Information Theory Models of Instabilities in Critical Systems

By (author): Rodrick Wallace (Columbia University, USA)



The book is a unique exploration of a spectrum of unexpected analogs to psychopathologies likely to afflict real-time critical systems, written by a specialist in the epidemiology of mental disorders. The purpose of this book is to develop a set of information-theoretic statistical tools for analyzing the instabilities of real-time cognitive systems at those varying scales and levels of organization, with special focus on high level machine function.

The book should be of particular interest to both industry and academic scientists, and government regulators, concerned with driverless cars on intelligent roads. Many of the same concerns also afflict high-end automated weapons systems. The book should appeal to students, researchers, and industrial and governmental administrators facing the design, operation, and maintenance of real time critical systems ranging across manufacturing facilities, transportation, finance, and military operations.

Contents:
• Mathematical Preliminaries
• Animal Consciousness: A Primer
• Psychiatric Disorders
• Models of Machine Cognition
• Coevolutionary Machines
• Epigenetic Programming
• Psychopathia Automatorum
• Case History: The Rand Fire Service Models
• Autonomous vehicles
• Into the Swamp: Molecular Components
• Caveat Emptor
• Mathematical Appendix
• Bibliography
• Index

Readership: Students, researchers, industrial and governmental administrators facing the design, operation, and maintenance of real time critical systems ranging across manufacturing facilities, transportation, finance, and military operations.