Time and Space as Unpredictable Biological Constructions

( John M. Myers ),( F. Hadi Madjid ) 서울대학교 인지과학연구소 2018 Journal of Cognitive Science Vol.19 No.2

Whatever we can say, we say in rhythms of symbols―e.g., words written as marks on paper. What a mark symbolizes to us or to other agents cannot be predicted on the basis of measurement and calculation. Without admitting any explicit notion of an agent, quantum theory implies a role for an unpredictable symbol-handling agent.To accept agents and symbols into physics is to see mechanisms, especially clocks, not in isolation but as tools that agents build and adjust as needed. We model a symbol-handling agent by combining a modified Turing machine with an adjustable clock, needed to allow communication of symbols from one agent to another. To communicate, agents must adjust their clocks so as to mesh their rhythms of oper- ation. We call this meshing of rhythms logical synchronization and display its features. While symbols are digital, maintaining logical synchronization requires something analog, idiosyncratic, and unpredictable, beyond symbols. Our main claim is that logically synchronized rhythms of symbols need not be seen as taking place in some externally supplied “space and time,” but instead are the raw material out of which physicists construct time, space, and spacetime. We hypothesize that all living organisms employ logically synchronized rhythms of symbols. We invite collaboration to explore, in a variety of contexts for people and other living organisms, the situations involv- ing logical synchronization of rhythms of symbols that differ from those used in physics. Accompanying such initial study, we would like to see the development of mathematical expressions of logical synchronization applicable to more complex cybernetic systems than those we discuss here.

Rhythms of Biological Symbol Handling

( John M. Myers ),( F. Hadi Madjid ) 서울대학교 인지과학연구소 2019 Journal of Cognitive Science Vol.20 No.2

From heart beats to the biochemistry of DNA, rhythms of symbol handling are essential to biology. To describe the rhythms of symbol handling, a new kind of physics is required. Acknowledging the agents that handle symbols leads to what could be called “two-clock physics”―or a “physics of the unexpected,” in contrast to traditional physics which has exclusively focused on one-clock physics. Two-clock physics puts physics into the same evolutionary context as biology. From the point of view of two-clock physics, rhythms of agents transmitting symbols are not arbitrary motions to measure with respect to a given coordinate system with a time variable. Instead, these rhythms, once mathematically expressed, form a base structure, on top of which concepts of space and time become optional assumptions. Characteristic of the base structure is a form of synchronization, distinct from that introduced by Einstein in special relativity, and requiring that agents respond to unpredictable effects. For problems of biological rhythms, including those associated with the exercise of mentality, two-clock physics, introduced here, offers biologically appropriate alternatives to the usual concepts of space and time.

Symbols, Rhythms, and Structural Unpredictability in Physics and Biology

John M. Myers,F. Hadi Madjid 서울대학교 인지과학연구소 2020 Journal of Cognitive Science Vol.21 No.2

In engineered communications systems such as the internet, the use of symbols depends on coordinating a rhythm of transmission with a rhythm of reception. This nexus between symbols and their rhythms remains little explored in biology. By examining rhythms of symbols, we offer a novel path for studying living organisms. Recognizing that investigations in physics depend on the use of symbols reveals a structure common to investigative behavior, not just by physicists, but at all levels of life from people to bacteria. This structure involves agents employing rhythms of symbols in their actions. In contrast to the use of the term ‘agent’ as programmed in artificial intelligence, we provide for agents that behave unpredictably. We hypothesize that rhythms of symbols are used to construct orienting mechanisms analogous to what physics calls space and time. Agents as here defined come with local clocks that they use and adjust to maintain shared rhythms. By recognizing mutually adjusted local clocks as necessary to the communication of symbols, investigators of neural activity in biological organisms have the opportunity to avoid the laboratory “master clock,” or global time, in thinking about neural activity. Instead they are free to examine how local clocks are involved in the unpredictable formation and dissolution of rhythms of symbols across the cell assemblies involved in animal navigation. The recognition of local clocking of biological symbols opens to view phenomena not otherwise visible.

In the stillness of mathematical logic, is there a place for motion?

( F. Hadi Madjid ),( John M. Myers ) 서울대학교 인지과학연구소 2021 Journal of Cognitive Science Vol.22 No.4

This paper supports the hypothesis that the forms that modern language assume are constrained by the need to represent externally, a wholly mind- internal Narrative of Thought. Beginning with an overview of research into the role of narrative in human culture, we go on to trace the trajectory of language evolution in relation to human cognition. We note the behavioural innovations that occurred less than 2 million years ago and argue that they arose from a greater degree of cooperation than any previous hominin species had displayed, and led to the emergence of intentional communication in the form of protolanguage. However, this stage in hominin cognition was not indicative of a qualitatively distinctive mode of thought, being grounded in subitizing, and that this is reflected in the cultural stasis that characterises the subsequent million years. The evolution of a uniquely human form of cognition, a System 2 type of thinking in Dual Processing Theory, is a more recent event which enabled the creation and retention of narrative structures through the recursive embedding of simple propositions. This new type of thinking and its external representation in linguistic narrative are seen to coevolve with aspects of autobiographical memory, a sense of self, and Theory of Mind. Including an environment leads to strongly connected directed graphs with live and safe markings that offer a cartoon to distinguish a "mathematician" from a "computer." The "matehmattician" works in an unpredicatable environment, while the computer's environment is restricted, for example by a programmer. The graphs express a variety of capacities for computration achievable by people, a drastic restriction compared to a Turing machine. We conjecture that the mathematics of moves punctuated by stillness, coupled to an unpredictable environment, yields a carotton of mathematics as a core function of organisms, essential to their problem solving activity, from bacteria on up.

Collagen-Induced Arthritis and the Potential Role of Autoimmunity to Type 2 Collagen in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Xiao Wen He,John M. Stuart,Linda K. Myers,Andrew H. Kang 대한류마티스학회 2002 대한류마티스학회지 Vol.9 No.1

Collagen induced arthritis (CIA) is an animal model that in many ways resembles rheumatoid arthritis (RA). CIA can be induced in susceptible animals by immunization with type II collagen (CII). Like RA, CIA is characterized by intense joint inflammation and destruction. On histological examination, there is synovitis accompanied by erosion of cartilage and subchondral bone. Autoantibodies to CII initiate joint inflammation by binding to articular cartilage, forming antigen-antibody complexes locally and activating hemolytic complement. Susceptibility to CIA in mice is linked to the expression of specific class II MHC molecules, which dictate the T cell determinants on CII, and therefore, the subsets of T cells that can be activated by CII. In addition to activation of B cells reactive to CII, the T cells stimulate monocytes/macrophages. These cells amplify the inflammatory cascade by secretion of proinflammatory monokines, including TNF-α and IL-1, leading to the production of other proinflammatory proteins, including matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). The importance of CIA lies in its possible relationship to arthritis in humans. Progress in understanding CIA has contributed to the development of new therapies for RA. In addition, it has been found that mice with human HLA-DR1, DR4 and HLA-DQ8 transgenes, which have been demonstrated to be the susceptibility markers for RA, confer susceptibility to CIA. These observations coupled with the finding of T cells and B cells reactive with CII in the inflamed joints of RA patients establish the potential role of CII autoimmunity in the pathogenesis of RA.

임상검사실 측정방법의 일치화를 위한 추진방향

W. Greg Miller,Gary L. Myers,Mary Lou Gantzer,Stephen E. Kahn,E. Ralf Schönbrunner,Linda M. Thienpont,David M. Bunk,Robert H. Christenson,John H. Eckfeldt,Stanley F. Lo,C. Micha Nübling,Catharine M. S 대한진단검사의학회 2012 Laboratory Medicine Online Vol.2 No.1

Results between different clinical laboratory measurement procedures (CLMP) should be equivalent, within clinically meaningful limits, to enable optimal use of clinical guidelines for disease diagnosis and patient management. When laboratory test results are neither standardized nor harmonized, a different numeric result may be obtained for the same clinical sample. Unfortunately, some guidelines are based on test results from a specific laboratory measurement procedure without consideration of the possibility or likelihood of differences between various procedures. When this happens, aggregation of data from different clinical research investigations and development of appropriate clinical practice guidelines will be flawed. A lack of recognition that results are neither standardized nor harmonized may lead to erroneous clinical, financial, regulatory, or technical decisions. Standardization of CLMPs has been accomplished for several measurands for which primary (pure substance) reference materials exist and/or reference measurement procedures (RMPs) have been developed. However, the harmonization of clinical laboratory procedures for measurands that do not have RMPs has been problematic owing to inadequate definition of the measurand, inadequate analytical specificity for the measurand,inadequate attention to the commutability of reference materials, and lack of a systematic approach for harmonization. To address these problems,an infrastructure must be developed to enable a systematic approach for identification and prioritization of measurands to be harmonized on the basis of clinical importance and technical feasibility, and for management of the technical implementation of a harmonization process for a specific measurand.