would seem to have little in common with natural evolutionary processes. Yet far from rejecting the analogy, Saussure seemed to be taking a position within it, promoting a view of linguistic evolution that was akin to a contemporary Darwinian understanding, as opposed to a more archaic view, of biological evolution (Saussure, 1974, p. 4). The questions then arose: to what extent is Saussure’s theory of language a theory that could underpin and explain the linguistic-biological analogy? To what extent should it be such a theory? And what does the linguisticbiological analogy suggest about the philosophical appropriation of Saussure’s theory? These are the guiding questions of this thesis. The answers I advance make for what I hope is an interesting and even provocative re-reading of Saussure’s theory of language.</p>

How Neurons in Deep Models Relate with Neurons in the Brain

In dealing with the algorithmic aspects of intelligent systems, the analogy with the biological brain has always been attractive, and has often had a dual function. On the one hand, it has been an effective source of inspiration for their design, while, on the other hand, it has been used as the justification for their success, especially in the case of Deep Learning (DL) models. However, in recent years, inspiration from the brain has lost its grip on its first role, yet it continues to be proposed in its second role, although we believe it is also becoming less and less defensible. Outside the chorus, there are theoretical proposals that instead identify important demarcation lines between DL and human cognition, to the point of being even incommensurable. In this article we argue that, paradoxically, the partial indifference of the developers of deep neural models to the functioning of biological neurons is one of the reasons for their success, having promoted a pragmatically opportunistic attitude. We believe that it is even possible to glimpse a biological analogy of a different kind, in that the essentially heuristic way of proceeding in modern DL development bears intriguing similarities to natural evolution.

War, Disease and Aesthesis.

Instead of a critical attitude of Modernity this article establishes naivety as a means to describe transformations that human experience is forced to undergo being affected by hybrid (in Latour’s terms) and nonhuman agencies. To compare the image of the modern war with a new type of conflict that has developed over the past decades in terms of space-time it attracts allies such as Gilles Deleuze, оbject-oriented ontologists, S. Shaviro and Alfred Whitehead. The new type of conflict in question is the terrorist activity guided by the doctrine of Taqiyya, or strategic (dis)simulation, described by Reza Negarestany in his essay The Militarization of Peace: Absence of Terror or Terror of Absence? The reason for this choice of objects for comparison is the fact that this new wave of terrorism decomoses the space-time framework of war established by Modernity proliferating like a virus and functioning according to the “bottom up” principle. That’s why it is potentially the most successful – and therefore dangerous – for it actively exploits the “biological” analogy of society and the tree internalizing itself into the structure of the political body and causing an excessive allergic autoimmune reaction on its part and then destroying the political body from the inside. In this respect the logic of its unfolding repeats at the macro-level of society the logic of spreading the virus at the micro-level of the individual's body, as described by Eugene Tucker in the essay Nosos, nomos, and bios. In the face of these threats, definition of the spatial and temporal framework for the functioning of terror and viral infection becomes a necessary condition for survival. Such a definition, in turn, requires a revision of the modern concept of space-time with it’s notions of the fundamental locality of actual entities, the linearity/discreteness of time and the relations of internal/external. In other words, it requires a revision of our concept of aesthesis.

Looking for (Economic) Growth in the Eighteenth Century

In the context of the book’s emphasis on “Systems of Life” in the social sciences in the eighteenth century, this chapter seeks to interrogate the conception of growth, an evidently biological analogy, in the work of two major founders of the discipline of economics, François Quesnay and Adam Smith. Taking its cue from a famous passage in the Wealth of Nations, the first part investigates the surprisingly discreet physiological conceptions in the non-medical writings of the theorist of physiocracy. While recognizing significant parallels between the biological and economic systems developed by Quesnay, particularly with regards to circulation, this first investigation fails to produce a model of economic growth based on physiological principles. The second part turns to the thought of Adam Smith himself, in which can be found not only an explicit analogy between physical health and that of the economy, but a clear conception of economic growth. But if it is tempting to find in Smith’s economics a system akin to that of life, a close examination of his theory of growth makes it even clearer than with Quesnay that its fundamental principle is not physiological, but sociological, grounded as it is in a stage theory of historical development.

Digital by Nature: The Cephalopods and the Algorithms

This Abstract presents the realisation of the experimental wooden structure, known as “Ammoniterasz” - (Ammonites+Terrace). During the making of this structure, the authors tried to analyse the practical usage of algorithmic design and the generative method. In the generative design, the 3D shape of the real structure is made using an algorithm with predefined editing rules. With an algorithm, it is possible to carry out a real-time structural analysis, together with different kinds of optimisation calculations and production methods. The compilation of the algorithm is created either with scripts or with a 3D graphic surface, which results in a flow chart, by another name, a visual script. Unlike the traditional shaping methods, with generative design, the result is not a static one, but a process which can offer countless options for the pre-defined design (geometric) program. To use a biological analogy: in this way, the designer is creating the rules of a growing process.

Small family grocers’ inherent advantages over chain stores: a review

Purpose As a result of the growth of the modernization of retailing, small family grocers have suffered because of the disadvantages of their limited operating resources in comparison to those of corporate chain retailers. The purpose of this paper is to use the biological analogy of natural selection to illustrate how the idea of retail coexistence rather than mutually exclusive competition can work to the benefit of small family grocers. The inherent differences between chain retailers and small family grocers are examined and their inherent advantages identified. The appropriate strategies for small family grocers toward the particular market are then proposed. Design/methodology/approach The review of literature is implemented through the lens of biological analogy to identify the inherent advantages of small family grocers over chain retailers. Resource-advantage (R-A) theory is then incorporated to explain the synthesized framework. Findings Size and operational orientation are identified as the inherent differences that small family grocers can utilize to gain some inherent advantages over chain retailers in relation to the proposed segments. The establishment of a personal relationship with the customer is the key inherent advantage that is naturally facilitated by the individual orientation of the small family grocer. Within R-A theory, inherent advantage is seen as a special case of a comparative advantage in resources. Originality/value The different viewpoint inspired by the biological analogy that permits small family grocers to shift their mindset from retail competition to retail coexistence and to re-examine their own inherent advantages to serve the heterogeneous demand of consumers.