Just Lévy Things

Lévy patterns are one of the craziest things there is; proof that free will is an illusion, and one of those typically invisible patterns that can be used to predict our behavior (and to mimic our behavior, for those of us making artificial humans).

It happens all over the place, from the way animals forage, to the way our eyes move across a computer screen. It's one of those universal laws that happens in biology and in physics too (called Brownian walk, or Brownian motion). But you might remember it more easily by calling it simply "foraging behavior", a mixture of small random movements with less frequent larger movements.

It's no secret that we do this; our eyes get mapped when we look at websites to figure out how to make us click-buy uncontrollably. Hidden cameras in retail shops do the same thing. Pedestrian traffic, vehicle traffic, pandemics even, you name it. 

What we don't know is the full "why" of Lévy walks. Why use such a chaotic approach; wouldn't a more rational approach get better results? Researchers at RIKEN made a simulation that found Lévy patterns popping up spontaneously at critical moments such as the edge between Exploitation vs Exploration -- for example when an animal has to decide whether to exploit areas that are already known to be beneficial, versus exploring for new areas.

You know exploit/explore, it's how you decide where to eat dinner -- on those nights when Old Trusty just isn't cutting it, then it's time to explore. But at the same time, you can't "explore" every night, or going out to eat would be exhausting, and less rewarding in general. So the next time you're at that critical juncture, just let the chaos take over. Or, soon enough, let the Lévy algorithm do it for you.

 

Chaotic Lévy walks are a good strategy for animals

Sep 2020, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-chaotic-lvy-good-strategy-animals.html

via the RIKEN Center: Masato S. Abe. Functional advantages of Lévy walks emerging near a critical point, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2001548117

See Also:

Pedestrians at crosswalks found to follow the Lévy walk process

Apr 2019, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2019-04-pedestrians-crosswalks-levy.html

Musical melodies obey same laws as foraging animals

Jan 2016, phys.org

http://phys.org/news/2016-01-musical-melodies-laws-foraging-animals.html

Post Script:

When you see RIKEN Center being involved, you know you're in for some cool stuff. 

Mimetic Pedagogy

Teachers' gestures boost math learning
March 29, 2013

co-authored by Kimberly Fenn, Michigan State University, assistant professor of psychology

Teachers in the United States tend to use gestures less than teachers in other countries.

Half of the students were shown videos of an instructor teaching math problems using only speech. The others were shown videos of the instructor teaching the same problems using both speech and gestures.

Students who learned from the gesture videos performed better on a test given immediately afterward than those who learned from the speech-only video. Another test was given 24 hours later, and the gesture students actually showed improvement in their performance while the speech-only students did not.

Fenn noted that U.S. students lag behind those in many other Western countries in math and have a particularly hard time mastering equivalence problems in early grades. "So if we can help them grasp this foundational knowledge earlier," she said, "it will help them as they learn algebra and higher levels of mathematics."

Meme-Meta-Mime-

The Wrestling Ampersand

The 'meme-' root/word is not synonymous with 'mime-'. The words are related, in that memetics works via mimicry - a meme propagates upon human mimetic iteration. The human is the information carrier/copier.

The distinction between the two words, 'meme-' and 'mime-', is where memes also move via artifacts. You don't really do anything with a book, or a painting. So when you use one of these artifacts, and another person watches, and goes to mimic you, they may not truly 'see the picture'.

Mimicry is not the exclusive means of memetic propagation, and that is where the two words differ.

Also, mimesis is a word, but memesis is not. Unless one is referring to the genesis of a meme, which could easily be called its memesis, but memesis isn't being talked about these days anyway. Or at least when its is, it's equated and conflated with 'mimicry', like man wrestling with the ampersand.