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IV. Ecosmomics: Independent, UniVersal, Complex Network Systems and a Genetic Code-Script Source

3. Iteracy: A Rosetta Ecosmos Textuality

Ausloos, Marcel. Measuring Complexity with Multifractals in Texts. Chaos, Solitons & Fractals. 45/1349, 2012. The University of Liege systems linguist cleverly treats humanity’s literature as a physical materiality suffused with the same dynamic self-similarities. And by a two-way inference, may one surmise that our written corpus can thus become ensconced within nature’s universality, and moreover that a greater logos creation appears as truly textual testament in kind?

Should quality be almost a synonymous of complexity? To measure quality appears to be audacious, even very subjective. It is hereby proposed to use a multifractal approach in order to quantify quality, thus through complexity measures. A one-dimensional system is examined. It is known that (all) written texts can be one-dimensional nonlinear maps. Thus, several written texts by the same author are considered, together with their translation, into an unusual language, Esperanto, and as a baseline their corresponding shuffled versions. (Abstract)

Let, for the present purpose, the complexity of finding multifractal features in evolving systems be reduced to a one-dimensional space, line a time series. A written text is such a physical signal because it can be decomposed through level thresholds which are a set of characters taken from an alphabet. Here real printed texts are considered as the structured raw signals the sources for experimental time dependent observations. The texts are shown to present non-trivial multifractal structures, thus suggesting the analysis of (dis) order and correlations, whence called text quality. (1350)

Baez, John and Mike Stay. Physics, Topology, Logic and Computation: A Rosetta Stone. Coecke, Bob, ed. New Structures in Physics. Berlin: Springer, 2011. Volume 813 of the series Lecture Notes in Physics. A University of California, Riverside, mathematician and University of Auckland computer scientist contribute this technical exercise. The paper is also online at arXiv:0903.0340. Our interest is surely the very idea and possibility of a cosmic “Rosetta” language or code by which a real intelligibility can be gained. It is at least implied next that such a natural cross-translation seems to exist.

In physics, Feynman diagrams are used to reason about quantum processes. In the 1980s, it became clear that underlying these diagrams is a powerful analogy between quantum physics and topology. Namely, a linear operator behaves very much like a “cobordism”: a manifold representing spacetime, going between two manifolds representing space. This led to a burst of work on topological quantum field theory and “quantum topology”. But this was just the beginning: similar diagrams can be used to reason about logic, where they represent proofs, and computation, where they represent programs. With the rise of interest in quantum cryptography and quantum computation, it became clear that there is extensive network of analogies between physics, topology, logic and computation. In this expository paper, we make some of these analogies precise using the concept of “closed symmetric monoidal category”. (Abstract)

Batista, C. D. and G. Ortiz. Algebraic Approach to Interacting Quantum Systems. Advances in Physics. 53/1, 2004. By this view nature is a readable text which is a hierarchy of congruent mathematical languages that can be translated into each other.

Can we connect the different (spin-particle-gauge) languages of Nature within a single algebraic framework? The answer to this question is yes and the key outcome is a set of dictionaries relating the languages representing the different physical systems. More precisely, by dictionary we mean an isomorphic (one-to-one) mapping connecting two languages. The existence of dictionaries provides not only a tool to explore complexity but leads naturally to the fundamental concept of universality, or equivalence, meaning that different physical systems display the same behavior. (4)

Benioff, Paul. Language is Physical. Quantum Information Processing. 1/6, 2003. At the outset of 21st century perceptions that quantum phenomena has an informational essence, the Argonne National Laboratory mathematical physicist proceeds from Rolf Landauer’s 1990s avowal (search) that physical reality is innately linguistic to scope out this novel expanse. So we have an early glimpse of a creative continuity from quantum realms and substantial matter to life’s rise as it reaches (and becomes manifest as) our loquacious sapience. The early paper is also at arXiv:quant-ph/0210211.

Some aspects of the physical nature of language are discussed. In particular, physical models of language must exist that are efficiently implementable. The existence requirement is essential because without physical models no communication or thinking would be possible. Efficient implementability for creating and reading language is discussed and illustrated with a quantum mechanical model. Linguistic expressions can have meaning, either as an informal or a formal language associated with a mathematical or physical theory. Inclusion of intelligent system in the theory domain means that the theory, e.g., quantum mechanics, must describe in some sense its own validation. Maps of language contents into physical states are discussed. (Abstract excerpts)

It is also quite likely that the ability to think or reason depends on the existence of physical models of language. Without entering into details of this complex subject it seems reasonable to expect that distinct conscious states of the brain correspond to distinct physical states of the brain. This would be expected to be the case independent of how one reasons or thinks (e.g. in picture sequences or word sequences, etc.). If such physical states did not exist, then it is likely that reasoning, thinking and even consciousness would not be possible. That is, physical representations of language are a necessary, but probably not sufficient, condition for the existence of communication, thinking, and possibly even consciousness. (499)

Bloch, William Goldbloom. The Unimaginable Mathematics of Borges’ Library. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. In 1941, at Mar del Plata on the Argentine coast, Jorge Luis Borges wrote “The Library of Babel,” a short fabulation upon the universe as an infinite, labyrinthine repository of books. It is said that they do contain knowledge but alas without a classification system to locate it. Librarians and seekers spend lifetimes wandering its myriad hexagon-shaped cubicles and shelves. But via the quote, Borges alludes in closing that a glimmer of a repetitive theme may yet provide a guide. As Floyd Merrell also (see below), a Wheaton College mathematician explores such arcana by way of information theories, cosmic topologies, combinatorics, “homomorphics” as a term for structural correspondences, and so on. And for our late day, fraught with postmodernism’s despair, might we remember and avail a 21st century “Library of Cosmos” whose universal, recurrence in an organic genesis is its parent to child “genetic code?”

And yet those who picture the world as unlimited forget that the number of possible is not. I will be bold enough to suggest this solution to the ancient problem: The Library is unlimited but periodic. If an eternal traveler should journey in any direction, he would find after untold centuries that the same volumes are repeated in the same disorder – which, repeated becomes order: the Order. My solitude is cheered by that hope. (Borges, The Library of Babel, 1941)

Blythe, Richard. Hierarchy of Scales in Language Dynamics. arXiv:1505.00122. A University of Edinburgh physicist identifies another inherent structural feature within the living library of congress and cosmos.

Methods and insights from statistical physics are finding an increasing variety of applications where one seeks to understand the emergent properties of a complex interacting system. One such area concerns the dynamics of language at a variety of levels of description, from the behaviour of individual agents learning simple artificial languages from each other, up to changes in the structure of languages shared by large groups of speakers over historical timescales. In this Colloquium, we survey a hierarchy of scales at which language and linguistic behaviour can be described, along with the main progress in understanding that has been made at each of them---much of which has come from the statistical physics community. (Abstract)

Bokanyi, Eszter, et al. Scaling in Words on Twitter. Royal Society Open Science. October, 2019. Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest and Sensible City Laboratory, MIT theorists including Gabor Vattay add further evidence of how much human conversational script can indeed exhibit and be analyzed by the same active, nested, complexity formations as everywhere else from cosmic to societal realms.

Scaling properties of language are a useful tool for understanding generative processes in texts. We investigate the scaling relations in citywise Twitter corpora coming from the Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas of the United States. We observe a slightly superlinear urban scaling with the city population for the total volume of the tweets and words created in a city. We then find that a certain core vocabulary follows the scaling relationship of that of the bulk text, but most words are sensitive to city size, exhibiting a super- or a sublinear urban scaling. (Abstract excerpt)

Bost, Xavier and Vincent Labatut. Extraction and Analysis of Fictional Character Networks. ACM Computing Surveys. 52/5, 2019. In a paper also at arXiv:1907.02704, Laboratoire Informatique d’Avignon analysts find that the latest network topologies can be readily adapted to literary works with persons as nodes and their interrelations as connective links. See also Gendered Networks and Communicability in Medieval Historical Narratives by Sandra Prado, et al at 2002.01396 and Character Networks and Book Genre Classification by A. J. Holanda, et al at 1704.08197. We then note that an overall webwork depiction takes on a generic, universal format, akin to brains, genomes, quantome and everywhere else. So may we gain another late insight, as tradition knew long ago, that this existence is deeply textual in essence, which we valiant beings are meant to learn to read and avail its salutary edification.

A character network is a graph extracted from a narrative, in which vertices represent characters and edges correspond to interactions between them. This survey aims at presenting and organizing the scientific literature related to their extraction from works of fiction. We describe the extraction process in a generic way, and explain how its steps are implemented depending on the medium of the narrative, and several other factors. We review descriptive tools used to analyze character networks, with a focus on how they are interpreted in this context. Finally, we identify limits of the existing approaches, and offer new perspectives. (Abstract excerpt)

Bucur, Doina. The Network Signature of Constellation Line Figures. arXiv:2110.12329. We cite this unique entry by a University of Twente, Netherlands, computer scientist to illustrate and record the phenomenal propensity of homo sapience to seek and discern natural, meaningful patterns across the night skies. This documentary continues the late project onto an Earthropic and Ecosmic scale.

In traditional astronomies across the world, groups of stars in the night sky were linked into constellations as symbolic representations on the celestial sphere with meaning and with practical roles. We define the visual signature as a multi-dimensional complex network, and then analyse 1591 line figures from 50 astronomical cultures spanning continents and historic ages from which to draw some conclusions. Constellations used for navigation, religious divination, and agrarian/hunter-gatherer time-keeping are similar, but those from Chinese and Mesopotamian ancestries have a distinct motif. We find clusters of cross-culture similarity and broad visualizations. (Abstract excerpt)

Budel, Gabriel, et al. Topological Properties and Organizing Principles of Semantic Networks. arXiv.2304.12940. Delft University of Technology complexity theorists including Maksim Kitsak post a deeply technical exercise to identify and describe the pervasive, nested, multiplex features of global languages. While certain classes take on their own guise, our most human realm of linguistic conveyance and repository is found to exemplify and be inherently arranged by the same genetic-like principles as everywhere else. See also Structural Measure of Similarity and Complementarity in Complex Networks byy Szymon Talaga and Andrzej Nowak for a companion contribution.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications rely on semantic networks for structured knowledge representation whose basic properties must be relied on when designing algorithms, yet they mostly remain to be investigated. We study the properties of semantic networks from ConceptNet (see below), defined by 7 semantic relations from 11 different languages. We find universal basic properties: they are sparse, highly clustered, and exhibit power-law, scale-free degree distributions. But in some networks the connections are self-similar, while in others they are more complementarity-based. (Excerpt)

ConceptNet is a freely-available semantic network, designed to help computers understand the meanings of words that people use. ConceptNet originated from the crowdsourcing project Open Mind Common Sense, which was launched in 1999 at the MIT Media Lab. It has since grown to include knowledge from other crowdsourced resources, expert-created resources, and games with a purpose.

Burridge, James. Spatial Evolution of Human Dialects. Physical Review X. 7/031008, 2017. In an extensive technical paper, the Portsmouth University systems mathematician considers ways that widely removed material principles and literary editions could yet be found to have a common affinity. It is noted here as an auspicious cross-fertilization, not conceivable much earlier. We seem on the verge of a discovery that universe and human indeed form a continuous, exemplary radiation, which has a long tradition, by way of innately textual natural creation. In accord, our anthropo/cosmo sapiensphere may thus be appreciated as phenomenal readers, and re-writers. A commentary in the same issue is Language Boundaries Driven by Surface Tension by the linguist Andrew D. M. Smith. See also Statistical Physics of Language Maps in the USA by Burridge at arXiv:1811.08788.

The geographical pattern of human dialects is a result of history. Here, we formulate a simple spatial model of language change which shows that the final result of this historical evolution may, to some extent, be predictable. The model shows that the boundaries of language dialect regions are controlled by a length minimizing effect analogous to surface tension, mediated by variations in population density which can induce curvature, and by the shape of coastline or similar borders. The predictability of dialect regions arises because these effects will drive many complex, randomized early states toward one of a smaller number of stable final configurations. The model is able to reproduce observations and predictions of dialectologists. These include dialect continua, isogloss bundling, fanning, the wavelike spread of dialect features from cities, and the impact of human movement on the number of dialects that an area can support. (Abstract)

We conclude by noting that a major theme of the book War and Peace by Tolstoy is the idea that history is determined not by great individuals but rather by millions of small choices made by the people: “To elicit the laws of history we must leave aside kings, ministers, and generals, and select for study the homogeneous, infinitesimal elements which influence the masses” [98]. As pointed out by Vitány [99], Tolstoy was, in modern terms, advocating the formulation of a statistical mechanics of history. The work we present is an attempt to formulate such a theory for the spatial history of language. Because of its simplicity, dealing only with copying and movement, our model may apply more broadly to other forms of culture. (20)

I (JB) am a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics at Portsmouth University. I am currently funded by a Leverhulme Fellowship for the academic year 2016-2017. I started my career studying Physics at the University of Warwick, and then did Maths Part III at the University of Cambridge, followed by a Ph.D. in Statistical Physics also at Cambridge. Before becoming a lecturer, I worked in banking as a Quant in interest rate derivatives for RBS, before becoming a school Mathematics and Physics teacher.

Bynum, Terrell Ward. On the Possibility of Quantum Informational Structural Realism. Minds and Machines. 24/1, 2014. In an issue on Philosophy in the Age of Information, the Southern Connecticut State University scholar and founding editor of Metaphilosophy, proceeds to expand information concepts and studies onto quantum realms. In his seventies, Bynum is at the frontier of realizations that cosmic nature may be most distinguished by a communicative content, via “primordial qubits.” In regard referral is once more made to J. A. Wheeler’s “It from Bit” physics vision that so unites human and universe.

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