Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow position
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Physics is required, along with serious interest in theoretical
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The position will be open until it is filled. The Fellow will join an
ongoing program to develop mathematics that reflects the organization
of sensorimotor control. Versatility in selecting appropriate
mathematical approaches is required for the variety of problems
encountered in multilevel neurobiological systems. The research group
is part of a multi-institution Theoretical Research Group. Within the
Neurotology Department, the Fellow will interact with researchers of
very different scientific backgrounds, including experimental and
clinical expertise. Portland offers a full range of neuroscience
seminars and classes.
For more information, contact lstent(a)lhs.org. To apply, send 3
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to apply. Legacy is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
Gin McCollum
gin_mccollum(a)yahoo.com
Toiling on the concepts of toilers and thieves:
Rephrasing the concept of "symbol grounding"
Andras Lorincz
I would like to continue our previous debate that started with
the letter of Stevan Harnad during
"1999-2000 Student Skywriting CogSci-Szeged99"
(NOTE:
I do not have the list of those who took part in this debate,
neither the list of those who are interested in this debate.
Please, answer me directly and I can set a separate mailing
list up, depending on the number of people interested and, of
course, on the opinion of the managers of koglist.)
START OF QUOTATION FROM SH
"...In the Cangelosi/Parisi paper, the (predecessors of) (1) "toilers" and
(2) "thieves" were foragers who (1) learned which mushrooms were edible by
trial and error-correcting feedback or (2) learned which mushrooms
were edible by "hearsay" (overhearing the toilers say "edible": there
were plenty of mushrooms, so the toilers lost nothing by vocalizing).
In the competition, the "thief" strategy beat the "toiler" strategy, and
the proportion of thieves in the population grew.
But, as would have become evident if the simulation had continued for
several more generations, "theft" under these conditions is not an
"evolutionarily stable strategy." For once there were few or no toilers
left, no one would know what was edible. For toilers, the knowledge is
grounded in having learned the features of the edible mushrooms; so the
toilers can forage alone; for the thieves, the only "feature" of an
edible mushroom is the vocalization of the toilers: "edible". So when
there are no more toilers, the thieves cannot eat. ..."
END OF QUOTATION
Insted of continuing the arguments I was giving that time I will
try to rephrase those in a different manner. I would try to clarify the
direction of these arguments by providing a few propositions
first.
Proposition 1.
The concept of "thief" is misleading.
Proposition 2.
"Toiler" is a good concept. There are only toilers.
Proposition 3.
"Symbol grounding" is an ill-posed mixture of stealing and toiling.
It "says" that a symbol was stolen and that now this stolen symbol
is subject to toiling.
Proposition 4.
Separation of the two phases in "symbol grounding"
may be better formulated by separating the two phases of symbol grounding to
(A) "abduction" and to
(B) "validation of abduction"
which are both toilings and concern the interaction with the environment.
THE ARGUMENTS:
Argument1.
Consider the viewpoint that there is no external world but we are only dreaming.
Then there is no difference between toiling and stealing, both correspond to dreaming.
Argument2.
Consider three cases:
Case 1. You build an aeroplane
Case 2. You buy an aeroplane
Case 3. You steal an aeroplane
C1: You make lots of toilings, but you do steal, at least from mother nature
C2: Clearly, you do both. You "exchange money" (= you steal in legal ways)
lots of ideas from previous generations
C3: You do lots of toilings to make a plan. You make this plan public
(you provide a freeware and make your plan stealable) "in exchange" of the
aeroplane.
Regards,
Andras
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
Eotvos University
Budapest, Pazmany P. setany 1/A
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE SEMINAR
(http://hps.elte.hu/seminar)
________________________________________________
5 November 4:00 PM 6th floor 6.54
(Language: English, except all participants speak Hungarian)
K a t a l i n M a r t i n a s
Atomic Physics, Eotvos University, Budapest
Mathematics and Theoretical Economics
Some questions raised by the Post Autistic Economics Movement
In June, 2000 a small group of economics students of Ecole Normale
Superiore put on the web a petition protesting against economics'
"uncontrolled use of mathematics". This indulgence, it said, creates "a
true schizophrenia" because the mathematics has "become an end in
itself"
resulting in an "autistic science".
Since that time PAE became a worldwide movement, with the following
petition: We, economics students in the universities of ..., declare
ourselves to be generally dissatisfied with the teaching that we
receive.
This is so for the following reasons:
1. We wish to escape from imaginary worlds!
2. We oppose the uncontrolled use of mathematics!
3. We are for a pluralism of approaches in economics!
4. Call to teachers: wake up before it is too late!
We no longer want to have this autistic science imposed on us.
In the lecture the logical structure of theoretical (mathematical)
economics will be summarized, to pinpoint the causes of this present
schizophrenia.
The organizer of the seminar: László E. Szabó
--
Laszlo E. Szabo
Department of Theoretical Physics
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
Eotvos University, Budapest
H-1518 Budapest, Pf. 32, Hungary
Phone/Fax: (36-1)372-2924
Home: (36-1) 200-7318
Mobil/SMS: (36) 20-366-1172
http://hps.elte.hu/~leszabo
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