diff --git a/elements/neuron/appunti/2026-06-19-abstract-pattern-expression.md b/elements/neuron/appunti/2026-06-19-abstract-pattern-expression.md index d1e5912..f482138 100644 --- a/elements/neuron/appunti/2026-06-19-abstract-pattern-expression.md +++ b/elements/neuron/appunti/2026-06-19-abstract-pattern-expression.md @@ -3,39 +3,56 @@ A component operates within two ceilings set by the previous NIGHT: a **structure** that bounds how strongly each behavior can act, and a **budget capacity** that bounds how much fuel it can hold. Both ceilings bound an active, competitive DAY process and are raised at NIGHT by -two kinds of evidence — a **tag** (a local eligibility signal coinciding with non-local -validation, driving strength) and an **endurance need** (budget depletion interrupting a -locally successful trajectory, driving endurance). Strength and endurance draw on the same -finite material and energy, so they compete; what is not committed decays for lack of -maintenance, and the freed resources partially fund what was. +two kinds of evidence — a **tag** (local eligibility coinciding with non-local validation, +driving strength) and an **endurance need** (a *fuel* shortfall interrupting a locally +successful trajectory, driving endurance). Strength and endurance draw on the same finite +material and energy, so they compete; what is not committed decays for lack of maintenance, +and the freed material partially funds what was. Everything a component does — in DAY and in NIGHT alike — is an instance of one grammar of -eight functional groups. This is the common template. Each component differs only in how it -fills the groups, never in their structure. +seven functional groups. This is the common template. Components differ only in how they fill +the groups, never in their structure. --- ## The Grammar ``` -RECEIVE take in resources + signals that arrived from outside -EVALUATE judge behavior — strength (needs dopamine) + endurance (interrupted success) +RECEIVE take in resources + signals that arrived from outside (boundary: in) +TRACE maintain the trace hierarchy — deposit fast trace; accumulate + possible_tag + endurance_need; stabilize tag on coincidence ADJUST compute local operating parameters from structure + traces + modulators BEHAVE the component's defining action, within both ceilings -EMIT send out — signals (messages) and resources (shipments) across the boundary -TRACE deposit the fast trace that records the behavior +EMIT send out — signals (messages) + resources (shipments) (boundary: out) RECOVER refill own private pools consumed by behaving DECAY let traces recede, closing their windows ``` -The grammar runs at two timescales. In **DAY** it operates on occupancy *within* the ceilings: -fast traces, budgets, behaviors. In **NIGHT** it operates on the *ceilings themselves*: -material, energy, structure, budget capacity. Same eight groups, two scopes — which is the +**TRACE absorbs evaluation.** Judging a behavior is always maintaining a trace — whether or +not a trace is written — so the two evidence streams (strength, endurance) live inside TRACE +alongside the fast-trace deposit. TRACE spans all timescales: the soma's inactivation, +adaptation, and nuclear-calcium deposits are all TRACE, three records of one firing. + +**BEHAVE and EMIT stay separate.** EMIT is the output half of the locality interface. RECEIVE +and EMIT are the *only* boundary crossings; every other group is strictly local. Keeping EMIT +named makes the boundary auditable — sometimes EMIT coincides with the behavior (presynaptic +release, somatic firing), often it is a separable consequence (postsynaptic retrograde +messages) or a different operation entirely (resource shipments). + +The grammar runs at two timescales. In **DAY** it operates on occupancy *within* the ceilings +(fast traces, budgets, behaviors). In **NIGHT** it operates on the *ceilings themselves* +(material, energy, structure, budget capacity). Same seven groups, two scopes — the capacity-versus-occupancy principle written into the shape of the process. -A strict locality rule governs every group: a component uses only its own state and signals -that have physically arrived. It never reads another compartment's interior. All -cross-compartment influence travels through RECEIVE (signals in) and EMIT (signals out). +**Every flow has a timescale.** Decay relaxes a quantity toward 0 over τ; creation and arrival +relax it toward a target over τ — the same first-order operator, differing only in the target. +A within-step write is the special case τ ≪ Δt. Rate-limited inflows (private refill, contested +replenishment, flux × Δt) carry their τ implicitly; shipment carries an explicit transit delay, +so distal targets receive later and more spread out than near ones. + +**Strict locality.** Every group uses only the component's own state and signals that have +physically arrived. No component reads another's interior. All cross-compartment influence +enters through RECEIVE and leaves through EMIT. --- @@ -43,30 +60,39 @@ cross-compartment influence travels through RECEIVE (signals in) and EMIT (signa ### RECEIVE — what arrived becomes local -Resources arrive by two filling disciplines, each bounded by a ceiling through the *gap* it -leaves, never by a post-hoc clamp: +Resources arrive by three disciplines, each bounded by a ceiling through the *gap* it leaves, +never by a post-hoc clamp: ``` -// CONTESTED supply (astrocyte lactate, shipments) — rationed by competing demands +// CONTESTED supply (astrocyte lactate, arrived shipments) — rationed by competing demands demand = BUDGET_CEILING - BUDGET // the gap is the claim factor = min(1, S / (Σ demand on S + ε)) BUDGET += demand × factor; S -= demand × factor // never exceeds the ceiling // PRIVATE reserve (own vesicle pool, own mitochondria) — uncontested, rate-limited POOL += min(rate, CEILING - POOL) × Δt + +// TRANSIT (shipment arriving from upstream) — delivered over a transport time +BUDGET += transit(shipment_channel, τ_transport) // fraction of in-flight cargo lands ``` Signals arrive as channel reads — forward transmitter, the co-agonist gate, retrograde -messengers, neuromodulatory broadcast. A read signal is latched into a local copy; the channel -itself decays. A high budget ceiling is therefore not free even in DAY: it makes a large -standing claim on contested supply, satisfiable only by out-competing neighbours. +messengers, neuromodulatory broadcast — latched into a local copy while the channel decays. A +high budget ceiling is not free even in DAY: it makes a large standing claim on contested +supply, satisfiable only by out-competing neighbours. -### EVALUATE — the two evidence streams +### TRACE — maintain the record hierarchy (and the two evidence streams) -Two independent judgments, each using only local state and arrived signals. +One group deposits and updates every trace, on every timescale. -**Strength (associative, needs dopamine).** A tag forms when local eligibility coincides with -non-local validation; the number of coincidences set by the component's spatial scale. +**Deposit** the fast trace from the behavior (and, for components with multi-timescale +dynamics, the slower records too — soma inactivation and adaptation alongside nuclear calcium). +Where a fast trace both *drives* and *records* a behavior (residual calcium at the presynapse), +the deposit precedes ADJUST; elsewhere it follows BEHAVE. + +**Strength evidence (associative, needs dopamine).** A tag forms when local eligibility +coincides with non-local validation; the number of coincidences set by the component's spatial +scale. ``` // most components — one non-local coincidence @@ -79,26 +105,26 @@ if possible_tag > thr and bAP arrives: FAST_TRACE += bAP_boost // if possible_tag > thr and dopamine > dop_thr: TAG += dopamine × possible_tag // STABLE ``` -**Endurance (homeostatic, no dopamine).** A need forms when depletion interrupts a *locally* -successful trajectory. "Successful" is each component's own local proxy — never a read of -another compartment, optionally amplified by a retrograde signal that has arrived. +**Endurance evidence (homeostatic, no dopamine).** A need forms only when a **fuel** shortfall +interrupts a *locally* successful trajectory. The success proxy is the component's own state, +amplified by a retrograde signal *only where one actually arrives*. ``` if BUDGET < cost and LOCAL_SUCCESS_PROXY > traj_thr: - ENDURANCE_NEED += LOCAL_SUCCESS_PROXY × (1 + arrived_feedback) + ENDURANCE_NEED += LOCAL_SUCCESS_PROXY × (1 + arrived_feedback) // feedback only if it arrived ``` -Local success proxies: PRE — own strong release (amplified by retrograde NO that POST -emitted); POST — own calcium climbing toward the tag; DEND — own branch strongly active when -propagation fell short; SOMA — own nuclear calcium approaching CREB; AXON — own strong -propagation load; ASTRO — own high glutamate/clearance demand when synthesis ran out. Same -shape everywhere — fuel ran out at the verge of the component's *own* success — only the proxy -differs. +Local proxies (own-state): PRE — own strong release (amplified by retrograde NO that POST +emitted, the one component with arrived feedback); POST — own calcium climbing toward the tag; +DEND — own branch strongly active when propagation fell short; SOMA — own nuclear calcium +approaching CREB; AXON — own strong propagation load; ASTRO — own high clearance demand when +synthesis ran short of budget. Same shape everywhere — fuel ran out at the verge of the +component's *own* success — only the proxy differs. ### ADJUST — set the operating parameters -From structure (the ceiling), the current traces, and arrived modulators, the component -computes the parameters that govern this step's behavior: +From structure (the ceiling), the current traces, and arrived modulators, compute the +parameters that govern this step's behavior: ``` parameter = f(STRUCTURE, FAST_TRACE, modulators, arrived_signals) @@ -108,45 +134,42 @@ PRE — release drive from residual calcium and the received DSE brake; POST — arrived glutamate; SOMA — firing threshold from baseline × adaptation × neuromodulators, plus the refractory gate; AXON — propagation reliability from structure minus load-driven failure; ASTRO — lactate-allocation weights across the territory. ADJUST is where the NIGHT-built ceiling -silently shapes the moment: the same structure that bounds the maximum also tunes the -transfer function. +silently shapes the moment: the same structure that bounds the maximum also tunes the transfer +function. -### BEHAVE — the defining action, within both ceilings +### BEHAVE — the defining action, within both ceilings, with two failure modes ``` -if BUDGET >= cost: - behavior executes, strength bounded by STRUCTURE // fills occupancy toward the ceiling - BUDGET -= cost +if BUDGET < cost: + suppress behavior + // FUEL shortfall → endurance evidence (handled in TRACE, if the trajectory was succeeding) +else if OCCUPANCY/STRUCTURE exhausted: // pool empty, surface already at ceiling, refractory + suppress behavior + // → short-term depression, or a structural/timing limit — NOT endurance (more fuel wouldn't help) else: - behavior suppressed // fuel was the binding constraint - // → endurance EVALUATE fires here if the interrupted trajectory was locally succeeding + behavior executes, strength bounded by STRUCTURE; BUDGET -= cost ``` -Behavior fills occupancy — receptors to the surface, vesicles to docking slots — toward the -structural ceiling. When the driving trace decays, occupancy passively drifts back: short-term -depression is the *absence* of drive, never a signalled act. +The two failure modes are kept distinct because they point to two different ceilings. A *fuel* +shortfall is endurance evidence — more budget capacity would have let the behavior proceed. An +*occupancy* shortfall (empty vesicle pool, surface saturated, refractory soma) is short-term +depression or a structural limit — endurance cannot fix it; it is a consequence to be allowed. +Conflating them would build the wrong capacity. Behavior fills occupancy toward the structural +ceiling; when the driving trace decays, occupancy passively drifts back — short-term depression +is the *absence* of drive, never a signalled act. ### EMIT — send signals and resources outward The component writes its outputs into shared channels: the forward transmitter into the cleft, -retrograde messages back, integrated voltage onward, shipments to downstream pools (rationed by -the downstream component's propagated demand). EMIT and RECEIVE are the only boundary crossings; -together they make locally-computing components into a communicating whole. - -### TRACE — record the behavior - -``` -FAST_TRACE += f(behavior) -``` - -Where a fast trace both *drives* and *records* a behavior (residual calcium at the presynapse), -TRACE precedes ADJUST; elsewhere it follows BEHAVE. The trace is the system's short-term memory: -it biases the next behavior in the same context and opens the eligibility window for tagging. +retrograde messages back, integrated voltage onward, and shipments into transit toward +downstream pools (rationed by the downstream component's propagated demand, delivered over +τ_transport). EMIT and RECEIVE are the only boundary crossings; together they make +locally-computing components into a communicating whole. ### RECOVER — refill private pools Pools consumed by behaving are refilled from the component's own reserve toward their ceiling, -rate-limited and budget-costed (the presynaptic RRP from the reserve vesicle pool, the soma's +rate-limited and budget-costed (the presynaptic RRP from the reserve vesicle pool; the soma's budget from its own mitochondria). Private recovery grants a component autonomy that contested supply does not. @@ -160,9 +183,9 @@ TAG *= decay(τ_slow) // hours — closes the commitment window arrived channels *= decay // received signals fade ``` -Decay is not an action — it is the passive relaxation that enforces every time window without a -clock. A coincidence must complete, and a depletion must interrupt a success, while the relevant -trace is still elevated. Timing is the competition between accumulation and decay. +Decay is the passive relaxation that enforces every time window without a clock: a coincidence +must complete, and a fuel shortfall must interrupt a success, while the relevant trace is still +elevated. Timing is the competition between accumulation and decay. --- @@ -173,14 +196,14 @@ NIGHT runs once per cycle and applies the identical grammar to the slow variable **RECEIVE** — overnight production at the roots (astrocyte glycolysis, soma CREB synthesis, soma mitochondria), capped externally by the vascular supply and gated by `soma_tag`. -**ADJUST** — compute the commit weights: the coherence bonus when pre, post and astro tags -align, and the tag-weighted shares for distributing material and energy to competing -astrosynapses, spines, and boutons. +**TRACE + ADJUST** — read the accumulated tags and endurance needs; compute the commit weights +(the coherence bonus when pre, post and astro tags align; the tag-weighted shares for +distributing material and energy to competing astrosynapses, spines, and boutons). -**EMIT** — distribute the produced material and energy down the supply chains +**EMIT** — distribute produced material and energy down the supply chains, into transit (soma → branch/axon → spine/bouton; astrocyte body → astrosynapses). -**EVALUATE + BEHAVE** — the two commits, drawing on the same finite pool so they compete: +**BEHAVE** — the two commits, drawing on the same finite pool so they compete: ``` // STRENGTH — driven by tag (validated coincidence) @@ -194,7 +217,7 @@ if ENDURANCE_NEED > endur_thr: BUDGET_CEILING += Δ; MATERIAL -= Δ; ENERGY -= Δ × biogenesis_cost ``` -A component that is both significant and fuel-limited demands both commits and is the strongest +A component both significant and fuel-limited demands both commits and is the strongest claimant on the pool, potentially forcing decay elsewhere. **RECOVER + DECAY** — both ceilings decay by neglect; maintenance from the remaining pool @@ -217,16 +240,17 @@ structure and budget capacity persist as the ceilings the next DAY will operate ## The Pattern in One View ``` -ONE GRAMMAR, EIGHT GROUPS, TWO TIMESCALES +ONE GRAMMAR, SEVEN GROUPS, TWO TIMESCALES - RECEIVE · EVALUATE · ADJUST · BEHAVE · EMIT · TRACE · RECOVER · DECAY + RECEIVE · TRACE · ADJUST · BEHAVE · EMIT · RECOVER · DECAY DAY runs the grammar on OCCUPANCY within two ceilings: STRUCTURE (strength) filled by competing for occupancy BUDGET_CEILING (endurance) filled by competing for shared fuel - EVALUATE yields two evidence streams, both from local state + arrived signals: - fast_trace + dopamine coincidence → TAG (strength) - depletion + interrupted LOCAL success → ENDURANCE_NEED (endurance) + TRACE yields two evidence streams from local state + arrived signals: + fast_trace + dopamine coincidence → TAG (strength) + FUEL shortfall + interrupted LOCAL success → ENDURANCE_NEED (endurance) + OCCUPANCY/structure/timing shortfalls → short-term depression (NOT endurance) NIGHT runs the SAME grammar on the CEILINGS: TAG → raise STRUCTURE (per-event power) @@ -234,8 +258,11 @@ NIGHT runs the SAME grammar on the CEILINGS: both draw the SAME material + energy → strength and endurance compete unmaintained ceilings decay → recovered material funds the rest -LOCALITY every group uses only own state + arrived signals; - RECEIVE and EMIT are the only boundary crossings. +FLOWS every flow has a timescale: decay → 0 over τ, arrival → target over τ; + shipment is transit-delayed; rate-limited inflows carry τ implicitly. + +LOCAL every group uses only own state + arrived signals; + RECEIVE and EMIT are the only boundary crossings. A high ceiling of either kind is never free: structure must be filled by winning occupancy, budget capacity by winning shared fuel — both against competing components, every DAY. The @@ -245,6 +272,7 @@ own success. To be both effective and sustainable, a connection must win on both timescales, against all others drawing from the same finite pools. ``` + # More details ## SOMA