FIELD GUIDE

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  • Art
  • Anthropology
  • Biology
  • Cognition
  • Complexity
  • Computation
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  • Linguistics
  • Mathematics
  • Music
  • Philosophy
  • Physics

AESTHETICS
The study and systematic exploration of beauty and taste across individuals and cultures, sometimes also synonymous with the philosophy of art.

Aesthetics

ALLOCENTRIC REPRESENTATION
Spatial representation where one denotes the location of something else in reference to another object, independent of oneself.

Allocentric Spatial Representation

ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK
Computational system vaguely inspired by biological neural networks that operates a large network of relatively simple computing nodes.

ArtificialNeuralNetwork

BASAL COGNITION
Cognitive-like capabilities exhibited in biological systems without complex nervous systems, including non-neural animals, plants, fungi, single-celled life forms or cell networks within an organism.

Basal Cognition

BIOLOGICAL NEURAL NETWORK
Physiological tissue composed by neurons and other specialized cells; linked to higher cognitive functions in some animals.

Biological Neural Network

BIOPHYSICS
Study of physical phenomena in biological systems, on scales spanning molecules, cells, tissues and organisms, using the principles and methods of physics.

Biophysics

BLACK HOLE
Region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing (no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light) can escape from it.

Black Hole

BLACK HOLE INFO. PARADOX
Alleged loss of physical states information of systems falling inside a black hole according to general relativity, which would violate unitarity, a core principle of quantum mechanics.

Black Hole Information Paradox

CAUSALITY
Influence by which one event, process, state, or object (a cause) contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object (an effect).

Causality

CELL
Minimal observed unit of conventionally attributed full biological function. Typically, a complex assembly of microscopic molecular machinery.

Cell

CHORD
In music, any harmonic set of pitches/frequencies consisting of multiple notes that are heard as if sounding simultaneously.

Chord

CIRCLE OF FIFTHS
In music theory, way of organizing the 12 chromatic pitches as a sequence of perfect fifths./br>

Circle of Fifths

CLASSICAL PHYSICS
Collection of models and theories that describe phenomena at the macroscopic and astrophysical scales; historically, the physical theories predating the discovery of quantum phenomena.

Classical Physics

COGNITIVE ARCHAEOLOGY
Theoretical perspective in archaeology that focuses on the ancient mind, trying to understand human cognitive evolution and symbolic structures from material record.

Cognitive Archaeology

COLLECTIVE COMPUTATION
The phenomenon of information processing by a large group of individuals in interaction, each of which processes information individually and communicates with other individuals.

Collective Computation

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE
Behaviour exhibited by a system, emerging from the collaboration, collective efforts, and competition of the individuals within it.

Collective Intelligence

COMMONSENSE REASONING
In artificial intelligence, human-like ability to make presumptions about the type and essence of ordinary situations humans encounter every day.

Commonsense Reasoning

COMMUNICATION THEORY
In information theory, communication theories examine, typically in a mathematical fashion, the technical process of information exchange.

Communication Theory

COMPLEX SYSTEM
Physical system with a large amount of components that interact to generate intricate emergent dynamics, self-organization, or chaotic behaviour.

Complex System

CONCEPTUAL SPACE
Geometric structure representing quality dimensions, which denote basic features of concepts and objects, such as weight, color, taste, temperature, pitch, and the three ordinary spatial dimensions.

Conceptual Space

CONFIGURATION SPACE
Abstract set of all static positions of a mechanical system, often giving a simple high-dimensional geometric description of complex low-dimensional machines.

Configuration Space

CONTINUITY
Perceived experience of qualities that vary smoothly over spatial or temporal extension. Abstracted in the real numbers. Often invoked in contrast to discreteness.

Continuity

COUNTABLE SET
Set with the same cardinality as some subset of the standard natural numbers. A countable set can be labelled by a (possibly infinite) sequence of natural numbers.

Countable Set

CRYPTOGRAPHY
Study of secure communications techniques that allow only the sender and intended recipient of a message to view its contents.

Cryptography

CULTURAL DATA ANALYSIS
Multidisciplinary science that uses computational, visualization, and big data methods for the exploration of contemporary and historical cultures.

Cultural Data Analysis

DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
Study of the process by which living organisms grow and develop, including phenomena such as regeneration, metamorphosis and cell differentiation.

Developmental Biology

DISCRETENESS
Perceived experience and abstraction of qualities that vary abruptly over spatial or temporal extension. Abstracted in countable sets. Often invoked in contrast to continuity.

Discreteness

EGOCENTRIC REPRESENTATION
Spatial representation where one denotes the location of something else in reference to oneself.

Egocentric Spatial Representation

EMBEDDING
A general concept in geometry or data science that refers to the phenomenon of a region, shape or structure sitting inside of a larger or higher-dimensional ambient space.

Embedding

EMBODIED COGNITION
Theory which posits that cognitive systems should be considered in all their extension (body), not just in the centers of information processing (brain).

Embodied Cognition

EMERGENT SPACE(TIME)
In physics, view that considers space(time) not as the fundamental structure of reality, but as emergent from a more fundamental, non-spatial entity or phenomenon.

Emergent Spacetime

EMERGENTISM
Philosophical view which posits that collectives can exhibit behaviour that cannot be inferred from knowledge of the individuals.

Emergentism

EVOLUTION
Process by which a population of individuals changes over time through mechanisms such as reproduction, inheritance, mutation and selection.

Evolution

EXTENDED MIND
The idea that contents of the mind appear and are articulated in the world. Examples are written languages, cities or technology.

Extended Mind

GENERAL RELATIVITY
Geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916 and current description of gravitation in modern physics.

General Relativity

GRID CELL
Type of neuron that fires at regular intervals as an animal navigates an open area, allowing it to understand its position in space by storing and integrating information about location, distance, and direction.

Grid Cell

INFORMATION THEORY
Discipline dedicated to the scientific study of the quantification, storage, and communication of digital information.

Information Theory

LINGUISTICS
Discipline dedicated to the study of languages. For human populations it entails the study of phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics.

Linguistics

MORPHOGENESIS
Biological process that causes a cell, tissue or organism to develop its shape. It is one of three fundamental aspects of developmental biology along with growth and patterning.

Morphogenesis

MORPHOLOGICAL SPACE
Geometric representation of the possible form, shape or structure of an organism. In a morphospace, axis and points correspond to organism characters and individual organisms, respectively.

Morphological Space

MUSIC THEORY
Study of the practices and possibilities of music, including musical notation, scholar’s views on music from antiquity to the present, and definitions of processes and general principles in music.

Music Theory

NEUROPLASTICITY
Process by which biological neural networks rearrange and reorganize themselves leading to adaptation and change of learned behaviours.

Neuroplasticity

NON-NEURAL BIOELECTRICITY
Non-neural electrical processes in biological systems, such as bioelectrical pattern recognition, that may allow information processing and hence non-neural cognition.

Non-Neural Bioelectricity

ONTOGENY
Process by which an individual is formed. In pluricellular organisms, the process from the fertilization of an egg to the formation of an adult.

Ontogeny

PHASE SPACE
Abstract set of all the states of a physical system, often giving a geometric description of the kinematics of a dynamical system.

Phase Space

PHYSIOLOGICAL SPACE
Geometric representation of the physiological variables in a biological system, such as enzyme concentration, pH, electrochemical activity, etc.

Physiological Space

PLACE CELL
Type of neuron that becomes active when an animal enters a particular place in its environment. Place cells are thought to act collectively as a cognitive representation of a specific location in space.

Place Cell

QUANTUM GRAVITY
The sought after theory (or family of theories) that may unify general relativity and quantum mechanics to account for gravitational phenomena at the scales of fundamental particles.

Quantum Gravity

QUANTUM INFORMATION
In physics, information of the state of a quantum system. It is the basic entity of study in quantum information theory.

Quantum Information

QUANTUM PHYSICS
Collection of models and theories that describe phenomena at the near-atomic and subatomic levels; characteristic quantum phenomena may present state entanglement and observational indeterminacy.

Quantum Physics

REAL NUMBERS
Mathematical object capturing the formal structure of geometric distances and approximating sequences; typically considered as the mathematical model of physical quantities.

Real Numbers

REGENERATIVE MEDICINE
Branch of medicine that develops methods to regrow, repair or replace damaged or diseased cells, organs or tissues to restore or establish normal function.

Regenerative Medicine

RELATIVITY THEORY
Physical theory that provides the most accurate, compact and mathematically elegant model to date for the relation between observers of classical phenomena.

Relativity Theory

SEMANTICS
Study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and computer science.

Semantics

SPACETIME SINGULARITY
Extreme gravity scenarios, such as the center of black holes, where general relativity prediction makes spacetime itself ill-defined, often interpreted as a limitation of the theory.

SpacetimeSingularity

SPATIAL COGNITION
Cognition concerned with the acquisition, organization, utilization, and revision of knowledge about spatial environments.

Spatial Cognition

SPATIAL REASONING
Area of artificial intelligence seeking representing and reasoning about spatial knowledge, as well as developing automatic systems for navigating and understanding space.

Spatial Reasoning

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY
Multidisciplinary area of research that seeks to create new biological parts, devices, and systems, or to redesign systems that are already found in nature.

Synthetic Biology

THEORETICAL BIOLOGY
Discipline dedicated to the formal modelling of biological systems by developing mathematical and philosophical frameworks.

Theoretical Biology

TONNETZ
Conceptual lattice diagram representing tonal space first described by Euler, which can be used to show traditional harmonic relationships in European classical music.

Tonnetz

TOPOLOGY
In mathematics, study of the properties of a geometric object that are preserved under continuous deformations such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending.

Topology

VOICE LEADING
Linear progression of individual melodic lines and their interaction with one another to create harmonies, typically following the principles of common-practice harmony and counterpoint.

Voice Leading

WORD CLASS
Set of words that exhibit the same grammatical or syntactic properties. Examples of word classes, also called lexical categories or parts of speech, are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions…

Word Class