Luminaries such as Boltzmann, Schrodinger, Turing, Prigogine, Smale, etc. have searched in vain for a missing principle of complexity that could explain self-organization, intelligence, and life itself. This talk presents a... [ view full abstract ]
Luminaries such as Boltzmann, Schrodinger, Turing, Prigogine, Smale, etc. have searched in vain for a missing principle of complexity that could explain self-organization, intelligence, and life itself. This talk presents a definitive mathematical solution, dubbed local activity, to this age-old enigma. Local activity is the long-sought holy grail of complexity, the elan vital of life!
In high-tech parlance, the principle of local activity asserts that no computers, smart phones, brain-like machines, etc., can be built without using locally-active building blocks. In spite of its deep mathematical proof, a simple sophomore-level algorithm is available for testing whether a device is locally active, as well as for massaging the device's parameters into a Goldilock's zone of local activity.
Local activity is a necessary but not sufficient condition for complexity. To build a brain-like machine, and ultimately to create life itself, an enabling building block, dubbed the memristor, must be commissioned. Together, local activity, and the memristor, are sufficient to build a universal Turing machine, including a humble but no less potent cellular automata with the endearing moniker 137.
Details of this lecture can be seen and heard in the HPE Chua Lecture series, held in Palo Alto, Fall 2015:
https://www.hpematter.com/event/chua-lectures-first-12-part-series-hp-labs
