Arbitrary State Machine

Project: The Inverter is a Conceptual Model that can be used to explore units of information (CBit). It was created as part of a research-based design project for the University of Technology, Sydney (2009).

Description: The Inverter consists of a solar panel connected to a box that contains a light source and a green plant. The box is situated in a room with one window. The only real connection between the box and the room is a sensor system. There are three main Parameters: Position, State, and Certainty.

1) A conscious Agent can assume one of the following Positions:

1 Outside the Room
2 Inside the Box
3 Inside the Room

2) Each position has one of two States, ON or OFF, excepting the EYE-position which is always ON/open. When the SUN is ON the LAMP is always OFF. When the SUN is OFF the LAMP is always ON.

3) When the Agent is in Position 2 it can be certain that: the EYE is ON and the LAMP is ON or OFF. When the Agent is in Position 1, AND the SUN is ON, it can be certain that: the EYE is ON and the LAMP is OFF.

4) A state machine like The Inverter can produce a number of Conditions [AND/OR,IF/THEN] which can be linked to Functions with various parameters in order to execute Events.
New Variables could be introduced to help generate some complexity, for example changes in the intensity of sunlight over time. An optical sensor might be configured to associate a cloudy sky with a chessboard and use incoming stimulus-data and two sets of rules for the purpose of actuating movement in a robotic device.

Related Document: Tetrahedron

Acknowledgements:
Roederer, J: 2005, Information and its Role in Nature, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
Braitenberg, V: 1984, Vehicles - Experiments in Synthetic Psychology, The MIT Press.