Keywords: Thinking about thinking, understanding understanding, knowing the knower, seeing the seer, Dṛg-Dṛśya-Viveka.

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Autopoiesis

Autopoiesis (from Greek αὐτo (auto) meaning ‘self’ + ποίησις (poiesis) meaning ‘creation/production’) is term used to describe a given system capable of reproducing and maintaining itself. The term was coined in 1972 by Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela to describe the self-maintaining chemistry of living cells. Since then the concept has been used in various scientific disciplines (e.g., cognitive psychology, neuroscience, complex systems theory, computer science, sociology, etc.) and also in various artworks.

The original definition can be found in “Autopoiesis and Cognition: the Realization of the Living” (1973):

“An autopoietic machine is a machine organized (defined as a unity) as a network of processes of production (transformation and destruction) of components which: (i) through their interactions and transformations continuously regenerate and realize the network of processes (relations) that produced them; and (ii) constitute it (the machine) as a concrete unity in space in which they (the components) exist by specifying the topological domain of its realization as such a network.” (p.78)

” … the space defined by an autopoietic system is self-contained and cannot be described by using dimensions that define another space. When we refer to our interactions with a concrete autopoietic system, however, we project this system on the space of our manipulations and make a description of this projection.” (p.89)

Norbert Wiener - Cybernetics (HTML5 eBook)

References

Maturana, H., & Varela, F.. (1980). Autopoiesis and Cognition : The Realization of the Living (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science). Living in Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science Vol 42 D Reidel Dordrecht

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1007/978-94-009-8947-4
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“The author defends (what he refers to as) ‘intensional realism’ against sophisticated forms of instrumentalism, first, by elaborating a dispositional ontology for the physical world; second, by determining the necessary and sufficient conditions for the adequacy of scientific explanations; and third, by explicating the conception of scientific knowledge which is supported by this analysis. this work presents an alternative conceptual framework for understanding science which bears important affinites to the views of hacking, popper, and peirce.”

Maturana, H. R.. (2002). Autopoiesis, Structural Coupling and Cognition : A history of these and other notions in the biology of cognition. Cybernetics & Human Knowing

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2008.00767.x
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“My intent in this essay is to reflect on the history of some biological notions such as autopoiesis, structural coupling, and cognition, that i have developed since the early 1960’s as a result of my work on visual perception and the organization of the living. no doubt i shall repeat things that i have said in other publications (maturana & varela, 1980, 1988), and i shall present notions that once they are said appear as obvious truisms. moreover, i shall refine or expand the meaning of such notions, or even modify them. yet, in any case, the reader is not invited to attend to the truisms, or to what seems to be obvious, rather he or she is invited to attend to the consequences that those notions entail for the understanding of cognition as a biological process. after all, explanations or demonstrations always become self evident once they are understood and accepted, and the purpose of this essay is the expansion of understanding in all dimensions of human existence.”

Beer, R. D.. (2004). Autopoiesis and Cognition in the Game of Life. Artificial Life, 10(3), 309–326.

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1162/1064546041255539
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“Life is defined by maturana and varela as a type of self-organization: autopoiesis in the physical space. this resembles the concept of me- tabolism, which itself is typically included in definitions of life. three senses of metabolism are distinguished. if life depends on either auto- poiesis or metabolism (in the third sense), then strong a-life is impos- sible. the theory of autopoiesis challenges concepts familiar in biology and cognitive science. while its use of informational language is too restrictive, its use of cognitive language is too liberal: life does not im- ply cognition.”

Luisi, P. L.. (2003). Autopoiesis: a review and a reappraisal.. Die Naturwissenschaften, 90(2), 49–59.

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1007/s00114-002-0389-9
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“The aim of the paper is to review critically the notion of autopoiesis as presented by maturana and varela. in particular, recognizing that there are difficulties in obtaining a complete and clear picture from the primary literature, an effort is made to present a coherent view-also based on many years of personal contact with francisco varela. the paper begins with a few historical notes to highlight the cultural background from which the notion of autopoiesis arose. the basic principles of autopoiesis as a theory of cellular life are then described, emphasizing also what autopoiesis is not: not an abstract theory, not a concept of artificial life, not a theory about the origin of life-but rather a pragmatic blueprint of life based on cellular life. it shown how this view leads to a conceptually clear definition of minimal life and to a logical link with related notions, such as self-organization, emergence, biological autonomy, auto-referentiality, and interactions with the environment. the perturbations brought about by the environment are seen as changes selected and triggered by the inner organization of the living. these selective coupling interactions impart meaning to the minimal life and are thus defined by maturana and varela with the arguable term of ‘cognition’. this particular view on the mutual interactions between living organism and environment leads these authors to the notion of ‘enaction’, and to the surprising view that autopoiesis and cognition are two complementary, and in a way equivalent, aspects of life. it is then shown how cognition, so defined, permits us to build a bridge between biology and cognitive science. autopoiesis also allows one to conceive chemical models of minimal cellular life that can be implemented experimentally. the corresponding work on ‘chemical autopoiesis’ is then reviewed. the surprising impact of autopoiesis in the social sciences (‘social autopoiesis’) is also briefly discussed. this review also comments on why the theory of autopoiesis had, and still has, a difficult time being accepted into the mainstream of life-science research. finally, it is pointed out that the new interest in system biology and complexity theories may lead to a reappraisal of autopoiesis and related notions, as outlined also by other authors, such as tibor ganti and stuart kauffmann.”

Second-order cybernetics references

Heylighen, F., & Joslyn, C.. (2004). Cybernetics and Second-Order Cybernetics. In Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/b0-12-227410-5/00161-7
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“Nd in the 19th century with ampre, who both saw it as the science of effective government. the concept was revived and elaborated by the mathematician norbert wiener in his seminal 1948 book, whose title defined it as ‘cybernetics, or the study of control and communication in the animal and the machine’. inspired by wartime and pre-war results in mechanical control systems such as servomechanisms and artillery targeting systems, and the contemporaneous development of a mathematical theory of communication (or 3 information) by claude shannon, wiener set out to develop a general theory of organizational and control relations in systems. information theory, control theory and control systems engineering have since developed into independent disciplines. what distinguishes cybernetics is its emphasis on control and communication not only in engineered, artificial systems, but also in evolved, natural systems such as organisms and societies, which set their own goals, rather than being c”

von Foerster, H., & von Foerster, H.. (2006). Ethics and Second-Order Cybernetics. In Understanding Understanding

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1007/0-387-21722-3_14
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“Ladies and gentlemen! i am touched by the generosity of the organizers of this conference who not only invited me to come to your glorious city of paris, but also gave me the honor of opening the plenary sessions with my presentation. and i am impressed by the ingenuity of our organizers, who suggested to me the title of my presentation. they wanted me to address myself to ‘ethics and second-order cybernetics’. to be honest, i would never have dared to propose such an outrageous title, but i must say that i am delighted that this title was chosen for me. before i left california for paris others asked me, full of envy, ‘what am i going to do in paris? what will i talk about?’ when i answered ‘i shall talk about ethics and second-order cybernetics’ almost all of them looked at me in bewilderment and asked ‘what is second-order cybernetics?’ as if there were no questions about ethics.”

Scott, B.. (2004). Second-order cybernetics: an historical introduction. Kybernetes

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1108/03684920410556007
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“In 1974, heinz von foerster articulated the distinction between a first- and second-order cybernetics, as, respectively, the cybernetics of observed systems and the cybernetics of observing systems. von foerster’s distinction, together with his own work on the epistemology of the observer, has been enormously influential on the work of a later generation of cyberneticians. it has provided an architecture for the discipline of cybernetics, one that, in true cybernetic spirit, provides order where previously there was variety and disorder. it has provided a foundation for the research programme that is second-order cybernetics. however, as von foerster himself makes clear, the distinction he articulated was imminent right from the outset in the thinking of the early cyberneticians, before, even, the name of their discipline had been coined. in this paper, the author gives a brief account of the developments in cybernetics that lead to von foerster’s making his distinction. as is the way of such narratives, it is but one perspective on a complex series of events. not only is this account a personal perspective, it also includes some recollections of events that were observed and participated in at first hand.”

Glanville, R.. (2004). The purpose of second-order cybernetics. Kybernetes

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1108/03684920410556016
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“In this paper, the origins of second-order cybernetics are sketched, and are particularly identified with circularity: a quality that was at the basis of the studies that lead to the creation of the field of cybernetics. the implications of the new analysis that second-order cybernetics (cybernetics treated cybernetically: that is, cybernetics when circularity is taken seriously) gives rise to are considered in terms of the two qualities that wiener gave to cybernetics in his eponymous book – control and communication. finally, the analysis is applied to that other proto-cybernetic concept, purpose. it is shown that (and in consequence how) the notion of goal and purpose must be radically reconsidered in second-order cybernetic systems”

Froese, T.. (2010). From cybernetics to second-order cybernetics: A comparative analysis of their central ideas. Constructivist Foundations

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“Context • the enactive paradigm in the cognitive sciences is establishing itself as a strong and comprehensive alternative to the computationalist mainstream. however, its own particular historical roots have so far been largely ignored in the historical analyses of the cognitive sciences. > problem • in order to properly assess the enactive paradigm’s theoretical foundations in terms of their validity, novelty and potential future directions of development, it is essential for us to know more about the history of ideas that has led to the current state of affairs. > method • the meaning of the disappearance of the field of cybernetics and the rise of second-order cybernetics is analyzed by taking a closer look at the work of representative figures for each of the phases – rosenblueth, wiener and bigelow for the early wave of cybernetics, ashby for its culmination, and von foerster for the development of the second-order approach. > results • it is argued that the disintegration of cybernetics eventually resulted in two distinct scientific traditions, one going from symbolic ai to modern cognitive science on the one hand, and the other leading from second-order cybernetics to the current enactive paradigm. > implications • we can now understand that the extent to which the cognitive sciences have neglected their cybernetic parent is precisely the extent to which cybernetics had already carried the tendencies that would later find fuller expression in second-order cybernetics. [abstract from author]”

Garland, E. L.. (2007). The meaning of mindfulness: A second-order cybernetics of stress, metacognition, and coping. Complementary Health Practice Review

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/1533210107301740
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“Stress-related illness presents an ever-increasing burden to society, and thus has become the target of numerous complementary and integrative medicine interventions. one such clinical intervention, mindfulness meditation, has gained eminence for its demonstrated efficacy in reducing stress and improving health outcomes. despite its prominence, little is known about the mechanics through which it exerts its treatment effects. this article details the therapeutic mechanisms of mindfulness with a novel causal model of stress, metacognition, and coping. mindfulness is hypothesized to bolster coping processes by augmenting positive reappraisal, mitigating catastrophizing, and engendering self-transcendence. reviews of stress and mindfulness are then framed by the perspective of second-order cybernetics, a transdisciplinary conceptual framework which builds on extant theory by highlighting the recursion between the individual and their environment.”

Krippendorff, K.. (2007). The cybernetics of design and the design of cybernetics. Kybernetes

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1108/03684920710827364
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“Purpose – the purpose of this paper is to connect two discourses, the discourse of cybernetics and that of design. design/methodology/approach – the paper takes a comparative analysis of relevant definitions, concepts, and entailments in both discourse, and an integration of these into a cybernetically informed concept of human-centered design, on the one hand, and a design-informed concept of second-order cybernetics, on the other hand. in the course of this conceptual exploration, the distinction between science and design is explored with cybernetics located in the dialectic between the two. technology-centered design is distinguished from human-centered design, and several axioms of the latter are stated and discussed. findings – this paper consists of recommendations to think and do things differently. in particular, a generalization of interface is suggested as a replacement for the notion of products; a concept of meaning is developed to substitute for the meaninglessness of physical properties; a theory of stakeholder networks is discussed to replace the deceptive notion of the user; and, above all, it is suggested that designers, in order to design something that affords use to others, engage in second-order understanding. originality/value – the paper makes several radical suggestions that face likely rejection by traditionalists but acceptance by cyberneticians and designers attempting to make a contribution to contemporary information society. © emerald group publishing limited.”

Krippendorff, K.. (1996). A second-order cybernetics of otherness. Systems Research

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1735(199609)13:3<311::aid-sres106>3.0.co;2-o
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“In the spirit of second-order cybernetics, human communication is reconceptualized by including in the process not only its theorists but also their observed others without whom social reality is inconceivable. this essay examines several versions of otherness, how the voices of others survive social scientific inquiries, the dialogical spaces made available for people to build their home, and the kinds of citizenship encouraged. the essay draws attention to the epistemological limits of different inquiring practices and seeks to expand the range of possibilities for humans to see each other.”

Heylighen, F.. (2001). Cybernetics and second order cybernetics. In Encyclopedia of Physical Science & Technology

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“Cybernetics is the science that studies the abstract principles of organization in complex systems. it is concerned not so much with what systems consist of, but how they function. cybernetics focuses on how systems use information, models, and control actions to steer towards and maintain their goals, while counteracting various disturbances. being inherently transdisciplinary, cybernetic reasoning can be applied to understand, model and design systems of any kind: physical, technological, biological, ecological, psychological, social, or any combination of those. second-order cybernetics in particular studies the role of the (human) observer in the construction of models of systems and other observers.”

Bishop, J. M., & Nasuto, J. S.. (2005). Second-order cybernetics and enactive perception. Kybernetes

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1108/03684920510614696
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“Purpose to present an account of cognition integrating second-order cybernetics (soc) together with enactive perception and dynamic systems theory. design/methodology/approach the paper presents a brief critique of classical models of cognition then outlines how integration of soc, enactive perception and dynamic systems theory can overcome some weaknesses of the classical paradigm. findings presents the critique of evolutionary robotics showing how the issues of teleology and autonomy are left unresolved by this paradigm although their solution fits within the proposed framework. research limitations/implications the paper highlights the importance of genuine autonomy in the development of artificial cognitive systems. it sets out a framework within which the robotic research of cognitive systems could succeed. practical implications there are no immediate practical implications but see research implications. originality/value it joins the discussion on the fundamental nature of cognitive systems and emphasise the importance of autonomy and embodiment. © 2005, emerald group publishing limited”

Sweeting, B.. (2016). Design research as a variety of second-order Cybernetic practice. Constructivist Foundations

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“Context: the relationship between design and science has shifted over recent decades. one bridge between the two is cybernetics, which offers perspectives on both in terms of their practice. from around 1980 onwards, drawing on ideas from cybernetics, glanville has suggested that rather than apply science to design, it makes more sense to understand science as a form of design activity, reversing the more usual hierarchy between the two. i return to review this argument here, in the context of recent discussions in this journal regarding second-order science (sos). problem: despite numerous connections to practice, second-order cybernetics (soc) has tended to be associated with theory. as a result, soc is perceived as separate to the more tangible aspects of earlier cybernetics in a way that obscures both the continuity between the two and also current opportunities for developing the field. method: i review glanville’s understanding of design, and particularly his account of scientific research as a designlike activity, placing this within the context of the shifting relation between science and design during the development of soc, with reference to the work of rittel and feyerabend. through this, i summarise significant parallels and overlaps between soc and the contemporary concerns of design research. results: i suggest that we can see design research not just as a field influenced by cybernetics but as a form of soc practice even where cybernetics is not explicitly referenced. implications: given this, design research offers much to cybernetics as an important example of soc that is both outward looking and practice based. as such, it bridges the gap between soc and the more tangible legacy of earlier cybernetics, while also suggesting connections to contemporary concerns in this journal with sos in terms of researching research. constructivist content: by suggesting that we see design research as an example of soc, i develop connections between constructivism and practice.”

Froese, T.. (2011). From second-order cybernetics to enactive cognitive science: Varela’s turn from epistemology to phenomenology. Systems Research and Behavioral Science

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1002/sres.1116
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“Varela is well known in the systems sciences for his work on second-order cybernetics, biology of cognition and especially autopoietic theory. his concern during this period was to find an appropriate epistemological foundation for the self-reference inherent in life and mind. in his later years, varela began to develop the so-called ‘enactive’ approach to cognitive science, which sets itself apart from other sciences by promoting a careful consideration of concrete experiential insights. his final efforts were thus dedicated to finding a pragmatic phenomenological foundation for life and mind. it is argued that varela’s experiential turn—from epistemology to phenomenology—can be seen as a natural progression that builds on many ideas that were already implicit in second-order cybernetics and biology of cognition. it is also suggested that the rigorous study of conscious experience may enable us to refine our theories and systemic concepts of life, mind and sociality. copyright”

13. June 201915. June 2019

The “Brain in a Vat” Gedankenexperiment

For the full version visit: christopher-germann.de/the-brain-in-a-vat-gedankenexperiment/

References

Chalmers, D.. (2018). The matrix as metaphysics. Mind and Matter

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311105.003.0013
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“The matrix presents a version of an old philosophical fable: the brain in a vat. a disembodied brain is floating in a vat, inside a scientist’s laboratory. the scientist has arranged that the brain will be stimulated with the same sort of inputs that a normal embodied brain receives. to do this, the brain is connected to a giant computer simulation of a world. the simulation determines which inputs the brain receives. when the brain produces outputs, these are fed back into the simulation. the internal state of the brain is just like that of a normal brain, despite the fact that it lacks a body. from the brain’s point of view, things seem very much as they seem to you and me.”

Cosmelli, D., & Thompson, E.. (2013). Embodiment or Envatment?: Reflections on the Bodily Basis of Consciousness. In Enaction

Plain numerical DOI: 10.7551/mitpress/9780262014601.003.0014
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“Suppose that a team of neurosurgeons and bioengineers were able to remove your brain from your body, suspend it in a life-sustaining vat of liquid nutrients, and connect its neurons and nerve terminals by wires to a supercomputer that would stimulate it with electrical impulses exactly like those it normally receives when embodied. according to this brain-in-a-vat thought experiment, your envatted brain and your embodied brain would have subjectively indistinguishable mental lives. for all you know—so one argument goes—you could be such a brain in a vat right now.”

Cavallaro, D.. (2004). The brain in a vat in cyberpunk: The persistence of the flesh. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C :Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2004.03.005
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“This essay argues that the image of the brain in a vat metaphorically encapsulates articulations of the relationship between the corporeal and the technological dimensions found in cyberpunk fiction and cinema. cyberpunk is concurrently concerned with actual and imaginary metamorphoses of biological organisms into machines, and of mechanical apparatuses into living entities. its recurring representation of human beings hooked up to digital matrices vividly recalls the envatted brain activated by electric stimuli, which hilary putnam has theorized in the context of contemporary epistemology. at the same time, cyberpunk imaginatively raises the same epistemological questions instigated by putnam. these concern the cognitive processes associated with the collusion of human and mechanical creatures, and related metaphysical and ethical issues spawned by such processes. as a philosophical trope, the brain in a vat would appear to pivot on the notion of a disembodied subject consisting of sheer mentation. however, literary and cinematic interpretations of the image in cyberpunk persistently foreground the obdurate materiality of the flesh-often in its most grisly and grotesque incarnations. © 2004 elsevier ltd. all rights reserved.”

Brueckner, A.. (1992). If i am a brain in a vat, then i am not a brain in a vat. Mind

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1093/mind/101.401.123
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Hickey, L. P.. (2005). The Brain in a Vat Argument. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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“The brain in a vat thought-experiment is most commonly used to illustrate global or cartesian skepticism. you are told to imagine the possibility that at this very moment you are actually a brain hooked up to a sophisticated computer program that can perfectly simulate experiences of the outside world. here is the skeptical argument. if you cannot now be sure that you are not a brain in a vat, then you cannot rule out the possibility that all of your beliefs about the external world are false. or, to put it in terms of knowledge claims, we can construct the following skeptical argument. let ‘p’ stand for any belief or claim about the external world, say, that snow is white.”

Huemer, M.. (2006). Direct Realism and the Brain-in-a-Vat Argument. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research

Plain numerical DOI: 10.2307/2653657
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“The brain-in-a-vat argument for skepticism is best formulated, notnusing the closure principle, but using the ‘preference principle,’nwhich states that in order to be justified in believing h on thenbasis of e, one must have grounds for preferring h over each alternativenexplanation of e. when the argument is formulated this way, dretske’snand klein’s responses to it fail. however, the strengthened argumentncan be refuted using a direct realist account of perception. fornthe direct realist, refuting the biv scenario is not a preconditionnon knowledge of the external world, and only the direct realist canngive a noncircular account of how we know we’re not brains in vats.”

Smart, J. J. C.. (2004). The brain in the vat and the question of metaphysical realism. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C :Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2004.03.003
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“This article indicates some ways in which the fantasy of the brain in the vat has been used in thought experiments to discuss important philosophical problems. the first has to do with scepticism about the external world. the second has to do with hilary putnam’s arguments for the indeterminacy of reference and his rejection of metaphysical realism. the third issue to which the brain in the vat is relevant has to do with the difference between broad and narrow content of beliefs and putnam’s challenging assertion that reference is not ‘in the head’. though there are brief suggestions for dealing with these problems and saving metaphysical realism, the main purpose is to indicate the relevance of the fantasy of the brain in the vat to discussion of these issues. © 2004 elsevier ltd. all rights reserved.”

Sprevak, M., & McLeish, C.. (2004). Magic, semantics, and Putnam’s vat brains. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C :Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2004.03.007
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“In this paper we offer an exegesis of hilary putnam’s classic argument against the brain-in-a-vat hypothesis offered in his reason, truth and history (1981). in it, putnam argues that we cannot be brains in a vat because the semantics of the situation make it incoherent for anyone to wonder whether they are a brain in a vat. putnam’s argument is that in order for ‘I am a brain in a vat’ to be true, the person uttering it would have to be able to refer successfully to those things: the vat, and the envatted brain. putnam thinks that reference can’t be secured without relevant kinds of causal relations, which, if envatted, the brain would lack, and so, it fails to be able to meaningfully utter ‘i am a brain in a vat’. we consider the implications of putnam’s arguments for cartesian scepticism and suggest that there may yet be some ways out of putnam’s arguments for the traditional sceptic. in conclusion, we discuss the role of putnam’s arguments against the brain in a vat hypothesis in his larger defense of his own internal realism against metaphysical realism. © 2004 elsevier ltd. all rights reserved.”

Black, T.. (2002). A moorean response to brain-in-a-vat scepticism. Australasian Journal of Philosophy

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1080/724051028
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Greco, J.. (2009). Skepticism about the External World. In The Oxford Handbook of Skepticism

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195183214.003.0006
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“Recent literature in epistemology has focused on the following argument for skepticism (sa): i know that i have two hands only if i know that i am not a handless brain in a vat. but i don’t know i am not a handless brain in a vat. therefore, i don’t know that i have two hands. part i of this article reviews two responses to skepticism that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s: sensitivity theories and attributor contextualism. part ii considers the more recent textquoteleft{}neo-mooreantextquoteright response to skepticism and its development in textquoteleft{}safetytextquoteright theories of knowledge. part iii argues that the skeptical argument set out in sa is not of central importance. specifically, sa is parasitic on skeptical reasoning that is more powerful and more fundamental than that displayed by sa itself. finally, part iv reviews a pyrrhonian argument for skepticism that is not well captured by sa, and considers a promising strategy for responding to it.”

Bostrom, N.. (2005). The simulation argument: Reply to Weatherson. Philosophical Quarterly

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1111/j.0031-8094.2005.00387.x
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Manson, N. C.. (2004). Brains, vats, and neurally-controlled animats. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C :Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2004.03.004
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“The modern vat-brain debate is an epistemological one, and it focuses on the point of view of a putatively deceived subject. semantic externalists argue that we cannot coherently wonder whether we are brains in vats. this paper examines a new experimental paradigm for cognitive neuroscience-the neurally-controlled animat (nca) paradigm-that seems to have a great deal in common with the vat-brain scenario. neural cells are provided with a simulated body within an artificial world in order to study the brain both in vitro and in vivo. given the similarity between the nca scenario and the vat-brain scenario, semantic externalism seems to undermine the utility of the nca methodology. three initial responses to the externalist challenge are offered. a fourth response clarifies the distinctive theoretical background to the nca in ‘artificial life’ and, in doing so, we uncover an anti-representationalist conception of the nca. this distances the nca paradigm from externalist objections and casts cognitive neuroscience, and the vat-brain debate, in a new light. © 2004 published by elsevier ltd.”

Proctor, R. N., & Schiebinger, L.. (2008). Agnotology: the making and unmaking of ignorance. Organization Studies

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/0306312713484646
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“Phi losophe r s lov e to ta l k a bout k nowl edge. a whole field is devoted to reflection on the topic, with product tie-ins to professor- ships and weighty conferences. epistemology is serious business, taught in academies the world over: there is ‘moral’ and ‘social’ epistemology, epistemology of the sacred, the closet, and the family. there is a compu- tational epistemology laboratory at the university of waterloo, and a center for epistemology at the free university in amsterdam. a google search turns up separate websites for ‘constructivist,’ ‘feminist,’ and ‘evolutionary’ epistemology, of course, but also ‘libidinal,’ ‘android,’ ‘quaker,’ ‘internet,’ and (my favorite) ‘erotometaphysical’ epistemol- ogy. harvard offers a course in the field (without the erotometaphysical part), which (if we are to believe its website) explores the epistemic status of weighty claims like ‘the standard meter is 1 meter long’ and ‘i am not a brain in a vat.’1 we seem to know a lot about knowledge.2”

11. June 201911. June 2019

A quantum psychophysics perspective on bistable perception

www.Qbism.art is an interdisciplinary web-project that synthesises a plurality of perspectives from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, quantum physics, philosophy, computer science, and digital art into a holistic transdisciplinary Gestalt. You can view a series of animated digital Qbism artworks below (the neologism ‘Qbism’ is a composite lexeme composed of ‘Quantum & Cubism’).

Abstract algorithmic digital art

Digital algorithmic artwork by Christopher B. Germann

11. June 201911. June 2019

The Chinese Room Argument against genuine artificial intelligence

Keywords: Syntax versus semantics; the problem of symbol grounding; meaning and AI, creativity and AI, intelligence and AI, embodied cognition, disembodied computation.
URL: rintintin.colorado.edu/~vancecd/phil201/Searle.pdf

For a related topic visit my domain: brain-in-a-vat.ga (*swf Flash plugin required)
alternatively (no external plugin required – just JavaScript): christopher-germann.de/the-brain-in-a-vat-gedankenexperiment/

References

Moural, J.. (2003). The Chinese room argument. In John searle

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511613999.010
DOI URL
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“The chinese room argument is a thought experiment of john searle (1980a) and associated (1984) derivation. it is one of the best known and widely credited counters to claims of artificial intelligence (ai)that is, to claims that computers do or at least can (someday might) think. according to searles original presentation, the argument is based on two key claims: brains cause minds and syntax doesnt suffice for semantics. its target is what searle dubs strong ai. according to strong ai, searle says, the computer is not merely a tool in the study of the mind, rather the appropriately programmed computer really is a mind in the sense that computers given the right programs can be literally said to understand and have other cognitive states (1980a, p. 417). searle contrasts strong ai with weak ai. according to weak ai, computers just simulate thought, their seeming understanding isnt real understanding (just as-if), their seeming calculation is only as-if calculation, etc. nevertheless, computer simulation is useful for studying the mind (as for studying the weather and other things).”

Damper, R. I.. (2006). The logic of Searle’s Chinese room argument. Minds and Machines

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1007/s11023-006-9031-5
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“John searle’s chinese room argument (cra) is a celebrated thought experiment designed to refute the hypothesis, popular among artificial intelligence (ai) scientists and philosophers of mind, that ‘the appropriately programmed computer really is a mind’. since its publication in 1980, the cra has evoked an enormous amount of debate about its implications for machine intelligence, the functionalist philosophy of mind, theories of consciousness, etc. although the general consensus among commentators is that the cra is flawed, and not withstanding the popularity of the systems reply in some quarters, there is remarkably little agreement on exactly how and why it is flawed. a newcomer to the controversy could be forgiven for thinking that the bewildering collection of diverse replies to searle betrays a tendency to unprincipled, ad hoc argumentation and, thereby, a weakness in the opposition’s case. in this paper, treating the cra as a prototypical example of a ‘destructive’ thought experiment, i attempt to set it in a logical framework (due to sorensen), which allows us to systematise and classify the various objections. since thought experiments are always posed in narrative form, formal logic by itself cannot fully capture the controversy. on the contrary, much also hinges on how one translates between the informal everyday language in which the cra was initially framed and formal logic and, in particular, on the specific conception(s) of possibility that one reads into the logical formalism. (psycinfo database record (c) 2012 apa, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)”

Anderson, D., & Copeland, B. J.. (2002). Artificial life and the Chinese room argument.. Artificial Life

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1162/106454602321202435
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“‘Strong artificial life’ refers to the thesis that a sufficiently sophisticated computer simulation of a life form is a life form in its own right. can john searle’s chinese room argument [12]—originally intended by him to show that the thesis he dubs ‘strong ai’ is false—be deployed against strong alife? we have often encountered the suggestion that it can be (even in print; see harnad [8]). we do our best to transfer the argument from the domain of ai to that of alife. we do so in order to show once and for all that the chinese room argument proves nothing about alife. there may indeed be powerful philosophical objections to the thesis of strong alife, but the chinese room argument is not among them.”

Harnad, S.. (1989). Minds, machines and searle. Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1080/09528138908953691
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“ABSTRACT: searle’s celebrated chinese room argument has shaken the foundations of artificial intelligence. many refutations have been attempted, but none seem convincing. this paper is an attempt to sort out explicitly the assumptions and the logical, methodological and empirical points of disagreement. searle is shown to have underestimated some features of computer modeling, but the heart of the issue turns out to be an empirical question about the scope and limits of the purely symbolic (computational) model of the mind. nonsymbolic modeling turns out to be immune to the chinese room argument. the issues discussed include the total turing test, modularity, neural modeling, robotics, causality and the symbol-grounding problem.”

Nute, D.. (2011). A logical hole the Chinese room avoids. Minds and Machines

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1007/s11023-011-9244-0
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“Abstract searle’s chinese room argument (cra) has been the object of great interest in the philosophy of mind, artificial intelligencenand cognitive science since its initial presentation in ‘minds, brains and programs’ in 1980. it is by no means an overstatementnto assert that it has been a main focus of attention for philosophers and computer scientists of many stripes. it is thennespecially interesting to note that relatively little has been said about the detailed logic of the argument, whatever significancensearle intended cra to have. the problem with the cra is that it involves a very strong modal claim, the truth of which isnboth unproved and highly questionable. so it will be argued here that the cra does not prove what it was intended to prove.”

Waskan, J.. (2006). Views into the Chinese Room: New Essays on Searle and Artificial Intelligence. Philosophical Review

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1215/00318108-114-2-277
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“The most famous challenge to computational cognitive science and artificial intelligence is the philosopher john searle’s ‘chinese room’ argument. searle argued that, although machines can be devised to respond to input with the same output as would a mind, machines-unlike minds-lack understanding of the symbols they process. 19 essays by leading scientists and philosophers assess, renew, and respond to this crucial challenge.”

Harnad, S.. (2005). Searle’s Chinese Room Argument. In Encyclopedia of Philosophy

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Jacquette, D.. (2006). Adventures in the Chinese Room. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research

Plain numerical DOI: 10.2307/2107850
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“John r searle’s problem of the chinese room is criticized for failing to address microlevel functional isomorphisms between intelligent subjects and artificial cognitive simulations in hypothetical turing test evaluations. searle’s argument that the mammalian brain is the only known material object with the ‘right causal powers’ to support intrinsic intentional states in a scientific causal-biological ‘naturalization’ of intentionality is refuted as inconsistent in objective and inadequately motivated. searle’s examples of wetness and elasticity as instances of the causation and realization of macrostructure in microstructure are rejected as unsatisfactory analogies for the way in which intentionality is supposed to be caused by and realized in the microstructure of the brain. an alternative approach to the scientific demystification of intentionality is proposed in accord with a foundational model of conceptual analysis, in which intentionality is seen as a primitive abstract relation rather than a causal-biological product or process.”

Rodríguez, D., Hermosillo, J., & Lara, B.. (2012). Meaning in artificial agents: The symbol grounding problem revisited. Minds and Machines

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1007/s11023-011-9263-x
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“The chinese room argument has presented a persistent headache in the search for artificial intelligence. since it first appeared in the literature, various interpretations have been made, attempting to understand the problems posed by this thought experiment. throughout all this time, some researchers in the artificial intelligence community have seen symbol grounding as proposed by harnad as a solution to the chinese room argument. the main thesis in this paper is that although related, these two issues present different problems in the framework presented by harnad himself. the work presented here attempts to shed some light on the relationship between john searle’s intentionality notion and harnad’s symbol grounding problem. © springer science+business media b.v. 2011.”

Wakefield, J. C.. (2003). The Chinese room argument reconsidered: Essentialism, indeterminacy, and strong AI. Minds and Machines

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1023/A:1022947527614
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Block, N.. (1995). The Mind as the Software of the Brain. In An Invitation to Cognitive Science: Thinking

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“Offers a philosophical perspective about the cognitive approach to thinking in general cognitive scientists often say that the mind is the software of the brain this chapter is about what this claim means start with an influential attempt to define ‘intelligence’ consider how human intelligence is to be investigated on the machine model discuss the relation between the mental and the biological intelligence and intentionality functionalism and the language of thought arguments for the language of thought explanatory levels and the syntactic theory of the mind j. searle’s chinese room argument (psycinfo database record (c) 2007 apa, all rights reserved)”

Teng, N. Y.. (2002). A cognitive analysis of the Chinese room argument. Philosophical Psychology

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1080/09515080050128141
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“Searle’s chinese room argument is analyzed from a cognitive point of view. the analysis is based on a newly developed model of conceptual integration, the many space model proposed by fauconnier and turner. the main point of the analysis is that the central inference constructed in the chinese room scenario is a result of a dynamic, cognitive activity of conceptual blending, with metaphor defining the basic features of the blending. two important consequences follow: (1) searle’s recent contention that syntax is not intrinsic to physics turns out to be a slightly modified version of the old chinese room argument; and (2) the argument itself is still open to debate. it is persuasive but not conclusive, and at bottom it is a topological mismatch in the metaphoric conceptual integration that is responsible for the non-conclusive character of the chinese room argument. [abstract from author]; copyright of philosophical psychology is the property of routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. however, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. this abstract may be abridged. no warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (copyright applies to all abstracts.)”

10. June 201910. June 2019

3D Webdesign: Parametric Geometry

Source Code

<script src="../build/three.js"></script>

<script src="js/WebGL.js"></script>
<script src="js/libs/stats.min.js"></script>

<script src="js/CurveExtras.js"></script>
<script src="js/geometries/ParametricGeometries.js"></script>

<script>

			if ( WEBGL.isWebGLAvailable() === false ) {

				document.body.appendChild( WEBGL.getWebGLErrorMessage() );

			}

			var camera, scene, renderer, stats;

			init();
			animate();

			function init() {

				var container = document.getElementById( 'container' );

				camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera( 45, window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight, 1, 2000 );
				camera.position.y = 400;

				scene = new THREE.Scene();

				//

				var ambientLight = new THREE.AmbientLight( 0xcccccc, 0.4 );
				scene.add( ambientLight );

				var pointLight = new THREE.PointLight( 0xffffff, 0.8 );
				camera.add( pointLight );
				scene.add( camera );

				//

				var map = new THREE.TextureLoader().load( 'textures/UV_Grid_Sm.jpg' );
				map.wrapS = map.wrapT = THREE.RepeatWrapping;
				map.anisotropy = 16;

				var material = new THREE.MeshPhongMaterial( { map: map, side: THREE.DoubleSide } );

				//

				var geometry, object;

				geometry = new THREE.ParametricBufferGeometry( THREE.ParametricGeometries.plane( 100, 100 ), 10, 10 );
				geometry.center();
				object = new THREE.Mesh( geometry, material );
				object.position.set( - 200, 0, 200 );
				scene.add( object );

				geometry = new THREE.ParametricBufferGeometry( THREE.ParametricGeometries.klein, 20, 20 );
				object = new THREE.Mesh( geometry, material );
				object.position.set( 0, 0, 200 );
				object.scale.multiplyScalar( 5 );
				scene.add( object );

				geometry = new THREE.ParametricBufferGeometry( THREE.ParametricGeometries.mobius, 20, 20 );
				object = new THREE.Mesh( geometry, material );
				object.position.set( 200, 0, 200 );
				object.scale.multiplyScalar( 30 );
				scene.add( object );

				//

				var GrannyKnot = new THREE.Curves.GrannyKnot();

				var torus = new THREE.ParametricGeometries.TorusKnotGeometry( 50, 10, 50, 20, 2, 3 );
				var sphere = new THREE.ParametricGeometries.SphereGeometry( 50, 20, 10 );
				var tube = new THREE.ParametricGeometries.TubeGeometry( GrannyKnot, 100, 3, 8, true, false );

				torus = new THREE.BufferGeometry().fromGeometry( torus );
				sphere = new THREE.BufferGeometry().fromGeometry( sphere );
				tube = new THREE.BufferGeometry().fromGeometry( tube );

				object = new THREE.Mesh( torus, material );
				object.position.set( - 200, 0, - 200 );
				scene.add( object );

				object = new THREE.Mesh( sphere, material );
				object.position.set( 0, 0, - 200 );
				scene.add( object );

				object = new THREE.Mesh( tube, material );
				object.position.set( 200, 0, - 200 );
				object.scale.multiplyScalar( 2 );
				scene.add( object );

				//

				renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer( { antialias: true } );
				renderer.setPixelRatio( window.devicePixelRatio );
				renderer.setSize( window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight );
				container.appendChild( renderer.domElement );

				stats = new Stats();
				container.appendChild( stats.dom );

				window.addEventListener( 'resize', onWindowResize, false );

			}

			function onWindowResize() {

				camera.aspect = window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight;
				camera.updateProjectionMatrix();

				renderer.setSize( window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight );

			}

			function animate() {

				requestAnimationFrame( animate );

				render();
				stats.update();

			}

			function render() {

				var timer = Date.now() * 0.0001;

				camera.position.x = Math.cos( timer ) * 800;
				camera.position.z = Math.sin( timer ) * 800;

				camera.lookAt( scene.position );

				scene.traverse( function ( object ) {

					if ( object.isMesh === true ) {

						object.rotation.x = timer * 5;
						object.rotation.y = timer * 2.5;

					}

				} );

				renderer.render( scene, camera );

			}

		</script>
Source URL: https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/blob/master/examples/webgl_geometries_parametric.html

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if ( WEBGL.isWebGLAvailable() === false ) {

document.body.appendChild( WEBGL.getWebGLErrorMessage() );

}

var camera, scene, renderer, stats;

init();

animate();

function init() {

var container = document.getElementById( 'container' );

camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera( 45, window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight, 1, 2000 );

camera.position.y = 400;

scene = new THREE.Scene();

var ambientLight = new THREE.AmbientLight( 0xcccccc, 0.4 );

scene.add( ambientLight );

var pointLight = new THREE.PointLight( 0xffffff, 0.8 );

camera.add( pointLight );

scene.add( camera );

var map = new THREE.TextureLoader().load( 'textures/UV_Grid_Sm.jpg' );

map.wrapS = map.wrapT = THREE.RepeatWrapping;

map.anisotropy = 16;

var material = new THREE.MeshPhongMaterial( { map: map, side: THREE.DoubleSide } );

var geometry, object;

geometry = new THREE.ParametricBufferGeometry( THREE.ParametricGeometries.plane( 100, 100 ), 10, 10 );

geometry.center();

object = new THREE.Mesh( geometry, material );

object.position.set( - 200, 0, 200 );

scene.add( object );

geometry = new THREE.ParametricBufferGeometry( THREE.ParametricGeometries.klein, 20, 20 );

object = new THREE.Mesh( geometry, material );

object.position.set( 0, 0, 200 );

object.scale.multiplyScalar( 5 );

scene.add( object );

geometry = new THREE.ParametricBufferGeometry( THREE.ParametricGeometries.mobius, 20, 20 );

object = new THREE.Mesh( geometry, material );

object.position.set( 200, 0, 200 );

object.scale.multiplyScalar( 30 );

scene.add( object );

var GrannyKnot = new THREE.Curves.GrannyKnot();

var torus = new THREE.ParametricGeometries.TorusKnotGeometry( 50, 10, 50, 20, 2, 3 );

var sphere = new THREE.ParametricGeometries.SphereGeometry( 50, 20, 10 );

var tube = new THREE.ParametricGeometries.TubeGeometry( GrannyKnot, 100, 3, 8, true, false );

torus = new THREE.BufferGeometry().fromGeometry( torus );

sphere = new THREE.BufferGeometry().fromGeometry( sphere );

tube = new THREE.BufferGeometry().fromGeometry( tube );

object = new THREE.Mesh( torus, material );

object.position.set( - 200, 0, - 200 );

scene.add( object );

object = new THREE.Mesh( sphere, material );

object.position.set( 0, 0, - 200 );

scene.add( object );

object = new THREE.Mesh( tube, material );

object.position.set( 200, 0, - 200 );

object.scale.multiplyScalar( 2 );

scene.add( object );

renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer( { antialias: true } );

renderer.setPixelRatio( window.devicePixelRatio );

renderer.setSize( window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight );

container.appendChild( renderer.domElement );

stats = new Stats();

container.appendChild( stats.dom );

window.addEventListener( 'resize', onWindowResize, false );

}

function onWindowResize() {

camera.aspect = window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight;

camera.updateProjectionMatrix();

renderer.setSize( window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight );

}

function animate() {

requestAnimationFrame( animate );

render();

stats.update();

}

function render() {

var timer = Date.now() * 0.0001;

camera.position.x = Math.cos( timer ) * 800;

camera.position.z = Math.sin( timer ) * 800;

camera.lookAt( scene.position );

scene.traverse( function ( object ) {

if ( object.isMesh === true ) {

object.rotation.x = timer * 5;

object.rotation.y = timer * 2.5;

}

} );

renderer.render( scene, camera );

}

</script>

Source URL: https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/blob/master/examples/webgl_geometries_parametric.html

Gilhooly, K. J., Georgiou, G., & Devery, U.. (2013). Incubation and creativity: Do something different. Thinking and Reasoning

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1080/13546783.2012.749812
DOI URL
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“The experiment reported here investigated interactions between the type of creative task (verbal or spatial) and the type of incubation activity (verbal or spatial) on creative performance. the experiment used a verbal creative divergent thinking task (alternative uses) and a spatial creative task (mental synthesis). after 5 minutes of conscious work on alternative uses or mental synthesis, experimental groups had 5-minute incubation periods which involved either spatial (mental rotation) or verbal tasks (anagrams). following incubation, the experimental participants resumed their main task for a further 5 minutes. control groups undertook alternative uses or mental synthesis for 10 minutes without any incubation periods. significant incubation effects were found overall and there were interactions in that spatial incubation benefited verbal fluency and verbal-rated creativity, and verbal incubation benefited spatial-task fluency and spatial-rated creativity but not vice versa. the results supported a role for unconscious work during incubation periods in creative thinking tasks and did not support the hypotheses that incubation effects are due to selective forgetting or attention shifting. © 2013 copyright taylor and francis group, llc.”

Czernecka, K., & Szymura, B.. (2008). Alexithymia – Imagination – Creativity. Personality and Individual Differences

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2008.05.019
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“The study was aimed at examining the relationships between alexithymia, imagination functioning and the level of creativity. contrary to previously conducted studies, a behavioural method of measuring imagination efficacy was used (neutral and emotional versions of the mental rotation test). the level of creativity was assessed with the use of the urban-jellen test and creative visualisation task. the neo-ffi was also administered. it was hypothesized that individuals with high alexithymia scores would show a reduced imagery ability as well as low creativity level. in a sample of 136 participants, alexithymics were found to be significantly less creative than non-alexithymics. however, no differences in imagination efficacy were found with regard to alexithymia. the results are discussed in the context of personality impact on cognitive tasks performance, also shedding new light on alexithymia correlates. © 2008 elsevier ltd. all rights reserved.”

Pérez-Fabello, M. J., Campos, A., & Meana, J. C.. (2014). Vividness and Control of Mental Imagery and the Components of In-Depth Drawing. Creativity Research Journal

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1080/10400419.2014.901097
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“The aim of this study was to examine the associations of control and vividness of mental imagery on performance in several components of in-depth drawing in a sample of fine arts undergraduates. the sample consisted of 56 second-year undergraduates (44 women and 12 men, mean age = 21.18 years) from the fine arts faculty of vigo university, pontevedra, spain. participants were required to undertake a plastic art assignment focusing on the pictorial representation of space. participants scoring high on the image control test obtained higher scores on the spatial analysis and in the formal construction of a work than participants with poor image control. further research involving spatial image performance tests and mental image rotation tests is proposed. © 2014 copyright taylor & francis group, llc.”

Pérez-Fabello, M. J., Campos, A., & Felisberti, F. M.. (2018). Object-spatial imagery in fine arts, psychology, and engineering. Thinking Skills and Creativity

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.tsc.2017.12.005
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“How do students of fine arts, psychology and engineering visualize objects mentally? to address this basic but important educational question, the students’ ability to process figure-ground and spatial imagery was compared using the object-spatial imagery and verbal questionnaire (osivq), the mental rotation test (mrt), and the measure of the ability to form spatial mental imagery (masmi). there were 99 fine arts, 92 psychology, and 90 engineering second-year university undergraduates. the results revealed that students preferred image to verbal processing, but differences were observed in their preferred style of image processing. fine arts and psychology students were the most inclined to use object image processing while engineering students preferred spatial processing. verbal processing was only prominent in psychology students. in all three academic disciplines, the students’ performance in the spatial ability tests is consistent with the features specific of the cognitive style. overall, men were better at mentally rotating objects than women. we believe that there is a need to design artistic spatial imagery measurement tests to access the students’ skills in mental image processing, including image rotation, to identify weaknesses and to develop efficient training strategies in order to correct or attenuate them.”

Schwitzgebel, E.. (2002). How well do we know our own conscious experience? The case of visual imagery. Journal of Consciousness Studies

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“Philosophers tend to assume that we have excellent knowledge of our own current conscious experience or ‘phenomenology’. i argue that our knowledge of one aspect of our experience, the experience of visual imagery, is actually rather poor. precedent for this position is found among the introspective psychologists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. two main arguments are advanced toward the conclusion that our knowledge of our own imagery is poor. first, the reader is asked to form a visual image, and it is expected that answering questions about certain basic features of that experience will be difficult. if so, it seems reasonable to suppose that people could be mistaken about those basic features of their own imagery. second, it is observed that although people give widely variable reports about their own experiences of visual imagery, differences in report do not systematically correlate with differences on tests of skills that psychologists have often supposed to require visual imagery, such as mental rotation, visual creativity, and visual memory.”

Leung, C., & Salga, A.. (2010). Enabling WebGL

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1145/1772690.1772933
DOI URL
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“WebGL leverages the power of opengl to present accelerated 3d graphics on a webpage. the ability to put hardware- accelerated 3d content in the browser will provide a means for the creation of new web based applications that were previously the exclusive domain of the desktop environment. it will also allow the inclusion of features that standalone 3d applications do not have. while webgl succeeds in bringing the power and low- level api of opengl to the browser, it also expects a lot of web developers, who are used to the dom and javascript libraries like jquery. this paper will look at how mid level apis can help web developers create unique 3d content that is more than just duplicates of a standalone desktop application on a web page. we will present one such web application named motionview, built with c3dl, that provides a new means for artist and motion capture studios to communicate with each other. we will also highlight some upcoming project ideas that make use of 3d browser technology in a way that would not have been possible in a desktop environment.”

Parisi, T.. (2012). WebGL up and running. O’Reilly

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004
DOI URL
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“Get a quick introduction to webgl, the new standard for 3d rendering on the web and a member of html5’s family of technologies. with this hands-on guide, you’ll learn essential webgl development and production concepts, using the javascript 3d engine three.js. at the end of the book, you’ll put everything together and build a full 3d application with webgl. you don’t have to be a game development wizard or have 3d graphics experience to get started. if you use html, css, and javascript-and have familiarity with jquery and ajax-this book will help you gain a working knowledge of webgl through clear and simple examples.”

Matsuda, K., & Lea, R.. (2013). WebGL Programming Guide: Interactive 3D Graphics Programming with WebGL (OpenGL). Interactive 3D Graphics Programming with WebGL

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“Using webgl®, you can create sophisticated interactive 3d graphics inside web browsers, without plug-ins. webgl makes it possible to build a new generation of 3d web games, user interfaces, and information visualization solutions that will run on any standard web browser, and on pcs, smartphones, tablets, game consoles, or other devices. webgl programming guide will help you get started quickly with interactive webgl 3d programming, even if you have no prior knowledge of html5, javascript, 3d graphics, mathematics, or opengl.”

OpenGL Insights. (2012). OpenGL Insights

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1201/b12288
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“Get real-world insight from experienced professionals in the opengl communitywith opengl, opengl es, and webgl, real-time rendering is becoming available everywhere, from aaa games to mobile phones to web pages. assembling contributions from experienced developers, vendors, researchers, and educators, opengl insights presents real-world techniques for intermediate and advanced opengl, opengl es, and webgl developers. go beyond the basicsthe book thoroughly covers a range of topics, including opengl 4.2 and recent extensions. it explains how to optimize for mobile devices, explores the design of webgl libraries, and discusses opengl in the classroom. the contributors also examine asynchronous buffer and texture transfers, performance state tracking, and programmable vertex pulling. sharpen your skillsfocusing on current and emerging techniques for the opengl family of apis, this book demonstrates the breadth and depth of opengl. readers will gain practical skills to solve problems related to performance, rendering, profiling, framework design, and more.”

Daniel Adler, D. M. and others. (2016). 3D Visualization Using OpenGL. R Package Version 0.95.1441

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“Provides medium to high level functions for 3d interactive graphics, including functions modelled on base graphics (plot3d(), etc.) as well as functions for constructing representations of geometric objects (cube3d(), etc.). output may be on screen using opengl, or to various standard 3d file formats including webgl, ply, obj, stl as well as 2d image formats, including png, postscript, svg, pgf.”

Congote, J., Segura, A., Kabongo, L., Moreno, A., Posada, J., & Ruiz, O.. (2011). Interactive visualization of volumetric data with WebGL in real-time

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1145/2010425.2010449
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“This article presents and discusses the implementation of a direct volume rendering system for the web, which articulates a large portion of the rendering task in the client machine. by placing the rendering emphasis in the local client, our system takes advantage of its power, while at the same time eliminates processing from unreliable bottlenecks (e.g. network). the system developed articulates in efficient manner the capabilities of the recently released webgl standard, which makes available the accelerated graphic pipeline (formerly unusable). the dependency on specially customized hardware is eliminated, and yet efficient rendering rates are achieved. the web increasingly competes against desktop applications in many scenarios, but the graphical demands of some of the applications (e.g. interactive scientific visualization by volume rendering), have impeded their successful settlement in web scenarios. performance, scalability, accuracy, security are some of the many challenges that must be solved before visual web applications popularize. in this publication we discuss both performance and scalability of the volume rendering by webgl ray-casting in two different but challenging application domains: medical imaging and radar meteorology. © 2011 acm.”

10. June 2019

Visual Perception: Digital Afterimages

Afterimage 3D (WebGL API)

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
	<head>
		<title>three.js webgl - postprocessing - afterimage</title>
		<meta charset="utf-8">
		<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, user-scalable=no, minimum-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0">
		<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="main.css">
	</head>
	<body>

		<script src="../build/three.js"></script>

		<script src="js/shaders/CopyShader.js"></script>
		<script src="js/shaders/AfterimageShader.js"></script>

		<script src="js/postprocessing/EffectComposer.js"></script>
		<script src="js/postprocessing/RenderPass.js"></script>
		<script src="js/postprocessing/MaskPass.js"></script>
		<script src="js/postprocessing/ShaderPass.js"></script>
		<script src="js/postprocessing/AfterimagePass.js"></script>

		<script src="js/libs/dat.gui.min.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>

		<script>

			var camera, scene, renderer, composer;
			var mesh;

			var afterimagePass;

			var params = {

				enable: true

			};

			init();
			createGUI();
			animate();

			function init() {

				renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer();
				renderer.setPixelRatio( window.devicePixelRatio );
				renderer.setSize( window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight );
				document.body.appendChild( renderer.domElement );

				camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera( 70, window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight, 1, 1000 );
				camera.position.z = 400;

				scene = new THREE.Scene();
				scene.fog = new THREE.Fog( 0x000000, 1, 1000 );

				var geometry = new THREE.BoxBufferGeometry( 150, 150, 150, 2, 2, 2 );
				var material = new THREE.MeshNormalMaterial();
				mesh = new THREE.Mesh( geometry, material );
				scene.add( mesh );

				// postprocessing

				composer = new THREE.EffectComposer( renderer );
				composer.addPass( new THREE.RenderPass( scene, camera ) );

				afterimagePass = new THREE.AfterimagePass();
				composer.addPass( afterimagePass );

				window.addEventListener( 'resize', onWindowResize, false );

			}

			function createGUI() {

				var gui = new dat.GUI( { name: 'Damp setting' } );
				gui.add( afterimagePass.uniforms[ "damp" ], 'value', 0, 1 ).step( 0.001 );
				gui.add( params, 'enable' );

			}

			function onWindowResize() {

				camera.aspect = window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight;
				camera.updateProjectionMatrix();

				renderer.setSize( window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight );
				composer.setSize( window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight );

			}

			function animate() {

				requestAnimationFrame( animate );

				mesh.rotation.x += 0.005;
				mesh.rotation.y += 0.01;

				if ( params.enable ) {

					composer.render();

				} else {

					renderer.render( scene, camera );

				}

			}

		</script>
	</body>
</html>

Source URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mrdoob/three.js/master/examples/webgl_postprocessing_afterimage.html

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<!DOCTYPE html>

<head>

<title>three.js webgl - postprocessing - afterimage</title>

</head>

<body>

var camera, scene, renderer, composer;

var mesh;

var afterimagePass;

var params = {

enable: true

};

init();

createGUI();

animate();

function init() {

renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer();

renderer.setPixelRatio( window.devicePixelRatio );

renderer.setSize( window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight );

document.body.appendChild( renderer.domElement );

camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera( 70, window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight, 1, 1000 );

camera.position.z = 400;

scene = new THREE.Scene();

scene.fog = new THREE.Fog( 0x000000, 1, 1000 );

var geometry = new THREE.BoxBufferGeometry( 150, 150, 150, 2, 2, 2 );

var material = new THREE.MeshNormalMaterial();

mesh = new THREE.Mesh( geometry, material );

scene.add( mesh );

// postprocessing

composer = new THREE.EffectComposer( renderer );

composer.addPass( new THREE.RenderPass( scene, camera ) );

afterimagePass = new THREE.AfterimagePass();

composer.addPass( afterimagePass );

window.addEventListener( 'resize', onWindowResize, false );

}

function createGUI() {

var gui = new dat.GUI( { name: 'Damp setting' } );

gui.add( afterimagePass.uniforms[ "damp" ], 'value', 0, 1 ).step( 0.001 );

gui.add( params, 'enable' );

}

function onWindowResize() {

camera.aspect = window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight;

camera.updateProjectionMatrix();

renderer.setSize( window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight );

composer.setSize( window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight );

}

function animate() {

requestAnimationFrame( animate );

mesh.rotation.x += 0.005;

mesh.rotation.y += 0.01;

if ( params.enable ) {

composer.render();

} else {

renderer.render( scene, camera );

}

</script>

</body>

</html>

Source URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mrdoob/three.js/master/examples/webgl_postprocessing_afterimage.html

van Boxtel, J. J. A., Tsuchiya, N., & Koch, C.. (2010). Opposing effects of attention and consciousness on afterimages. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0913292107
DOI URL
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“The brain’s ability to handle sensory information is influenced by both selective attention and consciousness. there is no consensus on the exact relationship between these two processes and whether they are distinct. so far, no experiment has simultaneously manipulated both. we carried out a full factorial 2 x 2 study of the simultaneous influences of attention and consciousness (as assayed by visibility) on perception, correcting for possible concurrent changes in attention and consciousness. we investigated the duration of afterimages for all four combinations of high versus low attention and visible versus invisible. we show that selective attention and visual consciousness have opposite effects: paying attention to the grating decreases the duration of its afterimage, whereas consciously seeing the grating increases the afterimage duration. these findings provide clear evidence for distinctive influences of selective attention and consciousness on visual perception.”

Lou, L.. (2001). Effects of voluntary attention on structured afterimages. Perception

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1068/p3127
DOI URL
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“The effect of voluntary attention on afterimage fragmentation was explored in two experiments. the afterimage, in the form of a 30 degrees-tilted star of david, was generated after prolonged steady fixation in the first experiment, and with a brief and intense flash in the second experiment. subjects were instructed to select various target shapes in the afterimage for attention and, at the same time, observe what was visible or invisible. verbal reports and manual responses to afterimage changes were analyzed. attended shapes were found to disappear from awareness faster than unattended ones (experiment 1), and complementary shapes were found to predominate visual awareness when one of the pair was selected for attention (experiment 2). voluntary attention was also found to affect closure (filling-in of enclosed regions) and smoothing of line figures in afterimages.”

Powell, G., Sumner, P., & Bompas, A.. (2015). The effect of eye movements and blinks on afterimage appearance and duration. Journal of Vision

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1167/15.3.20
DOI URL
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“© 2015 arvo. the question of whether eye movements influence afterimage perception has been asked since the 18th century, and yet there is surprisingly little consensus on how robust these effects are and why they occur. the number of historical theories aiming to explain the effects are more numerous than clear experimental demonstrations of such effects. we provide a clearer characterization of when eye movements and blinks do or do not affect afterimages with the aim to distinguish between historical theories and integrate them with a modern understanding of perception. we found neither saccades nor pursuit reduced strong afterimage duration, and blinks actually increased afterimage duration when tested in the light. however, for weak afterimages, we found saccades reduced duration, and blinks and pursuit eye movements did not. one interpretation of these results is that saccades diminish afterimage perception because they cause the afterimage to move unlike a real object. furthermore, because saccades affect weak afterimages but not strong ones, we suggest that their effect is modulated by the ambiguity of the afterimage signal.”

Utz, S., & Carbon, C. C.. (2015). Afterimages are biased by top-down information. Perception

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1177/0301006615596900
DOI URL
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Show/hide publication abstract

“© 2015, © the author(s) 2015. the afterimage illusion refers to a complementary colored image continuing to appear in the observer’s vision after the exposure to the original image has ceased. it is assumed to be a phenomenon of the primary visual pathway, caused by overstimulation of photoreceptors of the retina. the aim of the present study was to investigate the nature of afterimage perceptions; mainly whether it is a mere physical, that is, low-level effect or whether it can be modulated by top-down processes, that is, high-level processes. participants were first exposed to five either strongly female or male faces (experiment 1), objects highly associated with female or male gender (experiment 2) or female versus male names (experiment 3), followed by a negativated image of a gender-neutral face which had to be fixated for 20 s to elicit an afterimage. participants had to rate their afterimages according to sexual dimorphism, showing that the afterimage of the gender-neutral face was perceived as significantly more female in the female priming condition compared with the male priming condition, independently of the priming quality (faces, objects, and names). our results documented, in addition to previously presumed bottom-up mechanisms, a prominent influence of top-down processing on the perception of afterimages via priming mechanisms (female primes led to more female afterimage perception).”

Wede, J., & Francis, G.. (2007). Attentional effects on afterimages: Theory and data. Vision Research

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2007.04.024
DOI URL
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“We explore attentional effects on afterimages in the framework of the facade model of visual perception. we first show that the facade model can account for the experimental findings of suzuki and grabowecky [suzuki, s., & grabowecky, m. (2003). attention during adaptation weakens negative afterimages. journal of experimental psychology: human perception and performance 29, 793-807] that afterimages are weaker when the inducing stimulus is attended. we then analyze the model’s behavior with attentional influences on a two-stimulus afterimage studied by francis and rothmayer [francis, g., & rothmayer, m. (2003). interactions of afterimages for orientation and color: experimental data and model simulations. perception & psychophysics 65, 508-522]. the model predicts that attentional focus directed towards the first stimulus has little effect on afterimage strength. in contrast, the model predicts that attentional focus on the second stimulus should increase the strength of the afterimage compared to when attention is focused elsewhere. moreover, the model predicts that the attentional effects on the second stimulus should vary with time after offset of the second inducing stimulus. all of the model predictions are validated in an experiment. the model and experimental results extend and clarify previous explanations of attentional effects and afterimages. © 2007 elsevier ltd. all rights reserved.”

Manovich, L.. (1995). The paradoxes of digital photography. Photography after Photography

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Hosoya, T., Baccus, S. A., & Meister, M.. (2005). Dynamic predictive coding by the retina. Nature

Plain numerical DOI: 10.1038/nature03689
DOI URL
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“Retinal ganglion cells convey the visual image from the eye to the brain. they generally encode local differences in space and changes in time rather than the raw image intensity. this can be seen as a strategy of predictive coding, adapted through evolution to the average image statistics of the natural environment. yet animals encounter many environments with visual statistics different from the average scene. here we show that when this happens, the retina adjusts its processing dynamically. the spatio-temporal receptive fields of retinal ganglion cells change after a few seconds in a new environment. the changes are adaptive, in that the new receptive field improves predictive coding under the new image statistics. we show that a network model with plastic synapses can account for the large variety of observed adaptations.”

Real-Time Autocompletion Function “ON” (On-the-Fly Probabilistic Semantic Integration)

Intelligent AJAX Search Function

Maschine learning powered AI translation

Autopoiesis

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Afterimage 3D (WebGL API)

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