Quad Nets:
Material Foundations for Thermal Device Models of Brains

 

Short Abstract

A Quad Net (QN) is a proposed physical material made up of interconnecting tiles. A pulsing elemental device occupies each tile and interacts through junctions with its neighbors. Pieces of QN material can be worked into device parts, e.g., a Toroidal Quad Net or TQN that maintains circulating waves of pulses. QN device parts are joined together to make up assemblies of increasing sizes in which various pulse patterns ("phases") are maintained.

During operations, a QN device part cyclically falls into silence, then re-activates, selecting an actual phase from possible phases and maintaining the selected phase as the cycle proceeds. Phase selections are coordinated within assemblies of device parts; and phases are nested within larger phases. In imitation of neuronal signals in brains, some phases ("objects") organize sensations and other phases ("acts") drive muscles. Cyclically selected patterns of pulses in assemblies of QN device parts are models of sensory-motor activities in brains of animals.

 

full abstract (...) download full paper (.pdf, 720 kB) (...) home page (...) site information (...) links (...)

Table of Contents
§ 1 Survey of the Quad Net Model
  a. Quad Nets are tiled constructions in space and time
  b. Spatial organization of Quad Net devices
  c. Tilings are nested to control pulse patterns
  d. Periodic, collective pulse patterns or "phases" in QN device parts
  e. Introducing the Critical Point argument
  f. Quad Net models suggest models of brains and psychology
§ 2 Quad Net Material Constructions
  a. Primal Quad Net (PQN)
  b. Deformation of Quad Net
  c. Wave phases in Primal Quad Net
  d. Modifications of the Quad Net field
  e. Closure of pieces of Quad Net into regular forms
  f. Attachments and assembly through projection modifications
  g. Phasic transfers between Quad Nets
  h. Similarity and self-similarity in Quad Net constructions
  i. The Phase Transfer Controller
§ 3 Critical Moments and the Principle of Shimmering Sensitivity
§ 4 Specifications and Activations
  a. The Simple Cycler
  b. The Virtual Energy model: internal specifications of elemental devices
  c. The Virtual Energy model: interactivity and interaction specifications
  d. Low-level and high-level activations
  e. Single and summed interactions in high-level activations
  f. Controller interactions
  g. The proposed Critical Point Activation
§ 5 Physical Basis of the Proposed Critical Point Activation


References
Anisimov, M. A., 1991, Critical Phenomena in Liquids and Liquid Crystals, Gordon and Beach Science Publishers
Anisimov, M. A., Rabinovich., V.A. & Sychevev, V. V., 1995, Thermodynamics of the Critical State of Individual Substances, CRC Press
Arbib, M. A., Érdi, P. & Szentágothai, J., 1998, Neural Organization: Structure, Function, and Dynamics, MIT.
Bak, P, Tang, C. & Wiesenfeld, K., 1987, Self-organized Criticality, An Explanation of 1/f Noise, Phys.Rev.Letters 59. 381.
Calvin, W. C., 1990, The Cerebral Symphony: Seashore Reflections on the Structure of Consciousness, Bantam Books.
Domb, C., 1996, The Critical Point, A historical introduction to the modern theory of critical phenomena, Taylor & Francis.
Edelman, G. M., 1987, Neural Darwinism: The Theory of Neuronal Group Selection, Basic Books.
Edelman, G. M. & Tononi, G., 2000, A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination, Basic Books.
Fisher, M. E., 1964, Correlation Functions and the Critical Region in Simple Fluids, J. Math. Phys. 5, 944.
Freeman, W. J., 2000, Neurodynamics: An Exploration in Mesoscopic Brain Dynamics, Springer.
Georgii, H.-O., Haggstrom, O., Maes, C., 1999, The random geometry of equilibrium phases, http://www.arxiv.org/abs/math.PR/9905031.
Gokcen, N. A., 1981, Statistical Thermodynamics of Alloys, Plenum Press.
Green, H. S. & Hurst, C. A., 1964, Order-Disorder Phenomena, Interscience Publishers.
Hertz, J., Krogh, A. & Palmer R. G., 1991, Introduction to the Theory of Neural Computation. Addison-Wesley.
Hillerts, M., 1999, "Applications of Gibbs Energy-Composition Diagrams" in Aronson, H. I., ed., Lectures on the Theory of Phase Transformations, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, 2d ed.).
Istrail, S., ~2000, "Statistical Mechanics, Three-Dimensionality and NP-completeness, I. Universality of Intractability for the Partition Function of the Ising Model Across Non-Planar Lattices," http://www.cs.brown.edu/~sorin/pdfs/Ising-paper.pdf
James, W., 1890, Psychology, Living Library edition, World Publ. 1948.
Kadanoff, L. P., 2000, Statistical Physics: Statics, Dynamics and Renormalization, World Scientific.
Kandel, E. R., Schwartz, J. H., Jessell, T. M., 1991, Principles of Neural Science, Appleton & Lange, 3d ed.
Kearton, W. J., 1948, Steam Turbine Theory and Practice, a textbook for engineering students, I. Pitman, London, 5th ed.
Kelso, J. A. S., 1995, Dynamic Patterns: The Self-Organization of Brain and Behavior, MIT.
Kittel, C., 1968, Introduction to Solid-State Physics, 3d. ed., John Wiley & Sons.
Piaget, J., 1936, The Origins of Intelligence in Children, International Universities Press, 1974 ed.
Piaget, J., 1946, Play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood, W. W. Norton, 1962.
Porter, D.A. and Easterling, K.E., 1981, Phase Transformations in Metals and Alloys, Van Nostrand Reinhold (UK).
Posner, M.I. & Raichle, M.E., 1995, Precis of Images of Mind, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 18 (2): 327-383.
Satterlie, R.A., "Neuronal control of swimming in jellyfish; a comparative story," Can. J. Zool. 80: 1654-1669 (2002), www.ucihs.uci.edu/biochem/steele/satterlie.pdf
Skarda, C.A. & Freeman, W.J., 1987, "How brains make chaos in order to make sense of the world," Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 10:161-195.
Stanley, H. E., 1999, "Scaling, universality, and renormalization: Three pillars of modern critical phenomena," Rev.Mod.Phys., 71, 2 (Centenary special), S358-S366.
The Mountaineers, Mountaineering: the Freedom of the Hills, 1967, The Mountaineers, Seattle, (2nd ed.).
Thera, N., 1973, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation, Samuel Weiser, New York.
Truesdell, C., 1983, Rational Thermodynamics, Springer (2d ed.).
Truesdell, C. & Bharatha, S., 1977, The Concepts and Logic of Classical Thermodynamics as a Theory of Heat Engines Rigorously Constructed upon the Foundation Laid by S. Carnot and F. Reech, Springer-Verlag.
Truesdell, C. & Noll, W., 2004, The Non-Linear Field Theories of Mechanics (3d. ed. Antman) Springer.
Walter, W. G., 1953, The Living Brain, W. W. Norton.

download paper (.pdf, 720 kB) (...) home page (...) site information (...) links (...)

Copyright © 2006 Robert Kovsky

Your question or comment is welcome. Please write to:   

9/19/06