Category: Science
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Energy cost of computation: stochastic thermodynamics?
“Is stochastic thermodynamics the key to understanding the energy costs of computation?” The relationship between the thermodynamic and computational properties of physical systems has been a major theoretical interest since at least the 19th century. It has also become of increasing practical importance over the last half-century as the energetic cost of digital devices has…
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Functional Trade-offs in Cognition
“Basic Functional Trade-offs in Cognition: An Integrative Framework” by Marco Del Giudice and Bernard J. Crespi, 2018. Trade-offs between advantageous but conflicting properties (e.g., speed vs. accuracy) are ubiquitous in cognition, but the relevant literature is conceptually fragmented, scattered across disciplines, and has not been organized in a coherent framework. This paper takes an initial step toward a general…
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Will We Ever Have Conscious Machines?
The question of whether artificial beings or machines could become self-aware or conscious has been a philosophical question for centuries. The main problem is that self-awareness cannot be observed from an outside perspective and the distinction of being really self-aware or merely a clever imitation cannot be answered without access to knowledge about the mechanism’s…
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Complex Systems Research in Psychology
Han L. J. van der Maas published August 31, 2024 this SFI book “Complex Systems Research in Psychology“, available as PDF for free. Prologue This book is intended for psychologists and social scientists interested in modeling psychological processes using the tools of complex-systems research. The book has three primary objectives. The first is to provide…
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Bayesian inference from the ground up
Eric-Jan Wagenmakers and Dora Matzke developed a course book “Bayesian inference from the ground up: The theory of common sense” will be made freely available on their BayesianSpectacles website. Click here to obtain the first 27 chapters and 4 appendix chapters. The website is full of interesting information, including the Let’s Poke a Pizza: A New…
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