07/08/12 20:05 [Tuesday]

Looking up the word ‘dis’ in the online OED I came upon the following rather amusing quotation from The Independent.
Independent 11 May 2000: Seething at seeing his life’s work in pesticide research being dissed by the organic lobby, he called in the Advertising Standards Authority.

Character recognition

16/05/12 15:25 [Wednesday]

I have been thinking about character recognition and visual field analysis again. The latest I was doing involved trying to settle on a best resolution, given a visual field, as a prerequisite before getting into the business of recognising objects at all. What I thought was that finding a measure of ‘busyness’ and observing how the measure altered as resolution increased might be the way to go. I see now that if instead of busyness I think in terms of information content, then what is certainly required is an optimal trade-off between that measure and the resolution since as resolution increases so processing cost increases. In other words in the animal kingdom would-be pattern recognisers need to gain maximum information (through recognising objects in the environment, ultimately) for the least possible expenditure of time and effort on processing.

What I have further thought is that the measure I developed of ‘clustering’ should be used as the measure of information content. Having toyed with simply counting black fragments (on the basis that many fragments means many objects being observed) it strikes me that whatever the number of fragments if they are better clustered it means they are better defined and thereby more likely to give up useful information through being recognised. Now I can measure clustering for a field of greyscale and this obviates the need to distinguish black from white. If a pixel at x_i has blackness (inverse greyscale 0 .. 255) b_i then the measure of clustering is

∑b_ib_j.exp -d(x_i - x_j) ²

In effect we are counting each unit of blackness as a separate black pixel.

I am wondering whether to use as a function of resolution giving an estimate of processing cost, ∑b_ib_j. The processing the computer does is adding up a lot of exponentials and processing cost is only saved in cases of b_i = 0, but for animal processing systems I feel they must model each unit of blackness separately which leads to very dark fields being puzzling and headachey.

30/07/12 13:17 [Monday]

About two weeks ago I wrote a program based on the ideas above, but found I needed to alter the measure to be maximised to

∑b_ib_j.exp -d(x_i - x_j) ² / (1/n)∑b_ib_j

where n is the number of pixels (width x height of the rectangular field). The reason is the numerator has a number of terms proportional to n rather than n ² because for each pixel i the multiplication is not by the b_j values over the entire field but only those for which exp -d(x_i - x_j) ² is non-negligible and this value is independent of the width or height of the field (as long as width and height are not too small).

Using this measure to find the best resolution for the field over my sample of cases (ie finding the resolution which maximises the measure of information content in ratio to the processing cost, as above) gives results like the following:

It must be admitted these divisions do correspond well with the natural scale of structures within each image. For the picture of the garden each quarter of it can be seen to be basically light (especially the quarter showing the sky) or dark. For the portion of a printed letter the reason the resolution arrived at is so high (corresponding in fact to the scale of the width of lines making up printed characters) is that the black print shows up so clearly against a very white background.

The question is where do I take this next? The next thing is to analyse each subdivision arrived at of the image, using the same technique of distinguishing light from dark at a natural grainsize. Repeated subdivision will end when cells are found which are not suitable candidates for further subdivision because they vary so little in greyscale across their entire size: this stage will be marked by very low values for the ratio measure defined above because really there will be no information content to speak of within each cell.

Basis of my theories

22/07/12 22:24 [Sunday]

About a month ago in the course of sorting stuff out for our eventual removal (when this bungalow shall finally sell) I found a handwritten diary note I made in June 2005. I do come across handwritten diary notes from time to time (they are almost always from years more recent than 2005) and usually scan them to add to my computerised diary to make it complete, but on this occasion I transcribed the note which was dated 17-Jun-05. I think I had it in mind, in making the transcription, that I could put the note into my Blogger blog, and my intention now is to do so. I am able to add remarks in the clearer state of mind I have now achieved, and hope to benefit medical science.

It is plain from the note I made that I felt hurried yet responded to the hurry by slowing down. (This may relate to what I was saying recently about my underactive thyroid, in that perhaps I was unable to rush as my state of mind would have had me do, because of the slowness of my metabolism.) The fact is that I was unable to make plans in my head to cope with the speed which was necessary, on the occasions it was necessary. In other words even if I did need to rest I should have scheduled my resting better instead of simply downing tools as soon as I was the least weary.

The other main comment I would make is that I interpreted what went on in terms of ‘the Authorities’ and my being hypnotised (and Dawn being hypnotised too, I often conjectured) without much reflection. This was because there was too much going on in my mind to permit a leisurely survey of possibilities and probabilities. Even though the ideas I had about being hypnotised did not square with what I myself knew about hypnosis (and most troublesome in my theorising was to tally up the fact - what I had read - that a person cannot be hypnotised unless he consents, and I had no recollection of ever having been asked to consent): even though the notions I had did not fit I came to make an assumption they were correct and that given enough time to work things out they could be made to fit. I suppose I have to add that even if I didn’t have leisure to work things out thoroughly, on the face of it I need not have presumed such a thing as that I was surreptitiously hypnotised, unless there were things I noticed which caused a need for some such hypothesis. The ‘things I noticed’ were exaggerated coincidences (this following from the way dopamine is implicated in pattern recognition and from my having overactive dopamine) so that, for example, when I over-responded to things I heard said being very similar to what was in my mind at the time I had to make the presumption that I had been hypnotised to respond with those thoughts to some preceding cue (set up by people following me about, or present where I was because I had been led there by hypnotic suggestion). I can understand that some people who over-respond to these coincidences interpret the concurrence as resulting from telepathy, but with the scientific training I had at school and with the utterly materialistic world view I have, I know telepathy is a mirage. Hypnotism is not a mirage and I did my best to bring it in as the only possible explanation for the coincidences (despite the fact that it did not tally in all particulars).

Finally I note that I was het up and had headaches and various bodily reactions from over-sensitivity (to heat in the case in question).

17/6/05. 4.50 pm. Transcribed from handwritten note.

We have stopped near Walsall (near Tame Bridge Parkway I believe) having found ourselves too late to hope to get to the Telewest office at Merry Hill Dudley tonight.

Problems started near Castle Donington where we parked for a while in a lay-by known to us and doubtless to the Authorities. As it is now over four hours since we left Worksop (in our motor caravan) it seems clear to me we were delayed by a hypnotic trance at that lay-by.

We left the lay-by hurriedly after Dawn became annoyed at the time I had had there on the computer and I reacted with anger. I felt sleepy and had a bad headache (which persists now).

The main error (apart from being hypnotised at all) was my wrong estimate of the time available when we came off the M42. This was caused by the break in time due to the hypnotic trance.

[X582DAO in margin.]

I intended to leave the M42 at Tamworth but was distracted at that junction (losing awareness I would say through a post-hypnotic effect). I did not intend to leave at the next junction but turned off at the last minute (again doubtless cued through hypnosis).

After leaving the M42 we found ourselves at the point where in May I chucked our former mobile phone away and where we were spectators at the aftermath of a faked accident (near Drayton Manor Park). This is suspicious in itself.

Driving along since leaving the M42 we have seen a number of reversing vehicles and other referential sights. A few minutes ago I would have re-joined the motorway but was deliberately blocked by a car (RK54TZW I believe) in the outside lane.

I have a sore throat, a headache, and irritability of the skin in this heat.

Sheldon Cooper

17/07/12 14:54 [Tuesday]

So one of the features distinguishing human kind from the brute animal is the ability to suspend judgment which is to say steel oneself to bear negative experience - even holding one’s hand in a flame (an example I often come up with) - for the sake of gathering information useful in the longer term. My understanding is that this feature depends on dopamine through the mechanism of bringing into action the frontal brain which can overall direct the brain and specifically can ‘disconnect’ the pathways which ordinarily lead from negative experience on to withdrawal or on to some vigorous action along the lines of fighting back. My view too is that higher levels of dopamine bring into action more the frontal brain and that higher levels of dopamine arise in schizophrenia not as a constant factor but if the necessary stimulation impinges, because of over-responsivity in schizophrenia of dopaminergic neural systems. Thus the schizophrenic - and it is certainly so in the catatonic type - holds himself aloof and puts up with all sorts of experience (including, often, negative experience) without exposing any immediate response, or indeed any response in any sensible timescale.

Mankind is bivalent on this subject. Suspending judgment and also holding oneself aloof in the midst of negative experience are regarded as praiseworthy, but to tell the truth, only up to a certain degree. And in the context of evolution, what good is it to do nothing but gather information for the longer term, when what those which persist should be doing is enjoying life through eating good food and procreating children?

I think the answer to why those who are religious maniacs or similar - including Sheldon Coopers who never eat good food and never procreate children - why they persist is that when they come into being they are cossetted by the powers that be who can see that it is useful for the longrun of the race for these people to gather information - that is to research - on behalf of the body politic. I must say the TV programme Big Bang Theory does a good job through Sheldon Cooper of showing up the relationship between lunacy and genius and reminds us of Isaac Newton, Paul Dirac and many another.

27 January 1977

I give below some extracts from my diary of 27-Jan-77 when I was in my 21st year. More similar can be found at http://www.colinbrough.co.uk.
...
It has rained tolerably heavily today, on and off, and when I went out ... I got wet. I am reminded of what was probably my first Sunday morning walk at Cambridge. On reflection, during my first few weeks here in October 1974 it rained a lot. Anyway, getting wet on this first walk caused me to feel very dismal. Recollections are returning to me. I was worried about unforeseen consequences with which I might not be able to deal. It is the newness of situations which is frightening, or depressing. I did not know, for example, at that stage whether I would be able to manage without overspending my grant. I did not know where any of the shops were in the town.
...
I think though (really I do) - that I, being schizoid, am more sensitive to strange situations than the average person. I have never been alone into a restaurant, or a theatre, or an opera, etc., etc., etc. (to quote The King and I, or at least, the king. I do not like going into strange cinemas. I nearly went to see The Devils sometime last year, but decided against it on seeing the waiting queue. I have noticed of late that I do not like standing about in shops, investigating the wares. People look at me and expect things of me.
...
One true thing one could say about me is that I am sensitive to people’s expectations of me. I am now analysing my schizoidism, you understand. I am coming to believe that my being schizoid (I am not really sure this is the right term; some authors prefer schizothymic) is explicable from the sole hypothesis of sensitivity to criticism.
I am reserved because I do not wish to provoke criticism of my actions. Of course, sometimes I feel people are criticising me (not necessarily explicitly, naturally) (forgive me for editing this [by deletions], but I do not wish to write absolute rubbish) for my lack of activity, especially speech activity, but I would expect you, the reader (whoever you may be), to understand that I prefer to be criticised for doing nothing rather than for doing something wrong. That does not read quite right. Perhaps criticism sounds too much like explicit criticism, where I mean tacit criticism.
The point is, that doing something is more likely, if it provokes criticism at all, to provoke responses unarguably critical, from which I would suffer more; whereas doing nothing provokes at worst hesitant criticism, which I may not even be sure is criticism, from which I suffer (relatively) little.
To write down my self-consciousness in performing certain acts makes me feel a right idiot. But there you are, it feels different when it is not exteriorised.
The answer is to make lots of friends, and do things with them. However, I do not want friends.
...
I imagine the average person, so far from suffering physically from the presence of others, obtains physical pleasure from it. I suppose people like companionship. But I, for example, have a physical aversion to looking into people’s eyes. This sometimes manifests itself even when I am looking at pictures (I have noticed this only recently), at newsreaders (for example) on the television, or into the mirror.
This is a very odd phenomenon. I only realise all these things together on occasions like this, when I am writing them down. I live from day to day for long periods without exactly noting the oddness of my behaviour.
...
I think nonetheless I would not be happy on a desert island, lacking the stimulus even of books and television.
...
I have noticed in the company of [my best friend] that I find it easier to talk when walking [as did Emily Brontë]. I am relieved of having to worry about whether I am looking into my opponent’s face, and what to do with my hands, ampersand cetera.