paper available on continuous formal systems

[Bruce MacLennan]

FTP-host:  archive.cis.ohio-state.edu
FTP-filename:  /pub/neuroprose/maclennan.contformalsys.ps.Z

            Continuous Formal Systems:  
    A Unifying Model in Language and Cognition
               by Bruce MacLennan

 (Paper for an IEEE workshop on semiotic modeling.)

The idea of a _calculus_ or _discrete formal system_ is central to
traditional models of language, knowledge, logic, cognition and
computation, and it has provided a unifying framework for these and
other disciplines.  Nevertheless, research in psychology,
neuroscience, philosophy and computer science has shown the limited
ability of this model to account for the flexible, adaptive and
creative behavior exhibited by much of the animal kingdom.
Promising alternate models replace discrete structures by
_structured continua_ and discrete rule-following by _continuous
dynamical processes_.  However, we believe that progress in these
alternate models is retarded by the lack of a unifying theoretical
construct analogous to the discrete formal system.

In this paper we outline the general characteristics of _continuous
formal systems_ (_simulacra_), which we believe will be a unifying element in
future models of language, knowledge, logic, cognition and
computation.

Bruce MacLennan
Department of Computer Science
The University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-1301

PHONE: (615*)974-0994/5067
FAX: (615*)974-4404
EMAIL: maclennan at cs.utk.edu