Related papers: Protention and retention in biological systems

Theoretical physics is the search for simple and universal mathematical descriptions of the natural world. In contrast, much of modern biology is an exploration of the complexity and diversity of life. For many, this contrast is prima facie…

Forgetfulness is a common feature of nature. Moreover, without forgetfulness, repeatability would be impossible. Despite this, small systems constantly leak information about their state to their surroundings, and quantum mechanics tells us…

The self-simulational theory of temporal extension describes an information-theoretically formalized mechanism by which the width of subjective temporality emerges from the architecture of self-modelling. In this paper, the perspective of…

After a short review on the use of time in various branches of physics, I suggest to change the interpretation of time, from a duration to a cut. A reassessment of terminology is also required to avoid meaning traps. I also address the…

The idea that the brain is a probabilistic (Bayesian) inference machine, continuously trying to figure out the hidden causes of its inputs, has become very influential in cognitive (neuro)science over recent decades. Here I present a…

Dynamical systems with long delay feedback can exhibit complicated temporal phenomena, which once re-organized in a two-dimensional space are reminiscent of spatio-temporal behavior. In this framework, normal forms description have been…

Concise, accurate descriptions of physical systems through their conserved quantities abound in the natural sciences. In data science, however, current research often focuses on regression problems, without routinely incorporating…

The brain is very often viewed as a network, be it at small scale made of cells, mostly neurons, or at larger scale made of neuronal assemblies. Here we introduce a conjecture, in the spirit of a philosophical though experiment, which…

A social system is considered whose agents choose between several alternatives of possible actions. The system is described by the fractions of agents preferring the corresponding alternatives. The agents interact with each other by…

In this theoretical work the temporal aspect of consciousness is analyzed. We start from the notion that while conscious experience seems to change constantly, yet for any of its contents to be consciously perceived they must last for some…

This paper presents a hypothesis that consciousness is a natural result of neurons that become connected recursively, and work synchronously between short and long term memories. Such neurons demonstrate qubit-like properties, each…

The aim of this paper is to propose an alternative behavioural definition of computation (and of a computer) based simply on whether a system is capable of reacting to the environment-the input-as reflected in a measure of programmability.…

All biological and artificial agents must learn and make decisions given limits on their ability to process information. As such, a general theory of adaptive behavior should be able to account for the complex interactions between an…

Biological activities are often seen entrained onto the day-night and other celestial mechanical cycles (e.g., seasonal and lunar), but studies on the origin of life have largely not accounted for such periodic external environmental…

Analysis of mathematical models in ecology and epidemiology often focuses on asymptotic dynamics, such as stable equilibria and periodic orbits. However, many systems exhibit long transient behaviors where certain aspects of the dynamics…

Memory is the fundamental form of temporal complexity: when present but uncontrollable, it manifests as non-Markovian noise; conversely, if controllable, memory can be a powerful resource for information processing. Memory effects arise…

We consider prediction theory for stationary stochastic processes in continuous time. We discuss prediction using the whole (infinite) past, and using only a finite section of the past. The solutions to both these classical problems have…

The sophisticated tools and techniques employed by Nature for purposeful storage of information stand in stark contrast to the primitive and relatively inefficient means used by man. We describe some impressive features of biological data…

Several abilities of biological systems, such as adaptation to natural environment, or of animals to learn patterns when appropriately trained, are features that are extremely useful, if emulated by electronic circuits, in applications…

Aging is a universal consequence of life, yet researchers have identified no universal theme. This manuscript considers aging from the perspective of entropy, wherein things fall apart. We first examine biological information change as a…