Steve Huntsman
The theory of magnitude provides a mathematical framework for quantifying and maximizing diversity. We apply this framework to formulate quality-diversity algorithms in generic dissimilarity spaces. In particular, we instantiate and demonstrate a very general version of Go-Explore with promising performance.
Steve Huntsman
Two prerequisites for robotic multiagent systems are mobility and communication. Fast multipole networks (FMNs) enable both ends within a unified framework. FMNs can be organized very efficiently in a distributed way from local information and are ideally suited for motion planning using artificial potentials. We compare FMNs to conventional communication topologies, and find that FMNs offer competitive communication performance (including higher network efficiency per edge at marginal energy cost) in addition to advantages for mobility.
Steve Huntsman, Michael Robinson, Ludmilla Huntsman
We demonstrate that large language models can produce reasonable numerical ratings of the logical consistency of claims. We also outline a mathematical approach based on sheaf theory for lifting such ratings to hypertexts such as laws, jurisprudence, and social media and evaluating their consistency globally. This approach is a promising avenue to increasing consistency in and of government, as well as to combating mis- and disinformation and related ills.
Steve Huntsman, Jewell Thomas
We devise an algorithm to generate propositions that objectively instantiate graphs supporting coherence-driven inference. We also benchmark the ability of large language models (LLMs) to reconstruct coherence graphs from (a simple transformation of) propositions expressed in natural language, with promising results from a single prompt to reasoning-optimized LLMs. For example, o1/3/4-mini achieve perfect reconstruction half of the time on sparse graphs. Coherence-driven inference on consistency evaluations by LLMs may advance machine cognition capabilities.
Steve Huntsman
Inconsistencies are ubiquitous in law, administration, and jurisprudence. Though a cure is too much to hope for, we propose a technological remedy. Large language models (LLMs) can accurately extract propositions from arguments and compile them into natural data structures that enable coherence-driven inference (CDI) via combinatorial optimization. This neurosymbolic architecture naturally separates concerns and enables meaningful judgments about the coherence of arguments that can inform legislative and policy analysis and legal reasoning.
Steve Huntsman
Large language models (LLMs) can compile weighted graphs on natural language data to enable automatic coherence-driven inference (CDI) relevant to red and blue team operations in cybersecurity. This represents an early application of automatic CDI that holds near- to medium-term promise for decision-making in cybersecurity and eventually also for autonomous blue team operations.
Steve Huntsman
Promoting and maintaining diversity of candidate solutions is a key requirement of evolutionary algorithms in general and multi-objective evolutionary algorithms in particular. In this paper, we use the recently developed theory of magnitude to construct a gradient flow and similar notions that systematically manipulate finite subsets of Euclidean space to enhance their diversity, and apply the ideas in service of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms. We demonstrate diversity enhancement on benchmark problems using leading algorithms, and discuss extensions of the framework.
Kristopher Ambrose, Steve Huntsman, Michael Robinson et al.
We introduce topological differential testing (TDT), an approach to extracting the consensus behavior of a set of programs on a corpus of inputs. TDT uses the topological notion of a simplicial complex (and implicitly draws on richer topological notions such as sheaves and persistence) to determine inputs that cause inconsistent behavior and in turn reveal \emph{de facto} input specifications. We gently introduce TDT with a toy example before detailing its application to understanding the PDF file format from the behavior of various parsers. Finally, we discuss theoretical details and other possible applications.
Steve Huntsman
Cyclomatic complexity is an incompletely specified but mathematically principled software metric that can be usefully applied to both source and binary code. We consider the application of path homology as a stronger analogue of cyclomatic complexity. We have implemented an algorithm to compute path homology in arbitrary dimension and applied it to several classes of relevant flow graphs, including randomly generated flow graphs representing structured and unstructured control flow. We also compared path homology and cyclomatic complexity on a set of disassembled binaries obtained from the grep utility. There exist control flow graphs realizable at the assembly level with nontrivial path homology in arbitrary dimension. We exhibit several classes of examples in this vein while also experimentally demonstrating that path homology gives identicial results to cyclomatic complexity for at least one detailed notion of structured control flow. We also experimentally demonstrate that the two notions differ on disassembled binaries, and we highlight an example of extreme disagreement. Path homology empirically generalizes cyclomatic complexity for an elementary notion of structured code and appears to identify more structurally relevant features of control flow in general. Path homology therefore has the potential to substantially improve upon cyclomatic complexity.
Steve Huntsman, Michael Robinson
We introduce a conceptual framework that associates syntax and semantics with vertical and horizontal directions in principal bundles and related constructions. This notion of geometry corresponds to a mechanism for performing goal-directed file transformations such as "eliminate unsafe syntax" and suggests various engineering practices.
Samir Chowdhury, Thomas Gebhart, Steve Huntsman et al.
We provide a characterization of two types of directed homology for fully-connected, feedforward neural network architectures. These exact characterizations of the directed homology structure of a neural network architecture are the first of their kind. We show that the directed flag homology of deep networks reduces to computing the simplicial homology of the underlying undirected graph, which is explicitly given by Euler characteristic computations. We also show that the path homology of these networks is non-trivial in higher dimensions and depends on the number and size of the layers within the network. These results provide a foundation for investigating homological differences between neural network architectures and their realized structure as implied by their parameters.