i need to be able to explain to a person what i'm doing; why i'm doing it; and why they might care, and the way i do it must be convincing.
hence, this proposal:
basic questions:
what are you trying to do:
i am trying to make alternative display mechanisms for people to sense two dimensional automata.
why are you doing this:
the field of cellular automata
i think the field of cellular automata has largely been studied as an exercise of mathematics or discovery (see https://labofbabel.org/home). however, there is expressive power in cellular automata — i wish to prove that. this is the software part of my project.
why physical:
i think the ability to visually represent the output of an algorithm will always be present — a computer screen. i wonder what happens when this is brought out; brought out into a world where the physical forces of the world affect it — when the system is designed not by an engineer, but an expressive artist.
why should other people care:
so much of our time is spent in thinking about why something happened, or how it happened, or what happens.
the world around you seems complex, but it isn’t — this is the study of complex systems.
i will demonstrate how one can attempt to understand & express what something feels like, in the language of encoding it into a rule-based system.
what does that allow people to do?
it helps you fit it into a rational model, and maybe, just maybe, arrive at a closer version of the truth.
what do you want people to take out of this:
i want people to see that the world around them is not so mysterious. they can also spend time in understanding the world around them.
consider your life as a biological creature. how much of it is spent on biological necessity — nutrition; rest; reproduction; safety?
so much of our time is spent in acts of information-seeking: why something is the way it is; how something works; what something feels like; who someone is. whether explorative or exploitative, our lives are spent exercising curiosity.
with that, i invite you to the study of complex systems.
consider the world we live in today: giant webs of interdependent parts produce incomprehensible behavior (at first glance or experience) — governments, families, relationships, your own body, et-cetera.
we live amidst complex systems — giant webs of interdependent parts that produce incomprehensible behavior (at first glance or experience). think of governments, families, relationships, your own body, et-cetera. much of our life, then, is spent in the curious study of these systems. kidd & hayden write in the psychology and neuroscience of curiosity:
Curiosity is such a basic component of our natures that we are nearly oblivious to its pervasiveness in our lives. Consider, though, how much of our time we spend seeking and consuming information, whether listening to the news or music, browsing the internet, reading books or magazines, watching TV, movies, and sports, or otherwise engaging in activities not directly related to eating, reproduction, and basic survival. Our insatiable demand for information drives a much of the global economy and, on a micro-scale, motivates learning and drives patterns of foraging in animals. Its diminution is a symptom of depression, and its overexpression contributes to distractibility, a symptom of disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Curiosity is thought of as the noblest of human drives, and is just as often as it is denigrated as dangerous (as in the expression “curiosity killed the cat”). And despite its link with the most abstract human thoughts, some rudimentary forms of it can be observed even in the humble worm C. elegans.
we often exercise curiosity.
our lives are spent in exercising curiosity.
Consider, though, how much of our time we spend seeking and consuming information, whether listening to the news or music, browsing the internet, reading books or magazines, watching TV, movies, and sports, or otherwise engaging in activities not directly related to eating, reproduction, and basic survival.
it is evident that we spend much of our life wondering why certain things work the way they do. whether explorative or exploitative,
in the psychology & neuroscience of curiosity, kidd & hayden put forth the case that human-beings (and certain animals)
human-beings are innately curious. for things that we care about, we spend large amounts of time understanding why they work the way they do. whether explorative or exploitative, we all indulge in activities led by curiosity.
human-beings (and animals) have an intrinsic drive
are innately curious
there is some sort of pleasure — whether explorative or exploitative — in the study.
we live amidst complex systems — giant webs of interdependent parts that produce incomprehensible behavior (at first glance or experience). think of governments, families, relationships, your own body, et-cetera. much of our life, then, is spent in the curious study of these systems. kidd & hayden write in the psychology and neuroscience of curiosity:
Curiosity is such a basic component of our natures that we are nearly oblivious to its pervasiveness in our lives. Consider, though, how much of our time we spend seeking and consuming information, whether listening to the news or music, browsing the internet, reading books or magazines, watching TV, movies, and sports, or otherwise engaging in activities not directly related to eating, reproduction, and basic survival.
or think about the last time you broke up with a partner, and spent days analyzing all the factors at play
we live amidst complex systems — giant webs of interdependent parts that feel incomprehensible at first. think of governments, social-relationships,
we then spend much of our lives
we live amidst complex systems — complex, because they feel incomprehensible at first glance (or experience), and systems, because we know that they could be broken down into simpler interdependent parts; should one try really hard. all of us try really hard.
Curiosity is such a basic component of our natures that we are nearly oblivious to its
pervasiveness in our lives. Consider, though, how much of our time we spend seeking and
consuming information, whether listening to the news or music, browsing the internet,
reading books or magazines, watching TV, movies, and sports, or otherwise engaging in
activities not directly related to eating, reproduction, and basic survival. Our insatiable
demand for information drives a much of the global economy and, on a micro-scale,
motivates learning and drives patterns of foraging in animals. Its diminution is a symptom of
depression, and its overexpression contributes to distractibility, a symptom of disorders such
as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Curiosity is thought of as the noblest of human
drives, and is just as often as it is denigrated as dangerous (as in the expression “curiosity
killed the cat”). And despite its link with the most abstract human thoughts, some
rudimentary forms of it can be observed even in the humble worm C. elegans.
my work is anchored in the study of complex systems. in fact, i argue that all work