Projects2012

Past Project Lists

 Projects List 2003
 http://existencia.org/files/james/projects.pdf

 Projects Blog
 http://www.mit.edu/~jrising/resources/

 http://existencia.org/projects/

 General Websites
 http://existencia.org/home/

 http://existencia.org/pro/

 Social Political Internet Projects (2011)
 http://prezi.com/3y8jokcd8x_u/copy-of-social-political-
internet-projects/

Project Categories

 Projects with [other] Collaborators
 Complexity
 Other Research
 Sociopolitical Internet Projects
 Tools
 Curriculum Design
 Parts of Jobs
 Back-Burner Projects

Sustainable Development Program Activities

 Reading and Discussion Group, either
 World Changing (social movements, social entrepreneurism,
radical societal change)
 Ecocentrism (rationales, implications, philosophy and
practice)
 "Techniques and Coding" Group, either
 Data Mining (with emphasis on social networks)

 Social Change Apps (both web and smart phone apps)

 Complexity Blog Series
 Summer Workshop Meetings
 Science and Policy Summer School

• Michael Aklin (NYU),
Johannes Urpelainen

• Building simulink-
style model they can
expand and play with

1. Replicate standard
economic model in Fuss
et al 2008

2. Add elections

3. Calibrate
Modeling in Political Economy
Computational modeling is rarely used in
Political Economics. Johannes and Michael
have a paper on how partisanship changes
carbon mitigation investment, and they want a
[Image from Fuss et al, 2008] model to investigate further.

• Sol Hsiang

1. Build a theoretical
model– what we hope
to see.

2. Use Philippine data
on remittances and
social network
structure.

Network Growth under Risk
How do networks affect shock mitigation, and
how do shocks affect network growth? What
kinds of network links would be beneficial to
risk management, but don’t form because of
[Image from risk network dynamics?
http://www.mi2g.com:How to
Achieve Peace?]

• Kimberly Lai

• Weekly catch data at 3+
ports, 1993-1999; 16099
plankton casts, 1972-
2005.
• Kriging of plankton

• HMM-logistic model of
stock
• Cross-correlations
across space for lifespan
maps
• New EM-estimated
model, informed by
plankton directly
Spatial Fisheries
• Use length-class data?
Spatially distributed fish lifespan data is rare,
but may be hugely significant. Can spatial
Working Paper:
http://www.existencia.org plankton data– or sparse data into other points
/pro/wp- on the food chain– be used to spatially
content/uploads/2012/05
/Spatial-Fisheries.pdf disaggregate catch data?

• Tuesday Evening
Experiments Group

• Extracted 1962 – 2011
“March supplement”
CPS data: thousands of
records of age, sex,
income, race.

• How to turn a cross-
section into a panel?

Middle Class Stories
The US middle class is disintegrating, somewhat
along racial lines. What is causing this? In
particular, can we distinguish between older
[Distribution of income for each workers losing their jobs and younger workers
age cohort, 1988] entering lower-paying jobs?

• Amir Jina, Johannes
Castner

• Getting together a
working group

1. Develop a plausible
"global catastrophe"
scenario

2. Develop a global
plan for how to
respond
to it A Scenario for Global Catastrophe
What if an environmental crises precipitates a
global economic collapse? If we’re unprepared,
it could be truly catastrophic. But if we have a
plan, it could be an opportunity to redirect the
[My picture in the Astrodome] entire world economy along new sustainable
grounds.

• Discussing with John
Mutter

• EM-DAT disaster data
(from 1901) easily
analyzable

• Disaster map: a
project to make an
online, dynamic map of
disasters through the
century

• Construct a useable
Systemic Disasters
model from this data
How do the consequences of disasters flow
through societies? Many disaster risks are
made greater by socially driven behaviors.
Disasters themselves are compounded or
[Systemic ramifications of
flooding in Pakistan, based on mitigated by how people respond. How can we
industry connections.] better understand disaster through systems?

• William Menke

• Examples for preditors
and prey, agriculture and
development, global
weather
• Scattered Fourier
Analysis
• Multiple transfer
functions
• Have code that does
this, but only for simple
cases
System Regressions
• Develop first-order
delay parameterization I want to estimate models, assuming that all
variables are endogenous to the system, and
• Re-check bias and
asymptotics
that measurement errors apply to all variables,
but do not drive the system. The key is to use
Presentation: shared frequencies to parameterize
http://existencia.org/files
/sd/sysreg.pdf simultaneous equations.

• If each system
provides a distribution
over values for its
variables and a
spectrum, can an
estimate be true to both?

• Let {Xi} be a true
process, passed through
multiple noisy channels.
How to best recover
{Xi}?

• What are the Amalgamated Modeling
consequences of running
a system dynamics What tools are available for cross-scale
model on a single cell, modeling, and for creating non-resonating
but adding cross-border linkages between independent models? How
flows? can multiple models inform one variable? How
can system dynamics be made distributed?

• Improve the
“networked system
dynamics” framework,
so models can be
“plugged-in” and
interact

• Incorporate data,
multiple maps/networks

• Creating distinct
models of ecology and
sociology, at multiple
scales OpenWorld Fisheries Model
• Build tools for How do the dynamics of fish and fishery
verification and analysis management interact, and how can that
improve our ability to maintain sustainability?
Proposal to EPA:
http://existencia.org/file What kinds of complexity modeling allow that
s/sd/openmodel2.pdf coupling to be flexible, verifiable, and multi-
scale?

• Network physical model
of melt and runoff

• Calibrated against Bhakra
Dam inflows

• Copula of floods as
volume over banks

• Investigation of changes
with climate

• Investigation of sources of
variability

• Map of the melt flood
attribution across whole
Himalayas Himalayan Melt and Flooding
Poster: How much of recent flooding is attributable to
http://www.existencia.org/ melt, and how will that contribution change
pro/wp-
content/uploads/2012/01/p over time? Using Bhakra dam and remote
oster.pdf sensing data, I calibrate physical and statistical
Working models and estimate information about extreme
paper:http://existencia.org/ events.
files/sd/flooding2.pdf

• Term papers, S2011

• Marine Conservation

• Extinction
• Scale-Independence
• SOC Relatinoships
• Contributions:
• Better models
• Managing catastrophe
• SOC as health

• Poverty Traps

• Scales in SD
• Economies as SOC
• Networked Solow model
• Noise analysis of indicators
Self-Organized Criticality and SD
Working
papers:http://www.existe SOC is a powerful model, with implications for
ncia.org/pro/wp- both ecologies and economies. In two papers
/paper.pdf (SOC and Marine Conservation, SOC and
Poverty Traps), I review the applicability and
http://existencia.org/pro/
files/marinesoc.pdf develop some new models.

• Term paper, F2011

• Analyses of area under
swidden cultivation
• SES categories

• System dynamics
model, run against MEA
scenarios
• Optimal path under
aggregate model
• Optimal steady-state
under 1-D model
• Optimal transportation
networks
Optimal Slash-and-Burn Farming
• Optimal control setup How does inclusion of spatiality change optimal
• Building networks
management choices? I consider multiple
Working models of swidden agriculture: aggregate, 1-D,
paper:http://www.existen and the start of 2-D optimal paths.
cia.org/pro/wp-
/paper1.pdf

• Term paper, S2012

• Review of cross-scale
issues
• Model of distributed
commons and general
consequences
• Groundwater-style
diagrams
• Distanced exploiter’s
dilemma
• How fishing communities
can drive cross-scale
improvements
Working Paper:
Distributed Fishery Commons
http://www.existencia.org/
pro/wp- How do cross-scale issues inform commons
content/uploads/2012/05/ management? I review what’s missing in the
Distributed-Fishery-
Commons.pdf commons literature and develop a model of
Presentation:
“distributed commons” as a general framework
http://www.existencia.org/ for understanding scale issues in commons
pro/wp-
content/uploads/2012/05/fi better.
shgov.pptx

• Term paper, S2012

• Omni-conformist grids
• Steady-states
• Entropy rates
• Effects of minorities
• Conformist CAs
• Information flow under
steady-state
• Entropy over time and
space
• Conformist Channels

Working paper:
http://www.existencia.org
/pro/wp-
Spatial Entropy Rates
/Spatial-Entropy- What are the spatial and temporal
Rates.pdf
characteristics of cellular automata? How does
Presentation: information move through a grid? Building off
http://www.existencia.org
/pro/wp- a paper by Bruce Sawhill on the role of
content/uploads/2012/05 nondeterministic automata in complexity.
/pres.pdf

• Claudia Gold (airbnb),
and designers

• Location-aware blog

• Blog entries tied into
locations tied into map
tied into blog

• Profiles, pictures,
permissions, ratings,
friends

http://travelersnetwork.
org/ Travelers Network
Social network and information-sharing for
travelers. Combines map-based social blog and
yelp/trip-advisor reviews. I previously hired
people to work with me on this, but it hasn’t
taken off yet.

• Alec Uitti (designer)

• Daily new challenges
and points for doing
them.

• Anyone can add
challenges and connect
them to previous
challenges.

• Social network
pressures (sharing,
profile pics) LimeEffect Android App
How do you convince people to follow “greener”
practices? You put personalized daily
suggestions on their phone and give social
incentives to make it like a game.

• Fossil fuel, metal ore,
air and water, soil,
plants and animals

• Calculations: people -
> area -> dimensions ->
mass -> fuel

• Number of sustainable
species from area

Demo:
http://existencia.org/sp
aceship/index-old.html Non-Renewable Spaceship
Presentation: What would we need to set aside for to save
http://www.existencia.o thousands of people on an escape spaceship
rg/pro/wp-
able to sustain life? How much would it cost,
1/pres.pdf and can we get people to start paying for it?

• Groups at Harvard,
1. Sharing 6.Filtering
Sciences Po, and
Columbia from the joint
2.Preface 7.Meeting
Progressive Alternatives
class.
3.Attribution 8.Reviewing
• Building a network of
4.Relationships 9.Declaration
websites and meetings
through a code of 5.Responses 10.Reprisal
conduct similar to
scientific journals.

Code of Deliberation
Building off momentum from a class, I want to
start a combined series of meetings and an
associated zine, and help start similar
organizations at the other schools, to share
ideas.

• Open interface for
tools (which perform
analyses) and shells
(which manage data)

• Pieces working for
linux scripting,
Mathematica, Matlab, R;
Matlab running through
SSH

• Self-documenting
scripts that seamlessly
combine code from Toolbox
several languages
I want to stop translating code and converting
data between fairly similar research languages.
The Toolbox would be a single platform in
which multiple languages and tools can be
intertwined, transparently passing data
between them.

• Using “selector”
syntax popularized by
jQuery

• Online tool for
constructing “patterns”
that follow links and
strip out data

Internet Data Extractor
An easy tool for extracting arbitrarily
structured data from websites, from tables, to
data that spans pages, to dynamic content.

[Image from
https://peepcode.com/products/
jquery]

• An pamphlet which
includes both
philosophy and math

• Answers practical
questions: what should
you understand when
you see an integral sign?

• Offers stories for
getting “into the heads”
of scientists

Methods of Scientific Thought Document
Teaching non-scientific masters students how to
think scientifically. Students without an
empirical background have a difficult time with
core ideas that scientists take for granted– some
philosophical, some mathematical.

• Classes would
alternate between
“show-and-tell” of
techniques and a
research-oriented course
in programming

• Techniques range
from GIS to matching,
network theory to
inverse theory

• Includes meta-
research tools, like Tools for SD Research Class
LaTeX, source control,
website management A single class to give an introduction to
available methodologies, either outside
statistics and econometrics, or subsuming
them. Current SD PhD students are ill-served
by only knowing econometrics.

• June 26 – July 3, in
Paris

• 6 – 10 speakers:

• Laurence Tubiana
• Eric Maskin
• Jeffrey Sachs
• Claude Henry
• Valérie Masson-
Delmotte
• Bruno Latour
• Students choose topic,
form teams, and produce
a report by the end Science and Policy Summer School
How can science and policy work together
better? The summer school brings together
great speakers with students from Columbia,
Sciences Po, and elsewhere to discuss and write
on that topic.

• Codelet architecture

• Intelligent Plugins

• Genetics, Sentence-to-
knowledge, sentence
construction

• Emotion, stemming,
TF-IDF, anaphoras,
tagging, parsing,
conjugation, spelling,
topics, templates

• VerbNet, WordNet, Virsona
ConceptNet Virsona is a chatbot artificial intelligence
• Seqpaz
startup where I worked as chief architect. It
lost funding, but has advanced technology,
http://virsona.com easily extractable for other uses: analyzing text,
learning patterns, and tying data with large A.I.
databases.

• Diana Dabby (Olin)

• Web, Android, and
Symbian apps

• Supports audio and
MIDI files

• Automatic beat-
detection and audio
parsing

• Rearranging music
events, adjusting pitches
CantoVario Webapp
CantoVario uses algorithms for generating new
music from old music. I’m continuing to make
UI improvements and fix bugs.

Back-Burner Projects
 Investigations  Tools
 Analytical Work  Research Tools
 Analyzing leverage  Librarian
 Redefining variability,  Symbolist
correlation  Spinner
 Empirical Work  Personal Tools
 SOC Health of Forests  Card System
 Quartic Growth Functions  Community Flight Finder
 Green CPI  New Languages
 Data Mining  Written Language
 Analyzing Data  Nathe Programming
 Predictor  Communication Systems
 Trendy  Subverted Internet
 Data for analysis  Dialogue
 Salsa Data  ProgAlt Mediawiki plugins
 Live Extinction

Back-Burner Projects
 Sociopolitical Internet  Interests
 Better Coordination  Meaning and Existence
 Volunteer Self-Organizer  Knowledge as Access
 Community Calendar  Books to write
 Volunteer Matchup  Polyscriptivism
 Politics  Systems and thought
 Accountability Project  Artificial Intelligence
 Voting Bloc  Seqpaz
 Consensus Voting  Evolutionary AI
 Business  Long-term
 Garage Sale  Community Learning Center
 New Just Economy  Tea Club
 Purchase Aid  Social Change
 Humanities  Eliminate Corporations
 Infinite Canvas  Citizen Engagement Group
 Student Centered Grading

Related Pieces

 Past jobs
 History of classes
 Teaching
 Presentations
 “Skills”: frameworks, signal processing
 ShopApp (summer job)
 Hobbies
 Blog and Social Networking
 Websites

Projects2012

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