Contents of the Quad Nets Website

Subject Areas

( ... )  A.  Quad Nets --  new technology that embodies a physical principle of freedom.

( ... )  B.  Timing Devices --  new technology that began as a reduced form of Quad Net devices and that has developed into Brain Models that mimic certain capacities of nervous systems.

( ... )  C.  Philosophy of Science --  an alternative view of physical science that incorporates personal freedom, in contrast to the view of the Mechanical Cosmology where everything is made of atoms and laws of physics govern the Universe.

( ... )  D.  Testimony of Freedom --  my current large-scale development project that integrates materials from scientific, technological, psychological, legal and spiritual domains.

( ... )  E.  Psychology of Freedom --  descriptions of introspective analysis of phenomena of freedom, often discussed in connection with common experience or with materials based in physical science, Piaget's psychology or courtroom law.

( ... )  F.  Archives of Development --  other materials previously published that may have continuing interest.

( ... ) -- Robert Kovsky, author; history of development

See also ( ... ) Robert Kovsky organizational website -- includes litigation materials and references.

A.  Quad Nets

Quad Nets and timing devices (see Subject Area B, below) are proposed technologies with new devices and new principles of operation. I suggest that the new principles are also operative in brains and that systems of Quad Net device parts and timing devices can model operations of brains.

The Quad Nets system is a general system of technology and suitable for large-scale designs.

( ... ) home page for the Quad Nets site.

( ... ) formal paper titled Quad Nets: Material Foundations for Thermal Device Models of Brains (2006) (.pdf format, 1.1 Mb).

( ... ) web page discussing the formal paper.

( ... ) informal discussion of "mechanical metaphors" for cyclical selection and Shimmering Sensitivity.

( ... ) top of this page

B.  Timing Devices

Timing devices began as a simplified form of Quad Net devices. Quad Net devices are collective designs, with many interconnected "device parts" and a large number of "elemental devices" in a "device part." In contrast, timing devices are individual devices. Initial timing device designs were based on Quad Net principles. The principles have developed in new directions, resulting in a large class of timing devices and suggesting future designs of progressively larger scale.

Brain Models Built From Timing Devices (2011)

The timing devices "kit of parts" resembles the system of "standard electronic components" that includes resistors, capacitors, transistors, signal generators and amplifiers. "An Ear for Pythagorean Harmonics" is a simple design for a system that detects an environmental feature, namely, a harmonic relation between two pure musical tones. "An Eye for Sharp Contrast" is more highly developed. The system generates sensory-motor activity that detects and focuses on a visible edge in the environment. Although timing device operating principles and devices are novel, conceptual parallels with standard electronic circuits help to organize a presentation for persons knowledgeable about basic electronics technology.

( ... ) Opening Page

( ... ) A Kit of Parts

( ... ) An Ear for Pythagorean Harmonics

    ( ... ) A Procrustean Group of Harmonies

( ... ) An Eye for Sharp Contrast

    ( ... ) Eyes That Look at Objects

( ... ) Fundamentals of Timing Devices

( ... ) top of this page

Prior Timing Devices Publications

(...) -- the original Timing Devices paper, "Selecting and Controlling Action Using Networked Timing Devices," (February 2007), a .pdf file, 832 kB.
(...) -- web page "Timing Devices or why brains are not computers," including:

(...) -- the final version of "Selecting and Controlling Action With Networked Timing Devices," (June 2008) a .pdf file, 833 kB.
(...) -- web pages and materials, "Shimmering Silences in Beautiful Music / An inquiry into the nature of personal experience" (2009):
(...)  a .pdf file (212 kB), "An Ear for Pythagorean Harmonics: Mathematical Processing in Brain Models Built From "Timing Devices" (2009).

Extracts from "Duo Seraphim," a piece in Monteverdi's, Vespers of 1610:
Extract 1:    (...) -- music .mp3 (1.3 MB);     (...) -- score .pdf (455 KB).
Extract 2:    (...) -- music .mp3 (2.5 KB);     (...) -- score .pdf (1.2 MB).

(...) a web page, "Performers of Concert Music."

(...) a .pdf file (22 kB), "Phases in a Performance of Harmonic Music (Duo Seraphim)."

( ... ) -- "Advanced Note: Convolution Timing Devices," (2009), a .pdf file (68 kB).

(...) -- a web page "Dancer - Shimmering Gaits of a Six-Legged Engineered Organism" (2009), proposing a series of timing device and "Hex Net" designs (similar to Quad Net designs).

(...) -- a web page "An Ear for Pythagorean Harmonics: Brain Models Built From Timing Devices" (2010) [( ... ) (current version referenced above)]:

( ... )  "An Ear for Pythagorean Harmonics: Brain Models Built From Timing Devices," a .pdf file (460 kB) (2010, rev. 2011).
( ... ) -- a web page "A Procrustean Group of Harmonies" (2010) [( ... ) (current version referenced above)].

(...) -- a web page,"Fundamentals of Timing Devices" (2010) [(...) (current version referenced above)]:

(...), "Fundamentals of Timing Devices" (2010), a .pdf file (166 kB).

( ... ) top of page.

C.    Philosophy of Science

( ... ) A Patchwork of Limits: Physics Viewed From an Indirect Approach (2000), a .pdf file (157 kB). The paper contrasts the "Ideal Gas" that was the basis for theories by Maxwell, Boltzmann and Gibbs with "Critical Point phenomena" where those theories fail to apply. Shimmering Sensitivity, the physical principle of freedom embodied in Quad Net devices, is an activated form of Critical Point phenomena, generating a Critical Moment during which a selection occurs, changing multiple possible actions into a single actual action.

( ... ), a web page on "A Patchwork of Limits."

( ... ) a web page, "Facts About Snowflakes" (2009). Conventional physicists are unable to account for the symmetrical growth of crystalline snowflakes. Conventional physics allows only for activities on the atomic or molecular scale and denies that there any large-scale collective influences. Yet the simple snowflake shows the power of such influences. This web page presents my analysis and argument for the foregoing propositions.

( ... ) "On Cosmological Principles in Natural Science" (2007), a .pdf file (23 kB). Suggestions about limits in natural science that may support future development.

( ... ) "Personal Freedom vs. the Mechanical Cosmology" in Testimony of Freedom (currently in development, see immediately below).

( ... ) top of page.

D.    Testimony of Freedom

Testimony of Freedom is my current large-scale project. The meaning of freedom is viewed from multiple perspectives for purposes of supporting Spiritually-driven development.

···  A Witness for Freedom (opening statement)

Pages
  1.  ···  Body and Mind of Freedom

  2.  ···  Personal Freedom vs. The Mechanical Cosmology

  3.  ···  Vehicles of Freedom: Physical Science, Civil Law and the Christian Religion

  4.  ···  My Personal Cosmology of Jesus Christ

  5.  ···  Cultivating Spiritual Life and Power

  6. Action Yoga and the Sankhya Cosmology of Person and Matter

  7.  ···  An Obsessive Compulsion I Call Freedom

( ... ) top of page.

E.    Psychology of Freedom

( ... ) a web page discussing the article "The Crucible: Structural Foundations of Consciousness and Freedom" (1992).

( ... ) a .pdf file (78 kB) of the article.

"The Crucible" was a natural science approach to the psychological domain, borrowing principles of materials science and with applications to specific problems in common experience. "Crucible" refers to a metallurgist's crucible in which variable combinations of metals are combined to form alloys. The problems are: (1)  "verbal description of a visual image," the task of stating in speech or writing the scene now before your eyes; (2)  "drawing a boundary around a cluster," the task of imposing a certain kind of order ("boundary") on naturally-occurring ("clustered") activity, e.g., through zoning laws; and (3)  "resolving a dispute through litigation," the task of organizing a disputed matter for decision by a jury.

( ... ) a web page "Jean Piaget and the Hazards of the A Priori" (1998), a critical appreciation of Swiss psychologist Jean Piager (1896-1980), whose "construction approach" to child developmental psychology has provided a foundation for my own constructions.

( ... )  "Constructing Reality: An Exercise of Freedom," (2003), a .pdf file (209 kB) — an exploratory and incomplete construction of a psychology of freedom based on subjective evocations of freedom based in passages from fictional literature (Vasishta's Yoga, Anna Karenina, "Heart of Darkness," and The Caine Mutiny.)

( ... )  a web page discussing the essay "Introduction: An Objective Kind of Freedom," (2005):

( ... )  "a .pdf file (639 kB) -- the essay ("Introduction: An Objective Kind of Freedom"), the chief part of the website project Researches in Personal Freedom (2005), listed in the Archive below. The incomplete essay analyzed conceptual and psychological failures in attempts to understand freedom through conventional means. It then reconstructed physical concepts of energy as part of the alternative approach that led to the invention of Quad Nets later in 2005. Another part of the essay, "Howdy Doody vs. Mickey Mouse -- or, there's a real person pulling my strings," explored the spiritual reality of a person (even in the guise of a marionette), in contrast to an insubstantial disembodied image.
( ... )  a web page discussing the essay "Embodiment of Freedom" (2005):

( ... )  "a .pdf file (225 kB) -- the essay "Embodiment of Freedom" is a preliminary (and incomplete) presentation of the new physical principle of freedom and related psychology of freedom that have emerged with the invention of Quad Nets.
Freedom is factual and shown through examples: Mom at the market choosing between apples and grapes, a ping-pong player swinging into a stroke at an incoming ball and a federal court Judge deciding a formal Motion in Court.
The new approach constructs models.
The models have both a physical aspect - governed by physical principles that also govern activities of brains - and a psychological aspect - using psychological principles to describe the experience of a person exercising freedom. Both aspects are governed by a single set of principles that unite psychology and physics with common concepts and a common vocabulary, e.g., "selection," "critical moment," "phase changes," "tiling," "resemblances" and "cyclical selection."

( ... )  Remarks about "An Eye for Sharp Contrast" that is discussed in ( ... ) Subject Area B above. The Remarks suggest a further path of development that pursues the psychological principle of "The Contest," a principle expressed both in brain models and in activities of persons..

( ... ) top of page.

F.    Archives of Development

In 1970, while I was engaged in graduate school research into phase changes in "glassy metal alloys" (called "chalcogenide glasses" by the chief pioneer, Sanford R. Ovshinsky), I had an original conception that led to a course of development that has continued for some 40 years. My published materials currently available online start in 1992 with the article ( ... )  "The Crucible: Structural Foundations of Consciousness and Freedom" discussed ( ... ) above. The following additional materials are not mentioned above:

( ... ) Technology of Freedom (1997) was an integrated presentation that included device designs and a rudimentary psychology of freedom. The presentation resembled an imaginary travelogue or "tour" of a mountainous terrain. One theme was that device designs then being shown were only preliminary to more powerful designs yet to be developed. Hence, the travelogue was also a reconnaisance for future projects. The ( ... ) highest point seen in the reconnaissance rather accurately foresaw timing devices and Quad Nets thereafter developed.

Some extracts from the ( ... ) Opening Page give the flavor:

In these pages, the primal elements are
  1. the mystery of freedom
  2. a technology of devices
The elements come together in a cluster of pages called Base Camp

There are three ways to Base Camp
-- Water Trail
Freedom is real and we experience it in many ways. Freedom is also a conceptual marshland. Water Trail goes cross-country to skirt the marshes of philosophy, perhaps avoiding falling in (no avoiding the bugs, though). It constructs an artificial psychology and finds a way ("The Way of Error") to notate structures for interpretation through devices so as to resemble activity of human experience. The initial system is crude and deals with only very simple problems, but it includes a capacity for development that leads to revised systems of greater scope. Development is directed toward notation and organization of ambiguities that mark places where freedom can be exercised.
-- Ridge Route
Ridge Route presents a series of hardware devices, similar to actual manufactured items. The original device is a simple associative (content-addressible) memory system based on a resistance network. Subsequent devices build on the original and develop progressive scope in co-ordination with development of the artificial psychology of Water Trail. Each device uses commands that organize data and that mimic shifts of attention within structures. Commands can be programmed to organize data through mass action.

-- Kwik Tour
Kwik Tour is an entertaining survey based on feelings. Please be prepared for something wild.

Another guide to Technology of Freedom is the:

 -- like a table of contents, organized and linked.

( ... ) top of page.

( ... ) Researches in Personal Freedom (2005) was the project that led up to the invention of Quad Nets.

( ... ),  a web page on poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, who provided spiritual inspiration for the project, especially with his sonnet "As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame."
( ... ),; a web page discussing the essay "Introduction: An Objective Kind of Freedom," (2005) discussed in Subject Area ( ... ) E, above.

( ... )  "a .pdf file (639 kB) -- the essay ("Introduction: An Objective Kind of Freedom").

( ... ),; a web page discussing the essay "Thermal Model of Idealized Brains and Conceptual Devices That Embody Their Activities," (2005) .

( ... )  "a .pdf file (442 kB) -- the essay ("Thermal Model of Idealized Brains and Conceptual Devices That Embody Their Activities").
( ... ),; a web page with a link to the essay "A Structural Engine Model of Consciousness," (2005) .

( ... )  "a .pdf file (225 kB) -- the essay ("A Structural Engine Model of Consciousness").

( ... ) top of page.

5/6/11

Copyright © 2011 Robert Kovsky