# What is the purpose of the project Hapax?

“hapax” means “only once” in ancient Greek. You may have seen it in the form hapax legomenon, quote: ” a word that occurs only once within a context, either in the written record of an entire language, in the works of an author, or in a single text”.

After a bit of research I found the correct, I hope, form that I  use for this project:

It reads “hapax cheon” and it means, again in ancient Greek, “poured only once”.

Why this? Because, according to this wiki link, “the Greek word χυμεία khumeia originally meant “pouring together””.

The motivation of the project hapax comes from the realization that we only explored a tiny drop in the sea of possibilities. As an example, just look at lambda calculus, one of the two pillars of computation. Historically there are many reasons to consider lambda calculus something made in heaven, or a platonic ideal.

But there are 14400 = 5! X 5! alternatives to the iconic beta rewrite only. Is the original beta special or not?

By analogy with the world of CA, about a third of cellular automata are Turing universal. My gues is that a significant fraction of the alternatives to the beta rewrite are as useful as the original beta.

When we look at lambda calculus from this point of view, we discover that all the possible alternatives, not only of beta, but of the whore graph rewriting formalism, say in the form of chemlambda, all these alternative count a huge number, liek 10^30 in the most conservative estimates.

Same for interaction combinators. Same for knot theory. Same for differential calculus (here I use em).

I started to collect small graph rewrite systems which can be described with the same formalism.

The formalism is based on a formulation which uses exclusively permutations (for the “chemistry”  and Hamiltonian mechanics side) and a principle of dissipation which accounts for the probabilistic side.

The goal of the project hapax is to build custom worlds (physics and chemistry)

“poured only once”

which can be used to do universal computation in a truly private way. Because once the rules of computation are private,  this leads to the fact that the who;le process of computation becomes incomprehensible.

Or is it so? Maybe yes, maybe not. How can we know, without trying?

That is why I starded to make the hapax stuff.

For the moment is not much, only demos like this one, but the rest will pass from paper to programs, then we’ll play.

# Hapax chemlambda

Chemistry is a game with a pair of dices.

You roll two dices and act. The dices are permutohedra.

Which leads to ask what certain chemistries (artificial or real) have so special. The conjecture is that (probabilistically speaking) a sizeable proportion of them are special.

For example, we can evade the lambda calculus by choosing one of the  14400 rewrites for ( β with random right patterns) .

Hapax chemlambda!

# Lambda calculus inspires experiments with chemlambda

In the now deleted chemlambda collection I told several stories about how lambda calculus can bring inspiration for experiments with chemlambda. I select for this post a sequence of such experiments. For previous related posts here see this tag and this post.

Let’s go directly to the visuals.

Already in chemlambda v1 I remarked the interesting behaviour of the graph (or molecule) which is obtained from the lambda term of the predecessor applied to a Church number.  With the deterministic greedy algorithm of reductions, after the first stages of reduction there is a repeating pattern of  reduction, (almost) up to the end. The predecessor applied to the Church number molecule looks almost like a closed loop made of pairs A-FO (because that’s how a Church number appears in chemlambda), except a small region which contains the graph of the predecessor, or what it becomes after few rewrites.

In chemlambda v2 we have two kinds of fanouts: FO and FOE.  The end result of the reduction of the same molecule, under the same algorithm, is different: where in chemlambda v1 we had FO nodes (at the end of the reduction), now we have FOE nodes. Other wise there’s the same phenomenon.

Here is it, with black and white visuals

Made by recording of this live (js) demo.

1. What happens if we start not from the initial graph, but from the graph after a short number of rewrites? We have just to cut the “out” root of the initial graph, and some nodes from it’s neighbourhood and glue back, so that we obtain a repeating pattern walking on a circular train track.

Here is it, this time with the random reduction algorithm:

I previously called this graph an “ouroboros”. Or a walker.

2. That is interesting, it looks like a creature (can keep it’s “presence”) which walks in a single direction in a 1-dimensional world.  What could be the mechanism?

Penrose comes to mind, so in the next animation I also use a short demonstration from a movie by Penrose.

3. Let’s go back to the lambda calculus side and recall that the algorithm for the translation of a lambda term to a chemlambda molecule is the same as the one from GLC, i.e the one from Section 3 here. There is a freedom in this algorithm, namely that trees of FO nodes can be rewired as we wish. From one side this is normal for GLC and chemlambda v1,  which have the CO-COMM and CO-ASSOC rewrites

In chemlambda v2 we don’t have these rewrites at all, which means that in principle two diferent molecules,  obtained from the same lambda term, which differ only by the rewiring of the FO nodes may reduce differently.

In our case it would be interesting to see if the same is true for the FOE nodes as well. For example, remark that the closed loop, excepting the walker, is made by a tree of FOE nodes, a very simple one. What happens if we perturb this tree, say by permuting some of the leaves of the tree, i.e. by rewiring the connections between FOE and A nodes.

The “creature” survives and now it walks in a world which is no longer 1 dimensional.

Let’s play more: two permutations, this time let’s not glue the ends of the loop:

It looks like a signal transduction from the first glob to the second. Can we make it more visible, say by making invisible the old nodes and visible the new ones? Also let’s fade the links by making them very large and almost transparent.

Signal transduction! (recall that we don’t have a proof that indeed two molecules from the same lambda term, but with rewired FO trees reduce to the same molecule, actually this is false! and true only for a class of lambda terms. The math of this is both fascinating and somehow useless, unless we either use chemlambda in practice or we build chemlambda-like molecular computers.)

4.  Another way to rewire the tree of FOE nodes is to transform it into another tree with the same leaves.

5. Wait, if we understand how exactly this works, then we realize that we don’t really need this topology, it should also work for topologies like generalized Petersen graphs, for example for a dodecahedron.

This is a walker creature which walks in a dodecaheral “world”.

6. Can the creature eat? If we put something on it’s track, see if it eats it and if it modifies the track, while keeping it’s shape.

So the creature seems to have a metabolism.

We can use this for remodeling the world of the creature. Look what happens after many passes of the creature:

7. What if we combine the “worlds” of two creatures, identical otherwise. Will they survive the encounter, will they interact or will they pass one through the other like solitons?

Well, they survive. Why?

8. What happens if we shorten the track of the walker, as much as possible? We obtain a graph wit the following property: after one (or a finite give number of) step of the greedy deterministic algorithm we obtain an isomorphic graph. A quine! chemlambda quine.

At first, it looks that we obtained a 28 nodes quine. After some analysis we see that we can reduce this quine to a 20 nodes quine. A 20-quine.

Here is the first observation of the 20-quine under the random algorithm

According to this train of thoughts, a chemlambda quine is a graph which has a periodic evolution under the greedy deterministic algorithm, with the list of priority of rewrites set to DIST rewrites (which add nodes)  with greater priority than beta and FI-FOE rewrites (which subtract ndoes), and which does not have termination nodes (because it leads to some trivial quines).

These quines are interesting under the random reduction algorithm, which transform them into mortal living creatures with a metabolism.

____________

So this is an example of how lambda calculus can inspire chemlambda experiments, as well as interesting mathematical questions.

# Torsor rewrites

With the notation conventions from em-convex, there are 3 pairs of torsor rewrites.  A torsor, figured by a fat circle here, is a term $T$ of type  $T: E \rightarrow E \rightarrow E \rightarrow E$

with the rewrites:

and

Finally, there is a third pair of rewrites which involve terms of the form $\circ A$ for $A: N$

The rewrite T3-1 tells that the torsor is a propagator for $\circ A$, the rewrite T3-2 is an apparently weird form of a DIST rewrite.

Now, the following happen:

• if you add the torsor rewrites to em-convex then you get a theory of topological groups which have a usual, commutative smooth structure, such that the numbers from em-convex give the structure of 1-parameter groups
• if you add the torsor rewrites to em, but without the convex rewrite then you get a more general theory, which is not based on 1-parameter groups,  because the numbers from em-convex give a structure more general
• if you look at the emergent structure from em without convex, then you can define torsor terms whch satisfy the axioms, but of course there is no em-convex axiom.

Lots of fun, this will be explained in em-torsor soon.

# Summer report 2018, part 2

Continues from Summer report 2018, part 1.

On the evolution of the chemlambda project and social context.

Stories about the molecular computer. The chemlambda project evolved in a highly unexpected way, from a scientific quest done completely in the open to a frantic exploration of a new territory. It became a stories generator machine. I was “in the zone” for almost two years. Instead of the initial goal of understanding the computational content of emergent algebras, the minimalisic chemlambda artificial chemistry concentrated on the molecular computer ideas.

This idea can be stated as: identify molecules and chemical reactions which work as the  interaction nets rewrites style of chemlambda. See the article Chemlambda strings for a simple explanation, as well as a recent presentation of the newest (available) version of chemlambda: v3. (It is conservative in the numbers of nodes and links, the presentation is aimed for a larger audience.)

This idea is new. Indeed, there are many other efforts towards molecular computing. There is the old ALCHEMY (algorithmic chemistry) where lambda calculus serves as inspiration, by taking the application operation as a chemical reaction and the lambda abstration as reactive sites in a molecule. There is the field of DNA and RNA computing where computations are embodied as molecular machines made of DNA or RNA building blocks. There is the pi calculus formalism, as pure in a sense as lambda calculus, based on communication channels names exclusively, which can be applied to chemistry. There is the idea of metabolic networks based on graph grammars.

But there is nowhere the idea to embed interaction networks rewrites into real chemical reactions. So not arbitrary graph grammars, but a highly selected class. Not metabolical networks in general, but molecules designed so individually compute. Not solutions well stirred in a lab. Not static or barely dynamic lego-like molecules. Not boolean gates computing but functional programming like computing.

From the side of CS, this is also new, because instead of concentrating of these rewrites as a tool for understanding lambda calculus reductions, we go far outside of the realm of lambda calculus terms into a pure random calculus with graphs.

But it has to be tried, right? Somebody has to try to identify this chemistry. Somebody has to try to use the functional programming basic concepts from the point of view of the machine, not the programmer.

For the mathematical and computing aspects see this mathoverflow question and answers.

For the general idea of the molecular computer see these html/js slides. They’ve been prepared for a TED talk with a very weird, in my opinion, story.

For the story side and ethical concerns see for example these two short stories posted at telegra.ph : Internet of smells, Home remodeling (a reuse of Proust).

In order to advance there is the need to find either, rather both funding and brain time from a team dedicated to this. Otherwise this project is stalled.

I tried very hard to find the funding and I have not succeeded (other weird stories, maybe some day will tell them).

I was stalled and I had to go back to my initial purpose: emergent algebras. However, being so close to inverse engineering of the  nature’s  OS gives new ideas.

After a year of efforts I understood that it all comes to stochastic luck, which can be groomed and used (somehow). This brings me to the stories of the present, for another post.

# Do triangulations of oriented surfaces compute?

In a precise sense, which I shall explain, they do. But the way they do it is hidden behind the fact that the rewrites seem non local.

1. They compute, because ribbon graphs with colored, trivalent nodes and directed edges do compute, via the encoding of untyped lambda terms into this family of graphs, provided by chemlambda. Indeed, a chemlambda molecule is a ribbon graph with these properties. If you want to encode a lambda term into chemlambda then there is a simple procedure: start from the lambda term on a form which eliminates the need of any alpha conversion. Then build the syntactic tree and replace the nodes by A nodes for application and L nodes for lambda abstraction (don’t forget that L nodes have one in and 2 out ports, differently from the syntactic tree node for lambda abstraction). Then eliminate the variables which are at the leaves by grafting trees of FO (green fanout) nodes from the lambda abstraction node to the places where the variables occur, or by grafting T (terminal) nodes to the lambda node which issues a variable which does not occur later, or simply by just erasing the variable label for those variables which are not issued from an abstraction. That’s it, you get a ribbon graph which is open (it has at least the root half-edge and maybe the half-edges for the variables which don’t come from an abstraction), but then you may add FRIN (free in) and FROUT (free out) nodes and think about them as tadpoles and you get a trivalent ribbon graph. The dual of this graph is (equivalent to) a triangulated, oriented surface, which has faces colored (corresponding to the nodes of the graph), directed edges, such that there are no faces with the 3 edges directed in a cyclic way.
2. How they compute? Chemlambda uses a set of graph rewrites which has some classic ones, like the Wadsworth-Lamping graphical version of the beta move, but it has two types of fanouts (FO and FOE), one FANIN, and different than usual rules for distributivity. Look at the moves page to see them. All these rewrites are local, in the sense that there is a small number, fixed a priori, which is an upper bound for the number of nodes and edges which enter (in any way) into the graph rewrite (as a condition or as the left pattern, or as the right pattern). The algorithm of application of the rewrites is a very important piece which is needed to make a model of computation. The algorithm is very simple, it can be deterministic or random, and consists, in the deterministic case, into the application of as many rewrites as possible, with a priority for the distributivity moves in case of conflict, and in the random case, it’s just random application of rewrites.

Here is an example, where I play with the reduction of false omega id in chemlambda

1. Now let’s pass to the duals, the triangulated surfaces. The nodes of the triangulated surface correspond to the faces of the ribbon graph. Or the faces of the ribbon graph are global notions, because they are the orbits of a permutation. After one of the rewrites, the faces (of the ribbon graph) change in a way which has to be non local, because one has to compute again the orbits of the permutation for the new graph, and there is no upper bound on the number of half-edges which have to be visited for doing that.
2. So triangulated, oriented surfaces do compute, but the rewrites and the algorithm of application are hidden behind this duality. They are non-local for triangulated surfaces, but local for ribbon graphs.
3. Finally, a word of attention: these surfaces do compute not by being arrows in a category. They don’t compute in this usual, say Turaev kind of way. They compute by (the duals of) the rewrites, there is nothing else than triangulated surfaces, colored by 3 colors (red, green, yellow), there is no decoration which actually does the computation by substitution and evaluation. I don’t know why, but this seems very hard to understand by many. Really, these surfaces compute by rewrites on the triangulations, not by anything else.

ADDED: If you look at the tadpoles as pinches, then make the easy effort to see what  the SKI formalism looks like, you’ll see funny things. The I combinator is the sphere with one pinch (the plane), the K combinator is the sphere with two pinches (cylinder) and the S combinator is the torus with one pinch. But what is SKK=I? What is KAB=A? What you see in the dual (i.e in the triangulation) It depends globally on the whole term, so these reductions do not appear to be the same topological manipulations in different contexts.