[FRIAM] semantic networks

Sat May 2 00:45:56 EDT 2026

Tom,

Thank you.

Nick

On Fri, May 1, 2026 at 4:35 PM Tom Johnson <jtjohnson555 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Abstract: "... agentic coordination emerges." Why not just say "agent"?
>
> Introduction: "...  but the living animal—its development, metabolism,
> behavior, and history—remains more than a surface pattern." Shouldn't the
> environment in which it lives -- clearly changing with the seasons in
> Africa -- be included? The environment for any digital system is usually
> and constantly in flux: variation in transmitted power supply, possible
> light sources, and status, etc.
>
> Define URI on first usage. In fact, please do so with all of this sort of
> abbreviation.
>
> Figure 1: How about a key for the glyphs, just to prevent any
> misinterpretations?
> " many thin clients at the edge sending data in and receiving results
> back on one-way corridors." Isn't some of that Data In reserved for future
> interactions?
>
> " *connected via HTTP, WebRTC, WebDAV, and Acequia tunnels,"* I don't
> know about the previous three, but Acequias -- ditches and tunnels -- need
> to be cleaned regularly. Does that process apply in your model?
>
> " *Figure 2: Fermented ink reaction–diffusion studies on paper, showing
> branching, cracking, and cellular morphologies." Forgive me for not first
> drilling down into his experiments, but where the conditions of the paper
> held constant: dryness of the paper, its exposure to varying light sources,
> room temperature, and humidity, even the material it was resting on?* Are
> his results the same with multiple types of paper and its manufacture?
>
> *"**On the web, those traces can be edits to shared documents, updates to
> linked data, cached fragments, or typed resources exposed via simple
> protocols. When agents operate by reading and writing such traces, the
> matrix becomes a computational landscape: repeated use deepens certain
> corridors, governance rules can open or close paths, and the emergent
> mosaic of patches and connections encodes a living map of collective
> intelligence."* Is anyone doing statistical analysis of this stuff,
> something like we used to do with Text Analysis?
>
> *" **The central technical claim of this paper is that stigmergic
> coordination on the web can be modeled as a reaction–diffusion process over
> a shared informational medium."* To what end? Is this potentially good,
> improving something or just an interesting, but basic, R&D experiment
> asking "I wonder what could happen if ...."
>
> Second graph Reaction–diffusion on the stigmergic web:  " ...agents
> gather local state," what? Conditions, data, context information...?"
>
> "*Ant foraging models often use more than one pheromone or more than one
> task-dependent field, allowing the colony to represent both attraction and
> inhibition, or outward and return trajectories, in the same environment." *Are
> varied task instructions embedded in the pheromone trails? If so, are they
> laid down at different times by different task-assigned. Do different task
> pheromones depreciate at different rates? (I realize you're not writing a
> paper about ants and pheromones; I'm just curious."
>
>
> *"Technical architecture: browsers, tunnels, and local surfacesThe
> proposed architecture treats ordinary web clients and small edge services
> as first-class participants in a decentralized coordination field rather
> than as terminals of a cloud back end.[81]
> <https://gsd.live/people/stephen-guerin/cognitive-landscapes-group/papers/reaction-diffusion-stigmergic_web_matrix.html#cite-81>[158]
> <https://gsd.live/people/stephen-guerin/cognitive-landscapes-group/papers/reaction-diffusion-stigmergic_web_matrix.html#cite-158> Phone
> browsers, laptop browsers, and lightweight local Node.js processes act
> as patches in the landscape, each capable of [ACTING AS A HOST? hosting
> state,..."*"*The architecture therefore supports several classes of
> traces:" *Will these traces be visible in some way other than just rows
> of code?
>
> "I*n this architecture, decentralized coordination is not achieved by
> removing infrastructure, but by redistributing it.*[81]
> <https://gsd.live/people/stephen-guerin/cognitive-landscapes-group/papers/reaction-diffusion-stigmergic_web_matrix.html#cite-81>
> [158]
> <https://gsd.live/people/stephen-guerin/cognitive-landscapes-group/papers/reaction-diffusion-stigmergic_web_matrix.html#cite-158>* Browsers
> become active participants, protocols become behavioral primitives, tunnels
> become corridors, and local governance becomes a shaping force in the
> formation of intelligence landscapes."  *OK, what's the advantage in
> doing this?
>
> Bottom Line: I probably don't understand this, but you seem to be
> improving transmission efficiency while giving up the potential synergy of
> interdisciplinary ideas, methods, and data. How will the perspectives and
> models of ant trails and asequia tunnels (or channels) turn up with your
> system that seems to shed content?
>
> Tom
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
> Virus-free.www.avast.com
> <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
> <#m_1176344382686584249_m_1922890225841682498_DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>
>
> On Thu, Apr 30, 2026 at 3:16 PM Stephen Guerin <
> stephen.guerin at simtable.com> wrote:
>
>> please skim this document.
>>
>> https://gsd.live/people/stephen-guerin/cognitive-landscapes-group/papers/reaction-diffusion-stigmergic_web_matrix.html
>>
>> and then what it represents to me:
>>
>>
>> https://gsd.live/people/stephen-guerin/cognitive-landscapes-group/papers/reflection-on-reaction-diffusion-sketch.md
>>
>>
>>
>> and then look up latin etymology of document. then a zoom with me
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ____________________________________________
>> CEO Founder, Simtable.com
>> stephen.guerin at simtable.com
>>
>> Harvard Visualization Research and Teaching Lab
>> stephenguerin at fas.harvard.edu
>>
>> mobile: (505)577-5828
>>
>> On Thu, Apr 30, 2026, 5:09 PM Stephen Guerin <stephen.guerin at simtable.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I am thinking 80% of my time about it this week. do you know Hesse's
>>> Glass Bead Game?
>>>
>>> ____________________________________________
>>> CEO Founder, Simtable.com
>>> stephen.guerin at simtable.com
>>>
>>> Harvard Visualization Research and Teaching Lab
>>> stephenguerin at fas.harvard.edu
>>>
>>> mobile: (505)577-5828
>>>
>>> On Thu, Apr 30, 2026, 3:07 PM Nicholas Thompson <thompnickson2 at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear stephen,
>>>>
>>>> This is the time of year when I should be packing, and so I find myself
>>>> overwhelmed by hi-toned philosophical ruminations.
>>>>
>>>> Many years ago, before the dawn of time, you worked with SFI on
>>>> visualizing semantic webs.  The idea of semantic webs is attractive to me
>>>> as an experience monist because, on my understanding, every new
>>>> experience lights up a different part of the semantic web in which all
>>>> experiences are embedded, past, present, future.
>>>>
>>>> In my present state of unpackingness, I find myself desperately
>>>> concerned to find out where your effort ended and if you have thought about
>>>> it since.
>>>>
>>>> To my FRIAM colleagues, if you want to play, GREAT!, but dont feel you
>>>> have  to big-foot this one.
>>>>
>>>> Nick
>>>> --
>>>> Nicholas S. Thompson
>>>> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology
>>>> Clark University
>>>> nthompson at clarku.edu
>>>> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson
>>>> https://substack.com/@monist
>>>>
>>> .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --.
>> / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-..
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe   /   Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom
>> https://bit.ly/virtualfriam
>> to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
>> archives:  5/2017 thru present
>> https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/
>>   1/2003 thru 6/2021  http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
>>
>
>
> --
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Tom Johnson - tom at jtjohnson.com
> +1 505 577 6482
> Santa Fe, New Mexico USA
>
> *New Mexico Writers <https://nmwriters.org/>*++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. /
> ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-..
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe   /   Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom
> https://bit.ly/virtualfriam
> to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/
> archives:  5/2017 thru present
> https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/
>   1/2003 thru 6/2021  http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
>

-- 
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology
Clark University
nthompson at clarku.edu
https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson
https://substack.com/@monist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20260501/aea7e43f/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1777583518043.png
Type: image/png
Size: 2625171 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20260501/aea7e43f/attachment-0001.png>