Wai H Tsang - Fractal Brain Theory
Bruce Schuman
I have to stick with this guy. I'm starting a careful walkthrough, concentrating on his Chapter 4 on Binary Trees. Yes, he makes extremely broad and generalizing claims, that may seem unbelievable or grossly non-credible. But there's something highly robust and persuasive at the core what he is doing. He is a charming lecturer, and he does seem to know the basic subject material from three critical areas -- AI mathematics, brain neurology and genomics.
My instinct is -- either some top-ranking experts have to credibly debunk this guy -- no hand-waving arguments – bringing real substance and specifics -- or some people may have to start eating their hats and sharpening their pencils…
I enclose his primary bibliography, from 2012 I think. This is not a lightweight review. Could it be shallow dilettantism? Maybe yes. But I don't think so.
I was attracted to this guy because his basic thesis – something like one-size-fits-all generalized top-down recursion – is so similar to the ideas that I pursued simply on conceptual form alone. I wanted to build a single general linear model of all conceptual form – and he has (apparently) done something like this, using his generalized language of recursion, symmetry and self-similarity. Do these models contain everything we know about subjects like “meronomy” or taxonomy? Maybe yes. Are they foundational to “all” mathematics? Maybe.
For me, his H-Tree fractal model is like a cascade of nested coordinate frames that not only link part to whole with complete balanced symmetry – but also appear to link “relative to absolute”. Does this mathematics say something fundamental and “ontological” about part/whole relations? Is this really the essence of the concept “set” – the “Janus-faced two-sided holon” – that in some sense becomes a universal mathematics for “representation” – the ability to model absolutely anything to the nth degree in language?
I never did much with neurology and never took a class in genetics. I was simply interested in a generalization of conceptual form as the foundation for any of these subjects. But Wai H. Tsang presents a very substantial case that these things can be intimately or perfectly tied together through his particular point of view of top-down linear mathematics.
If these things actually converge – can be shown as isomorphic across all these different sectors at the same time, as he is suggesting – we are looking at something extremely explosive.
**
So, ok, I am going to do my best with his chapter 4, which seems to be the mathematical essence. I want to draw together the big themes and see if I can genuinely understand them. Does this stuff really make sense – and if so, what does it mean for generalized linear semantics?
If you want to see this spark in action, here’s another charming video from 2012.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axaH4HFzA24
The first comment ask how come this video is not the most watched video on YouTube…
His writing is extremely compact and dense, as might be unavoidable in any credible survey as broadly inclusive as this. It’s not that easy to read, because it introduces so many complex ideas so quickly on so many subjects – and very few readers are going to have the breadth of expertise to understand it.
I hope this format is readable in email.
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Principles of Frontal Lobe Function - Eds. Donald T. Stuss & Robert T. Knight 2002
The Frontal Lobes - Eds. Jarl Risberg & Jordan Grafman 2006
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Speech Recognition : Theory and C++ Implementation - Lucio Ricotti and Lucio Prina Ricotti 1999
Artificial life - Ed. Chris Langton 1989
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ANTERIOR PREFRONTAL CORTEX: INSIGHTS INTO FUNCTION FROM ANATOMY AND NEUROIMAGING
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Damage to the Fronto-Polar Cortex Is Associated with Impaired Multitasking
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The frontopolar cortex and human cognition. Evidence for a rostrocaudal hierarchical organization within the human prefrontal cortex - Kalina Christoff and John D. E. Gabrielli 2000
Two Phylogenetic Specializations in the Human Brain
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The role of the rostral frontal cortex (area 10) in prospective memory: a lateral versus medial dissociation
Paul W. Burgess a,∗, Sophie K. Scott b, Christopher D. Frith c 2003
Is the rostro-caudal axis of the frontal lobe hierarchical?
David Badre*‡ & Mark D’Esposito - Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2009
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Theodore P Zanto, Michael T Rubens, Arul Thangavel & Adam Gazzaley 2011
Sensory Pathways and Emotional Context for Action in Primate Prefrontal Cortex
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Harry Hodge a, Prasun Roy a, Romain Valabregue e and Michel Thiebaut de Schotten a - 2012
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Geoffrey Schoenbaum, Matthew R. Roesch, Thomas A. Stalnaker and Yuji K. Takahashi - 2009 Nature Reviews Neuroscience
The Organization of Networks within the Orbital and Medial Prefrontal Cortex of Rats, Monkeys and Humans
- D. Ongur and J.L. Price 2000
Differential role of the orbital frontal lobe in emotional versus cognitive perspective-taking
Catherine A. Hynes 1, Abigail A. Baird, Scott T. Grafton ∗2005
Orbital Versus Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex.
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DAVID H. ZALD 2007
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Maurizio Corbetta and Gordon L. Shulman 2002
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Yale E. Cohen* and Richard A. Andersen‡ 2002
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Nobuhiko Wagatsuma, Tobias C. Potjans, Markus Diesmann and Tomoki Fukai 2011
Top-Down Influences in Sensory Processing
Charles D. Gilbert1,* and Mariano Sigman1,2 - 2007
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Parashkev Nachev*‡, Christopher Kennard‡ and Masud Husain* 2008
The importance of being agranular: a comparative account of visual and motor cortex
Stewart Shipp* 2005
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Stewart Shipp - 2007 Current Biology Vol 17 No 12
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Pattern in the Laminar Origin of Corticocortical Connections - Helen Barbas 1986
Cortical Structure Predicts the Pattern of Corticocortical Connections - H. Barbas and N. Rempel-Clower 1997
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Interlaminar Connections in the Neocortex Alex M. Thomson and A. Peter Bannister 2003
The Laminar Pattern of Connections between Prefrontal and Anterior Temporal Cortices in the Rhesus Monkey is Related to Cortical Structure and Function
- Nancy L. Rempel-Clower and Helen Barbas 2000
Diversity of laminar connections linking periarcuate and lateral intraparietal areas depends on cortical structure
M. Medalla1 and H. Barbas1,2006
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D Xiao2, B Zikopoulos1, and H Barbas - 2010
Thalamic Input to Distal Apical Dendrites in Neocortical Layer 1 Is Massive and Highly Convergent
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Seralynne D. Vann*, John P. Aggleton* and Eleanor A. Maguire‡ 2009
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Tomá˘s Paus 2001
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Brent A. Vogt 2005
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Josef Parvizi*†, Gary W. Van Hoesen*‡, Joseph Buckwalter*‡, and Antonio Damasio*§ 2006
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Markus Siegel1*, Tobias H. Donner2* and Andreas K. Engel - 2012
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Gregory Hickok and David Poeppel - 2007
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Bruce Schuman
Santa Barbara California 93101
-----Original Message-----
From: ontolo...@googlegroups.com [mailto:ontolo...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of John F Sowa
Sent: Thursday, May 4, 2017 10:19 PM
To: ontolo...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] RE: Article: Understanding Critical Thinking versus Design Thinking
On 5/4/2017 7:38 PM, Edward Barkmeyer wrote:
> Both [analysis and design] can involve truly creative processes and
> both inevitably involve many rote processes – common engineering
> practice.
I agree. But analyses in any field can be creative.
For example, consider Einstein's creativity in the publications of his "annus mirabilis" of 1905:
1. For the theory of relativity, his analysis of the speed of
light by using a creative analogy of riding on a train
going at the speed of light.
2. For his analysis of the quantization black-body radiation,
which suggested the hypothesis that all light is quantized.
3. His analysis of Brownian motion, which suggested that
small particles (visible under a microscope) are being
bombarded by much smaller, invisible molecules.
All three were brilliant insights. After they're explained, they seem "obvious", but nobody else thought of them.
John
