Fluctuation-driven emergence of a shared communication system
Fluctuation-driven emergence of a shared communication system
- Event time: 4:00pm until 5:00pm
- Event date: 27th October 2025
- Speaker: Professor Richard Blythe (School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
- Location: James Clerk Maxwell Building (JCMB) 2511 James Clerk Maxwell Building Peter Guthrie Tait Road Edinburgh EH9 3FD GB
Event details
Title: Fluctuation-driven emergence of a shared communication system
Abstract: Establishing a communication system is hard. As a signaller, I do not know which signal to use to convey a novel meaning, and as a receiver, I don’t know which of many candidate meanings corresponds to a previously-unseen signal. Most existing models for the evolution of communication through interactions between signallers and receivers rely on explicit feedback that confirms when the intended meaning was correctly received. However, this feedback is itself a form of communication, so such models cannot explain the evolution of communication from a truly non-communicative state.
In this talk, I will show that reliable communication can be generated by fluctuations in the behaviour of signallers who have no pre-existing ability to communicate success or failure. Simply observing correlations between a signaller’s behaviour and meanings that are slightly more likely in a given interaction is sufficient for initially random signalling behaviour to become systematic at the population scale over time. Despite being stochastic in origin, the resulting instability is deterministic, which means that there is no limit to the size of the communication system that emerges, or the population in which it emerges.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/81211470751
Meeting ID: 812 1147 0751
Passcode: ICMCS123
About Condensed Matter lunchtime seminars
This is a weekly series of informal talks given primarily by members of the institute of condensed matter and complex systems, but is also open to members of other groups and external visitors. The aim of the series is to promote discussion and learning of various topics at a level suitable to the broad background of the group. Everyone is welcome to attend..