Related papers: Analogue-digital systems with modes of physical be…
We take a fresh look at analogue-digital systems focussing on their physical behaviour. We model a general analogue-digital system as a physical process controlled by an algorithm by viewing the physical process as physical oracle to the…
We propose a method of classifying the operation of a system into finitely many modes. Each mode has its own objectives for the system's behaviour and its own mathematical models and algorithms designed to accomplish its objectives. A…
The rise of AI in human contexts places new demands on automated systems to be transparent and explainable. We examine some anthropomorphic ideas and principles relevant to such accountablity in order to develop a theoretical framework for…
We propose an abstract conceptual framework for analysing complex security systems using a new notion of modes and mode transitions. A mode is an independent component of a system with its own objectives, monitoring data, algorithms, and…
Physical analogs have shown considerable promise for understanding the behavior of complex adaptive systems, including macroeconomics, biological systems, social networks, and electric power markets. Many of today's most challenging…
Living systems exhibit complex yet organized behavior on multiple spatiotemporal scales. To investigate the nature of multiscale coordination in living systems, one needs a meaningful and systematic way to quantify the complex dynamics, a…
Many real-world dynamic systems, both natural and artificial, are understood to be performing computations. For artificial dynamic systems, explicitly designed to perform computation - such as digital computers - by construction, we can…
Computer systems can be found everywhere: in space, in our homes, in our cars, in our pockets, and sometimes even in our own bodies. For concerns of safety, economy, and convenience, it is important that such systems work correctly.…
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.…
Many complex systems satisfy a set of constraints on their degrees of freedom, and at the same time, they are able to work and adapt to different conditions. Here, we describe the emergence of this ability in a simplified model in which the…
Computing is a high-level process of a physical system. Recent interest in non-standard computing systems, including quantum and biological computers, has brought this physical basis of computing to the forefront. There has been, however,…
All biological systems are subject to perturbations: due to thermal fluctuations, external environments, or mutations. Yet, while biological systems are composed of thousands of interacting components, recent high-throughput experiments…
In a physical system, changing parameters such as temperature can induce a phase transition: an abrupt change from one state of matter to another. Analogous phenomena have recently been observed in large language models. Typically, the task…
Complex systems are commonly modeled using nonlinear dynamical systems. These models are often high-dimensional and chaotic. An important goal in studying physical systems through the lens of mathematical models is to determine when the…
Discrete quantum walks are dynamical protocols for controlling a single quantum particle. Despite of its simplicity, quantum walks display rich topological phenomena and provide one of the simplest systems to study and understand…
Different Boolean networks may reveal similar dynamics although their definition differs, then preventing their distinction from the observations. This raises the question about the sufficiency of a particular Boolean network for properly…
In real life, psychological and physiological states rarely change along a single dimension. Through self-tracking and discussions with clinicians, I have come to recognise with increasing clarity that sleep patterns, autonomic arousal,…
A key ingredient to achieving intelligent behavior is physical understanding that equips robots with the ability to reason about the effects of their actions in a dynamic environment. Several methods have been proposed to learn dynamics…
Timed transition systems are behavioural models that include an explicit treatment of time flow and are used to formalise the semantics of several foundational process calculi and automata. Despite their relevance, a general mathematical…
What does it mean to claim that a physical or natural system computes? One answer, endorsed here, is that computing is about programming a system to behave in different ways. This paper offers an account of what it means for a physical…