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Artificial Intelligence and Computing

Logic: Cognitive Technology for AI


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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
AND COMPUTING LOGIC
Cognitive Technology for AI Business Analytics
Innovation Management and Computing

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
AND COMPUTING LOGIC
Cognitive Technology for AI Business Analytics

Edited by
Cyrus F. Nourani, PhD
First edition published 2022
Apple Academic Press Inc. CRC Press
1265 Goldenrod Circle, NE, 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW,
Palm Bay, FL 32905 USA Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742 USA
4164 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, 2 Park Square, Milton Park,
ON, L7L 1A4 Canada Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN UK

© 2022 Apple Academic Press, Inc.


Apple Academic Press exclusively co-publishes with CRC Press, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the authors, editors, and publisher cannot assume
responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors, editors, and publishers have attempted
to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize to copyright holders if permission to
publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright material has not been acknowledged, please write and let us know so
we may rectify in any future reprint.
Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any
form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are used only for identification
and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Artificial intelligence and computing logic : cognitive technology for AI business analytics / edited by Cyrus F.
Nourani, PhD.
Names: Nourani, Cyrus F., editor.
Description: First edition. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20210242493 | Canadiana (ebook) 20210242639 | ISBN 9781774630112 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9781774638798 (softcover) | ISBN 9781003180487 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Artificial intelligence. | LCSH: Computational intelligence.
Classification: LCC TA347.A78 A78 2022 | DDC 006.3—dc23
Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data

CIP data on file with US Library of Congress

ISBN: 978-1-77463-011-2 (hbk)


ISBN: 978-1-77463-879-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-00318-048-7 (ebk)
INNOVATION MANAGEMENT AND
COMPUTING

Innovation is the generation and application of new ideas and skills to


produce new products, processes, and services that improve economic and
social prosperity. This book series covers important issues in the burgeoning
field of innovation management and computing, from an overview of
the field to its current and future contributions. The volumes are of value
and interest to computer and cognitive scientists, economists, engineers,
managers, mathematicians, programmers, and engineers.

SERIES EDITOR
Cyrus F. Nourani, PhD
Research Professor, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada;
Academic R&D at Berlin, IMK Bonn, and Munich, Germany
E-mail: Acdmkrd@gmail.com or cyrusfn@alum.mit.edu
Current books in the series:
• Ecosystems and Technology: Idea Generation and Content Model
Processing
• Computing Predictive Analytics, Business Intelligence, and Economics:
Modeling Techniques with Startups and Incubators
• Artificial Intelligence and Computing Logic: Cognitive Technology for
AI Business Analytics
Tentative forthcoming volumes in the series:
• Diaphontaine Sets, Definability and Newer Developments on
Computability, Languages, Sets, and Model Theory
• Economic Game Models and Predictive Analytics
• Epistemic Computing, Model Checking, Spatial Computing and Ontology
Languages
• Content Processing, Intelligent Multimedia Databases, and Web Interfaces
• Agent Software Engineering, Heterogeneous Computing, and Model
Transformations
ABOUT THE EDITOR

Cyrus F. Nourani, PhD


Research Professor, Entrepreneur and Independent Consultant
Cyrus F. Nourani, PhD, has a national and international reputation in
computer science, artificial intelligence, mathematics, virtual haptic
computation, enterprise modeling, decision theory, data sciences, predictive
analytics, economic games, information technology (IT), and management
science. In recent years, he has been engaged as a Research Professor at
Simon Frasier University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, and at
the Technical University of Berlin, Germany, and has been working on
research projects in Germany, Sweden, and France. He has many years of
experience in the design and implementation of computing systems. Dr.
Nourani’s academic experience includes faculty positions at the University
of Michigan-Ann Arbor, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of
Southern California, UCLA, MIT, and the University of California, Santa
Barbara. He was a Visiting Professor at Edith Cowan University, Perth,
Australia, and a Lecturer of Management Science and IT at the University of
Auckland, New Zealand.
He has taught AI to the Los Angeles aerospace industry and has worked in
many R&D and commercial ventures. He has written and co-authored several
books. He has over 400 publications in computing science, mathematics,
and management science, and he has written several books and has edited
several volumes on additional topics, such as pure mathematics; AI, EC,
and IT management science; decision trees; and predictive economics game
modeling. In 1987, he founded Ventures for computing R&D and was a
consultant for clients such as System Development Corporation (SDC), the
US Air Force Space Division, and GE Aerospace. Dr. Nourani has designed
and developed AI robot planning and reasoning systems at Northrop
Research and Technology Center, Palos Verdes, California. He also has
comparable AI, software, and computing foundations and R&D experience
at GTE Research Labs.
viii About the Editor

Dr. Nourani commenced his university degrees at MIT, where he became


interested in algebraic semantics. He pursued with a world-renowned
category theorist at the University of California and Oxford University.
Dr. Nourani’s dissertation on computing models and categories proved to
have pure mathematics foundations developments that were published from
his postdoctoral times in US and European publications.
CONTENTS

Contributors.............................................................................................................xi
Abbreviations .........................................................................................................xiii
Preface .................................................................................................................... xv

1. Fundamental Notions and Applications of Symbiotic


Recursive Pulsative Systems ..........................................................................1
Marta Franova and Yves Kodratoff

2. Cognitive Computing: Quo Vadis?..............................................................29


Anastassia Lauterbach

3. Digital Transformations Imperatives: Predictive Goal Processes


for Business Model Innovation ....................................................................51
Cyrus F. Nourani and Annika Stieber

4. Toward a Quantum Theory of Cognitive Affect from Poe to


Robotic Helpers: Newton, Arousal, and Covalent Bonding......................97
Nancy Ann Watanabe

5. AI Predictive Digital Analytics: A Model Computing Basis....................149


Cyrus F. Nourani

6. Effect of Digitization on Business Model Innovation...............................205


Swapan Ghosh and Annika Stieber

7. AI Process Description Algebras and Ontology


Preservation Techniques.............................................................................227
Cyrus F. Nourani and Patrik Eklund

Index .....................................................................................................................253
CONTRIBUTORS

Patrik Eklund
Computer Science Department, Umea Universität, Sweden, E-mail: P.Eklund@cs.uumea.se

Marta Franova
Advanced Researcher CNRS, Laboratoire de Recherche en Informatique,
Rue René Thom, 91190 Gif sur Yvette, France
Swapan Ghosh
Menlo College, Atherton, California, E-mail: swapan.ghosh@menlo.edu

Yves Kodratoff
Advanced Researcher CNRS, Laboratoire de Recherche en Informatique,
Rue René Thom, 91190 Gif sur Yvette, France
Anastassia Lauterbach
Professor for AI, Data and Data Ethics, XU Exponential University for Applied Sciences, Potsdam,
Germany
Cyrus F. Nourani
Faculty Acdmkrd. AI Labs, TU Berlin, SFU,.Computational Logic Labs, Canada,
ARDAFW GmbH, MIT & AI Labs, TU Berlin, Germany; New York, and India,
E-mails: Acadmkrd@gmail.com; cyrusfn@alum.mit.edu

Annika Stieber
Director, Rendanheyi Silicon Valley Center and Director for Partnerships and Innovation,
Menlo College, 1000 El Camino Real, Atherton, CA 94027, USA,
E-mail: Annika.Sieber@Menlo.edu

Nancy Ann Watanabe


Professor of Comparative Literature and Pacific Rim Research Professor, University of Oklahoma,
USA, E-mail: watann@uw.edu
ABBREVIATIONS

AI artificial intelligence
AI/ML artificial intelligence and machine learning
AII abstract intelligent implementation
ART adaptive resonance theory
BI&A business intelligence and analytics
BM business model
BMMLs business model modeling languages
BNR business network redesign
BPML business process modeling language
BPR business process reengineering
CC cognitive computing
CE circular economy
CEBMs circular economy business models
COO chief operating officer
CPUs central processing units
CWA closed-world assumption
DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
DL deep learning
EDI electronic data interchange
EM experience management
EPU II emotion processing unit
FOL first-order logic
GE general electric
GF-diagram generalized free diagram
GPUs graphical processing units
HTM hierarchical temporal memory
IA intelligent agents
IIoT industrial internet of things
IoT internet-of-things
IT information technology
KM knowledge management
KNN k-nearest neighbors’ algorithm
KR knowledge representation
LL Lady Ligeia
xiv Abbreviations

LR Lady Rowena
ML machine learning
MoU memorandum of understanding
NPD new product development
PCA principal component analysis
PSIDITP program synthesis in incomplete domains via inductive
theorem proving
PW perfect women
QDCA quantum dot cellular automata
RDF resource description framework
REA resource-event action
RL reinforcement learning
SaaS software-as-a-service
SRPS symbiotic recursive pulsative systems
XAI explainable AI
PREFACE

This book explores artificial intelligence (AI) with an importance of managing


cognitive processes forward on ontologies for the new frontiers. The volume
focuses on new significant accomplishments in areas ranging from neuro­
cognition perception and decision-making in the human brain, combining
neurocognitive techniques and affective computing, to basic facial recogni­
tion computing models, including:
• Agent neurocomputing techniques for facial expression recognition;
• Computing haptic motion and ontology epistemic;
• Morph schemas characterizations for visual analytics;
• Learning and perceptive computing;
• Functional and structural neuroimaging modeling;
• Examining the observed links between facial recognition and affec­
tive, emotional processes;
• Interaction of cognitive and emotional processes during social
decision-making;
• Neurocognitive processing of emotional facial expressions in individuals;
• Neurocognitive affective system for emotive robot androids;
• Virtual reality-based affect adaptive neuromorphic computing.
It is apparent that industrywide, getting the right information in the right
hands at the right time is the key to winning in the digital era to reach goals
on the shortest paths. That is one reason why organizations are employing
cognitive-based processes. The cognitive advantage is an early insight on
driving business value and supports the view that cognitive computing
accelerates competitive differentiation. Sixty-five percent of executive
surveys indicate that cognitive adoption is very important to their strategy
and success, while more than half regard cognitive computing as a must-
have to remain competitive. CRM process centers have turned to cognitive
technology to provide more efficient and personalized customer service.
Personalizing health and wellness cognitive devices allows individuals to
gain a better command of their care, help providers scale time and expertise,
and let practitioners tailor treatments to specific lifestyle regimens. By
boosting productivity and efficiency by using AI cognitive tools to improve
their search capabilities, customer care, and workflow management, business
xvi Preface

leaders are accelerating productivity and efficiency. IBM Watson analytics


business coach is a prominent example.
Several chapters of the volume address the above goals, encompassing the
newer frontiers from newer foundations to visual AI digital analytics onto value
creation, and business model (BM) innovations to digitization applications
use cases. The following paragraphs summarize what is accomplished and
presented. The scientific AI basis is introduced first, followed by what is
applied in the volume for the scientific base, the infrastructure ontologies,
business model innovations with predictive analytics, and digitization
impacts. The volume starts with examining AI visual computing to forward
for affective, haptic, cognitive computing, forward to an AI scientific basis
to predictive analytics.
Chapter 2, titled “Cognitive Computing: Quo Vadis?”, launches our
thoughts on consciousness; that our conscious perception might be the mere
surface of our mind, and this, as of the globe, we do not know the interior,
but only the crust. The view is that cognitive sciences and neuropsychology
convert the qualitative aspects of being a human—our way to reason and
learn, our emotions, language, subjective beliefs, and dynamic personality
aspects—into something quantitative and sought after in machine learning
(ML) and AI. We face the realities that human cognition is not understood
well enough to get translated into algorithms and computational hardware
architecture. The author aims to describe how cognitive sciences and
neuroscience influence AI evolution, what are the current promises and
bottlenecks of cognitive computing, and what kind of risks in nascent AI can
be mitigated with the help of cognitive science approaches.
The author reviews how some companies are betting on cognitive
computing and sketches a prognosis of what to expect in the next few
years. Issues are raised on AI implementation and the hype generated by
some providers, which might push research and development of AI and
cognitive technology into the next “AI winter” and, therewith, increasing
risks of cybercrime and privacy erosion. In the second part, the author talks
about brain modularity and brain vs. mind concepts, influencing how AI
and cognitive technologies are being built. In the third part, she provides a
realistic outlook for cognitive computing and talks about the possibility of
a quantum future.
Drs. Franova and Kodratoff, from CNRS, France, send us onto a
recursive systems views journey onto ‘pulsative systems.’ Developing and
using symbiotic recursive pulsative systems (SRPS) is a source of innovation
in various domains that require the handing of evolutive improvement,
Preface xvii

prevention, and control. The authors explore the history of human thinking
and show that what failed in forwarding, perhaps the most important human
achievements, was due to a lack of a suitable presentation of fundamental
notions behind the construction and the understanding of such systems. The
fundamental notion presented for a comprehensive, cohesive achievement
retention forwarding option is that SRPS are systemic symbiosis, recursion,
and pulsation. In this chapter, we present them intending to underline that
the use of standard modular and synergic methods is not appropriate for
managing the transmission of knowledge needed for understanding SRPS.
To this end, the authors divide module structuring management’s approaches
into two basic categories. The Newtonian approach is suitable to manage
modular systems. Cartesian Intuitionism is suitable to deal with SRPS. They
are different, and thus, they are complementary and not competitive with
each other. Concrete examples are presented.
The volume starts with the mathematical processes for visual predictive
model computing with structural visual structural recursions applying multi-
agent AI and Morph Gentzen neuromorphic reasoning. There we observe
perhaps realistic visual ‘pulsars’ on multiagent structures that compute
predictive analytics on digitized model diagrams. The volume editor joins
the contributing authors with novel model computing techniques with model
diagrams for the tableaux with the applications to predictive modeling,
forecasting, planning, and predictive analytics support systems. Newer
Surface vs. deep digitization analytics are previewed. A novel sequent visual
tableaux analytics computation system with a specific mathematical basis is
developed. Applications for designing forecasting analytics are examined.
Morph Gentzen’s logic from the authors’ publications since 1997
is the basis applied to forecast analytics. Surface vs. deep digitization
predictive analytics are presented with specific mathematical AI analytics
techniques, including nonmonotonic predictive model diagrams. Newer
mathematical foundations are developed for the computing science that can
forward visual agent computing predictive analytics with applications to
interactive predictive analytics. This includes Beth Tableaux’s descriptive
characterizations the author developed around 2000, for Morph Gentzen
sequent, to obtain Morph Gentzen model-theoretic sequent compactness to
realize Tableau models. Applications to explaining interactive visual analytics
are presented with specific examples from the enterprise modeling industry.
Data filtering with keyed functions are novel techniques for a visual surface
to deep digitization, while rapid content processing and content delivery are
alternate surface digitization functionality realized. Newer examples from
xviii Preface

industry goals for the innovations areas, for example, interactive analytics
or digitization for rapid business automation or enterprise cloud or web
interface processing, are examined.
Chapter 4 reaches for the quantum cognitive areas with the chapter by Dr.
Nancy Watanbe, Seattle, USA, that presents a quantum theory of cognitive
affects with robotic helpers: Newton, arousal, and covalent bonding. The
chapter examines the neuroscience of facial recognition psychopathy in the
context of artificial intelligence. The investigation begins with her advocacy
of robotic helpers as a palliative means to alleviate the cognitive plight
and behavioral problems of individuals whose untreated facial recognition
psychopathy also represents a risk to the safety and security of their social
environment. Contributing to research on facial recognition psychopathy
through the textually oriented study of literary representations of reality
facilitates the in-depth understanding that may result in helping specialists in
the new field of robotics to design devices to enable otherwise handicapped
victims of facial recognition psychopathy to participate in their social milieu
if they are diagnosed early enough.
The volume moves towards the AI structural and content ontologies
and the new important business model values, healthcare, and digitization
frontiers. In Chapter 7, titled “AI Process Description Algebras and Ontology
Preservation Techniques,” the volume editor and colleague Prof. Patrik
Eklund, Umeä, Sweden, present a tree computing model with ontology
preserving functions that are applied to transform learning across domains
with structural morphisms (first author 1992–2005). A computing model
based on novel competitive learning with multiplayer game tree planning
is applied where computing agents compare competing models to reach
goal plans. Goals are satisfied based on competitive game tree learning.
The techniques are example prototypes for modeling ontology algebras.
For example, the applications to data filtering, robotics processes, class
hierarchical transaction morphisms, and exchanges are the newest areas.
Modeling frameworks are the natural applications for our event process
algebras. Our techniques allow modeling learning across class ontologies
and process models based on agent computing structural morphisms to
model the ontology transfer processes. Applications to formal concept
description are developed with new description logic algebraic models.
Novel concept description ontology algebras and concept description
ontology preservation morphisms are presented. Based on that new concept,
ontology algebras with description ontology algebra preservation theorem
are proved.
Preface xix

Moving forward to the enterprise models for businesses, the chapter


titled “Digital Transformations Imperatives: Predictive Goal Processes
for Business Model Innovation” by the volume editor and his colleague
Dr. Annika Sieber, now California, present the business modeling concept
characterized by system functions on predictive modeling schemes with
prioritized strategic decision systems. Value creation optimizations are
considered that are applied to enterprise modeling with new techniques for
business mapping to business processes to prove viability. Though we are not
alone on the economics ecosystems business modeling process, the systems
modeling with structural processes that we invoke are novel concepts that
are more concrete techniques for reflecting business models as categorical
functions on business process diagrams for EM optimization on economics
eco parameters, with morphic reflections on infrastructures, permeated
by business model innovations, data-driven decisions on value measures,
with direct impact applicability for how a company implements a profitable
strategy creating value for both the customer and the enterprise.
The areas explored range from plan goal decision tree satisfiability with
competitive business models to predictive analytics models that accomplish
goals based on business logic and business processes. Our processes for
digitization value creation impacts and AI digitization management strategy
areas are previewed. Value creation optimization and dependencies are
presented with a startup example. The volume chapter “Digitalization’s
Effect on Business Model Innovation” by Drs. Gosh and Sieber presents
realistic case scenarios for digitization. Though technologies are changing
and advancing rapidly, existing companies can, in many cases, not change
their businesses fast enough. One factor that affects the pace with which
firms change is a clear understanding of how to utilize new technologies for
creating and delivering business values. The chapter expands on the body of
knowledge about digital transformation and its effect on business models.
Based on an empirical study as well as a literature review, digitalization is
discussed in regard to its impact on business model innovation. The impacts
are illustrated through several business use cases. This paper highlights the
impact of advanced technologies on existing and new businesses and how
companies are attracting new customers by innovating their business models.
To conclude the volume’s thrust, we remind ourselves that by self-learning
algorithms that use data mining, pattern recognition, and natural language
processing, a computer can mimic the way the human brain works. Introducing
cognitive computing and differentiate it from artificial intelligence is an
important goal. Examining the difference between artificial intelligence and
xx Preface

cognitive computing: In an artificial intelligence system, the system would


have told the doctor which course of action to take based on its analysis.
In cognitive computing, the system provides information to help the doctor
decide. In many cases, a doctor will indeed make the same choice that Watson
suggests, but the exceptions are where human experience and judgment
become most important. IBM’s Watson answers the question, “What’s the
difference between artificial intelligence and cognitive computing?”
This distinction between artificial intelligence and cognitive computing,
and Watson’s role in helping humans make decisions, was repeatedly
emphasized in presentations throughout the day. Watson analytics was to
do the “heavy lifting” for people. For example, healthcare acquired by IBM
in 2015 described how radiologists are highly susceptible to “burnout” due
to the daunting numbers of images they must examine every day looking
for abnormalities as small as several pixels on a five-megapixel monitor.
Tolle then described a Watson application under development—code-named
Avicenna—that could help them identify the most relevant images among
numerous CT and MRI scans.
In addition to specific applications, the process followed might be stated
by:
• Evaluate applications for cognitive computing;
• Investigate the impact of Watson on cognitive computing;
• How is cognitive computing applicable in business?
o Features of cognitive computing;
o Applications for cognitive computing.
CHAPTER 1

FUNDAMENTAL NOTIONS AND


APPLICATIONS OF SYMBIOTIC
RECURSIVE PULSATIVE SYSTEMS
MARTA FRANOVA and YVES KODRATOFF
Advanced Researcher CNRS, Laboratoire de Recherche en Informatique,
Rue René Thom, 91190 Gif sur Yvette, France

ABSTRACT

Developing and using symbiotic recursive pulsative systems (SRPS) is a source


of innovation in various domains requiring to handle evolutive improvement,
prevention, and control. However, the history of human thinking shows that
the transmission of acquired results failed in most important human achieve­
ments due to a lack of a suitable presentation of fundamental notions behind
the construction and the understanding of these systems.
The fundamental notions of SRPS are systemic symbiosis, recursion, and
pulsation. In this chapter, we present them with the goal to underline that
the use of standard modular and synergic methods is not appropriate for
managing the transmission of knowledge needed for understanding SRPS.
To this purpose, we shall divide management’s approaches into two basic
categories. The Newtonian approach is suitable to manage modular systems.
Cartesian Intuitionism is suitable to deal with SRPS. They are different, and
thus they are complementary and not competitive to each other. A concrete
example of the SRPS application will be given.

1.1 INTRODUCTION

New technologies of measurements in the physical world and new compu­


tational technologies allow Science to go further than it was imaginable a
2 Artificial Intelligence and Computing Logic

few decades ago. Such an advancement requires a focus on improvement,


prevention, and control. This focus is not new in human thinking. However,
the notions of improvement, prevention, and control are used even now
in somewhat fuzzy versions. Indeed, so far, there has been no systemic
paradigm that would provide a coherent and useful systemic presentation
of these notions. In the past, these notions were present rather implicitly
in philosophical systems. Nowadays, they are present in the same way in
management techniques, or they are considered more-less separately in
various scientific projects.
In the early eighties, we started to work on a technological vision that
will be present in Section 1.7. Since there were no suitable available tools
to start with, we have followed Descartes’ method. We have had interesting
and useful results from the start. Throughout our advancement, we have real­
ized that, due to handling systemic recursion, our interpretation of Descartes’
method differs from usual scientific or philosophical interpretations. The three
keywords for these differences are symbiosis, recursion, and pulsation. It will
be shown that they are directly inherent to a coherent systemic paradigm of
improvement, prevention, and control.
Modern Science and philosophy consider synergy and modularity instead
of symbiosis, non-recursive complexities instead of recursion and constant
change or mutations instead of pulsation. While these modern Science
notions are extremely useful and relevant for many real-world applications,
they cannot replace symbiosis, recursion, and pulsation without destructive
consequences. This means that the approaches of these two groups of notions
are complementary and non-competitive.
For convenience, we shall call the first group the one containing the notions:
• Symbiosis;
• Recursion;
• Pulsation.
And second group that of containing the notions:
• Synergy, modularity;
• Non-recursive complexities;
• Change, mutations.
We shall present below reasons for naming Cartesian Intuitionism a systemic
paradigm based on the first group and Newtonian approach a systemic paradigm
based on the second group of notions. We shall call symbiotic recursive pulsative
systems (SRPS) the systemic nucleus of Cartesian Intuitionism.
Fundamental Notions and Applications of Symbiotic 3

We shall give below a systemic description of the first group notions


as well as a presentation of a coherent and useful model for improvement,
prevention, and control. It will be shown that the management of Cartesian
Intuitionism projects significantly differs from Newtonian ones.
The chapter is organized as follows: Section 1.2 specifies the notion of
symbiosis as understood in this chapter. Section 1.3 introduces recursion
as a way of representing action, control, and prevention. It explains what
we mean by systemic recursion. Section 1.4 introduces the notion of oscil­
lation as a representation of a one-level creation process used in pulsation
presented in Section 1.5. Section 1.6 presents a motivation for the intro­
duction of systemic difference between the Newtonian approach and the
Cartesian Intuitionism. It will become clear why the latter expression is used
to describe the systemic Science relevant to SRPS. Section 1.7 presents a
technological vision for which handling SRPS is relevant.

1.2 SYMBIOSIS-REPRESENTATION OF ‘VITAL INTERDEPENDENCE’

Symbiosis is a particular composition. In this section, we shall define of


symbiosis as used in this chapter. We shall also compare symbiosis to
another kind of composition, namely synergy and fusion. We shall start with
an intuitive description before going into more formal details.
By symbiosis, we understand a composition of two or several parts
that is separation-sensitive. This means that a separation of one or several
parts leads to extinction or irrecoverable mutilation of the whole and all the
involved parts.
In contrast to this, by synergy, we understand a composition of parts
that is not separation-sensitive. Sometimes, synergy is also called modular
composition.
In the case of fusion, the resulting composition is homogenous. It does
not allow to recognize the involved parts, they are blended, such as in a
fusion of metals. We shall now give several examples.

1.2.1 PICTORIAL SYMBIOSIS

Let us consider our imitation of the well-known puzzle-like picture of ‘two


women in one (see, for instance, Weisstein (2021) (Figure 1.1).
A similar picture is known as E.G. Boring’s version of one of the
‘Devinettes d’Épinal.’ Different overlapping features show either a young
4 Artificial Intelligence and Computing Logic

or an old woman. The important point is that the features necessary to see
the young or the old woman are common to both visions, say for example,
their ‘little chin versus big nose’ or their ‘necklace versus lips’ features. If
we withdraw these common features common to different interpretations,
the women disappear, only leaving their common coat and a decorative
feather in their hair (Figure 1.2).

FIGURE 1.1 Old-young lady illusion.

FIGURE 1.2 A mutilated version of old-young lady illusion.


Fundamental Notions and Applications of Symbiotic 5

This defines a symbiotic pictorial occurrence of both women, that is, there
exists a subset of features (here, almost all of them, but this not necessary)
such that deleting them from one occurrence induces an unrecoverable loss
in both occurrences.

1.2.2 REPRESENTATIONAL SYMBIOSIS

A careful study of definitions of Euclid’s geometry objects shows that these


definitions are symbiotic. This means that eliminating even one notion
would either render meaningless the resulting system (i.e., extinction of the
resulting system) or the meaning of the resulting system would be completely
different (i.e., irrecoverable mutilation).
It should be noted here that the example of Euclid’s geometry
illustrates well the fact that the constituents of a symbiotic system need
to be handled as symbiotic in the construction process of such a system.
However, after its successful final creation, the use of these notions may,
in some cases, be modular. For instance, when we use the notion of
point while working in Euclid’s geometry, we do not need to be aware
of the symbiotic dependence of this notion on other notions of the same
geometry. However, such awareness was necessary for Euclid when he
created this geometry.

1.2.3 INTENTIONAL SYMBIOSIS

As far as intentional symbiosis is concerned, we consider it exclusively in


relation to human artificial creations. The detection of intentional in nature
processes is out of the scope of this chapter.
We could perceive a slight glimpse of intentional symbiosis in all the
above, rather static, examples. Even though present, a rather procedural
character of intentional symbiosis was not mentioned. In the next section, we
shall give an example of the construction of Ackermann’s function, where
such an intention will be easily describable and thus comprehensible.
In the following part, we shall give further examples of symbiosis in
relation to recursion and pulsation. The above examples and descriptions
make meaningful the following definition.
 Definition 1.2.3.1: Symbiosis: By symbiosis, we understand a compo­
sition of two or several parts which is separation sensitive.
6 Artificial Intelligence and Computing Logic

1.3 RECURSION-REPRESENTATION OF ACTION, CONTROL, AND


PREVENTION

This section is not intended as an introduction to mathematical recursion.


It is intended only as a presentation of a minimal, but sufficient basis for
understanding systemic recursion for SRPS.
Mathematical and computational recursion handle recursion from formal
or programs efficiency points of view (see Gries, 1981; Kleene, 1980). Recur­
sion, in these cases, is a known tool and not a science. In contrast to this,
systemic recursion is a science of know-how for creating recursive systems
that are useful for real-world applications in various domains. We shall point
out the main features of systemic recursion throughout this chapter. We shall
use the term systemic recursion also for recursion in systems created by this
particular Science.

1.3.1 PRELIMINARY DEFINITIONS AND NOTIONS

Roughly speaking, recursion is a particular way to represent, by a finite set


of rules, potentially infinite systems and processes (actions and creations).
These rules are expressed in terms of basic action or creation operators called
constructors.
In Mathematics and Computer Science, such constructors are usually
known, available or easily attainable in standard know-how. In contrast to
this, the know-how of systemic recursion lies in a progressive invention
of on-purpose constructors of a goal system depending on a progressive
invention of a formal specification of the goal system. Indeed, in systemic
recursion, we start to build a system from an informal specification of the
goal system.
By informal specification of a real-world application, we mean that it is
not yet a formalized description. It is, for instance, the case for technological
visions. An informal specification is usually not formulated by a mathemati­
cian or by a computer scientist. It is formulated by a visionary person or
by experts expressing a need for some new solving tools in their domain.
Informal specification describes a vague ‘what’ of the intended application,
tool or system.
When an informal specification of a technological vision is known,
the ‘how’ of its implementation is usually not available and may even be
unknown or impossible in standard know-how. Therefore, in systemic
Fundamental Notions and Applications of Symbiotic 7

recursion, we speak of research or creation rather than of development.


Since not all the constructors of the intended system are known at the begin­
ning, a long period of preliminary research of a sufficient set of relevant
constructors always precedes the implementation of a final product or an
experimental prototype. Even the final development can require some
complementary inventions.
The goal of systemic recursion is to pass from an informal specification
to a satisfactory formal specification of the goal together with the relevant
on-purpose knowledge and know-how, i.e., ‘how’ or ‘procedural science’ of
the actual development. A formal specification is a satisfactory definition of
‘what.’
This means that, in systemic recursion, a formal specification is an
agreed-upon compromise between the visionary and the developers
for the considered informal specification. This compromise is built up
progressively. It cannot be created in advance. This is because, in systemic
recursion, research is ‘pluridisciplinary’ in the sense that it crosses the
traditional boundaries between disciplines and it progressively constructs
its on-purpose knowledge, know-how, and boundaries. It thus differs from
multidisciplinary research, which is simply a clever combination of the
knowledge of existing fields.
In the following part, we are going to consider recursion when it concerns
systems at first, and then actions in such systems. We shall go from an
informal specification of a system to its formal specification. This will be
an opportunity to mention the notion of incompleteness of a system. In
Section 1.5, we shall then present a model for a progressive completion of
incomplete systems.

1.3.2 EXAMPLE: FROM AN INFORMAL TO A FORMAL


SPECIFICATION

We are going to illustrate such a progressive construction of a recursive


system described by an informal specification. On a sufficiently big table
consider a stack of blocs a, b, c, d, and e as shown in Figure 1.3.
If a block n is on the top of a block m, we say that n is top of m written as:
n = top(m). There is at most one block on the top of another one. Our goal is
to formalize a set of all blocks, that is, an infinite prolongation of this stack.
We shall denote SB the resulting system of blocks. Let us start now
formulating the rules that will formally express SB.
8 Artificial Intelligence and Computing Logic

FIGURE 1.3 A stack of blocks.

First of all, there is a block that is directly on the table. We shall call it
aTable. This is the basic constructor (similar to 0 in natural numbers). We shall
use the symbol ∈ to denote the relation ‘belongs to.’ We thus have the first
rule:
• (R1SB): aTable ∈ SB
The second rule is as follows:
• (R2SB): if m ∈ SB then top(m) ∈ SB
The descriptor ‘top’ is here a general constructor (similar to the successor
function in natural numbers). Note that if top(m) were identical to aTable for
some m, (R2SB) would bring no new element to SB. We shall, therefore,
introduce the next generalized rule that guarantees that such a situation does
not happen:
• (R3SB): if m ∈ SB then top(m) ≠ aTable.
We thus have at least two different elements of SB.
Now, we want to express that two different elements of SB have as tops
two different blocks. This gives us the following rule:
• (R4SB): if m ∈ SB, n ∈ SB and top(m) = top(n) then m = n.
Finally, we want to express the fact that the above construction rules define
exactly the set SB. To express this, it is sufficient to add the following rule:
• (R5SB): if M is a set such that:
o -aTable ∈ SB
Fundamental Notions and Applications of Symbiotic 9

o for every w∈ SB, if w ∈ M then top(w) ∈ M


o then M contains every element of SB.
SB is defined recursively by the above rules. In other words, SB is defined
in terms of itself. We say that SB is a recursive system.
We shall now define what we mean by a potentially infinite set. By a
potentially infinite set we shall understand any pragmatically useful,
possibly finite set, that may be rendered infinite by a formalization (thus by
an abstraction).
This definition is a useful reminder tool while handling real-world
systems that have a finite but not a fixed number of elements.

1.3.3 INCOMPLETE FORMAL SPECIFICATIONS

The above example of formalization of a set of blocks in a stack is interesting


since it enables us to point out a largely occurring phenomenon in the
formalization process of real-world applications, namely incompleteness.
In formal systems, incompleteness of a formal system means that there is
a statement A such that A and not(A) are true in different interpretations of
the considered formal system, but neither A nor not(A) are provable in the
framework of the system.
When the research starts from an informal specification of a system, not
all the relevant rules may be perceived from the start. For instance, while
we might think that we have successfully formalized our intended situation
represented by a stack of blocks, we might not be aware that, syntactically, the
above formal rules are indistinguishable from a formal system corresponding
to another situation.
For instance, let us consider a particular system that will be called perfect
women (PW). This system will be composed of historically known Socrates’
wife Xanthippe and all of her direct feminine ancestors. By direct feminine
ancestors, we understand her mother, mother of her mother and so on. We
assume that there is exactly one mother to each element of this system. In
other words, ‘mother_of’ is a function in a mathematical sense.
The following formal rules seem to correspond to our intention to define
PW:
• (R1PW): Xanthippe ∈ PW.
• (R2PW): if m ∈ PW then mother_of(m) ∈ PW.
• (R3PW): if m ∈ PW then mother_of(m) ≠ Xanthippe.
10 Artificial Intelligence and Computing Logic

• (R4PW): if m ∈ PW, n ∈ PW and mother_of(m) = mother_of(n) then


m = n.
• (R5PW): if M is a set such that:
o Xanthippe ∈ PW
o for every w∈ PW, if w ∈ M then mother_of(w) ∈ M
o then M contains every element of PW.
This new system can be obtained from the one for ‘blocks’ by a second-
order substitution {aTable → Xanthippe, SB → PW, top → mother_of }. The
two systems have the same structure, but they deal with different objects.
We can see that, syntactically, the two above formal systems are identical,
while they are intended to describe different situations. We can now consider
another system, namely the system known as Peano’s axioms for natural
numbers:
• (R1N): 0 ∈ N.
• (R2N): if m ∈ N then Suc(m) ∈ N.
• (R3N): if m ∈ N then Suc(m) ≠ 0.
• (R4N): if m ∈ N, n ∈ N and Suc(m) = Suc(n) then m = n.
• (R5N): if M is a set such that:
o -0 ∈ N
o -for every w∈ N, if w ∈ M then Suc(w) ∈ M
o then M contains every element of N.
We observe here that these three formal systems are syntactically iden­
tical. To give a name to this situation where several systems are identical
modulo a second-order substitution, we shall say they have the same recur­
sive nucleus. Since they correspond to different intentions (models), these
systems are incomplete.
In other words, a recursive nucleus is a set of rules that recursively
defines several different systems that have to be therefore distinguished by
adding complementary rules that correspond to relevant pieces of informa­
tion handled by the intended system. For instance, we can obtain the system
NAT known as Peano’s arithmetic, obtained from N by adding the rules
recursively defining the addition and multiplication:
• (R1NAT): 0 ∈ NAT.
• (R2NAT): if m ∈ NAT then Suc(m) ∈ NAT.
• (R3NAT): if m ∈ NAT then Suc(m) ≠ 0.
• (R4NAT): if m ∈ NAT, n ∈ NAT and Suc(m) = Suc(n) then m = n.
Fundamental Notions and Applications of Symbiotic 11

• (R5NAT): if M is a set such that:


o -0 ∈ NAT
o -for every w∈ NAT, if w ∈ M then Suc(w) ∈ M.
o then M contains every element of NAT.
• (R6NAT): 0 + n = n.
• (R7NAT): Suc(m) + n = Suc(m+n).
• (R6NAT): 0 × n = 0.
• (R6NAT): Suc(m) × n = m × n + n.
We shall not consider the corresponding relevant extensions for SB
and PW. These systems are here only to point out that, in working with
real-world applications, we often work with incomplete systems. This
hints at the importance of building a first recursive nucleus for a particular
application in a way that enables to extend it harmoniously. By a harmonious
extension, we shall understand a situation in which no rule considered as
important in one stage is rejected or considered as a too strong requirement
in future stages. This also means that, at each particular level of evolution,
a system of rules is sufficient to solve the considered problems; we say that
it is practically complete. It needs to be open and flexible for a possible
need of supplementary rules that will allow to solve some new problems
of interest. We shall speak of open evolution by a need or a desire to solve
further problems. This means that, when incomplete systems are concerned,
we do not focus (as mathematicians do) on decisions such as whether a
problem is solvable in a considered theory of a system. Instead, for a given
problem, we try to construct a solution that may require the given theory
to be completed by particular rules enabling to solve the problem in the
extended version.
Scientific revolutions are a typical example of knowledge acquisition that
is not harmonious in our sense. Indeed, some scientific revolutions reject
some rules of the previously formalized systems. We shall describe later a
method called ‘pulsation’ that is one kind of such a harmonious modifica­
tion. The notions of harmonious extension and practical completeness are
described here only informally. Further work must be done to provide more
formal definitions.
So far, we have considered recursive systems, namely from the point
of view of their recursive formalization. In the following section, we shall
show how recursive actions may be considered as a way to represent not only
actions but also a particular kind of control.
12 Artificial Intelligence and Computing Logic

1.3.4 RECURSION AS A WAY TO REPRESENT A PARTICULAR


CONTROL

In this section, we shall present an example that illustrates how recursion


captures in itself symbiotic dependency of all the secondary effects and the
effect of a computation of a simple recursive procedure. Let us point out that
we emphasize here symbiotic information, not symbiotic computation.
Let us consider the following simple problem. On a sufficiently big table
consider a stack of blocs a, b, c, d, and e as shown in Figure 1.4.

FIGURE 1.4 A stack of blocks.

We say that a bloc m is clear if there is no other bloc on m (in Figure 1.4.
bloc e is clear.). There can be at most one bloc on the top of the other. If n
is on the top of m, we say that n is top of m written as: n = top(m). Let us
consider the following procedure make clear:
makeclear(x) =
if x is clear then procedure is completed
else
if top(x) is clear
then put(top(x)) on table
else first makeclear(top(x)) and
then put(top(x)) on table
It can easily be checked that makeclear(b) results not only in clearing the
bloc b but also in the situation where blocs c, d, and e are clear and on the
table. This means that the procedure makeclear contains in its description not
Fundamental Notions and Applications of Symbiotic 13

only its direct effects (such as: the bloc b is cleared) but also the full descrip­
tion of all the secondary effects of any action performed. In Figure 1.5. these
secondary effects are that the blocks c, d, and e are on the table.

FIGURE 1.5 A modification of the environment after clearing b.

For some primitive recursive procedures, the secondary effects do not modify
the environment, but this should not be a barrier for the general perception
of primitive recursive procedures to be seen as invisible procedural ‘seeds’
containing symbiotically related effects (i.e., the results of the computations)
and the secondary effects (i.e., the consequences of the computation of a
particular value). Therefore, implementing recursive procedures is interesting
in all environments where control over the secondary effects is important.
It may not be straightforward to see in what sense we speak of symbioti­
cally related the effects and the secondary effects. Let us recall that symbiosis
of information means here that if we take away one information, then all
information becomes distorted, or mutilated.
Let us consider therefore the instruction makeclear(b). This means that,
step-wise, all blocks above b have to be put on the table leading to the result
that the blocks c, d, and e are on the table. Let us suppose that we take away
the information that the block d is on the table. However, in the progression
of the procedure, if we call makeclear(b) first, we have to call makeclear(c),
then makeclear(d). Since top(d) is e and it is clear, we may put e on the
table. d = top(c) is now clear, but we cannot put it on the table since this
information has, by our assumption, been missing. This means that the
whole process is stuck and we then cannot put block c on the table. So, the
resulting information is mutilated since it does not express all the potential of
the procedure makeclear. Moreover, there is no evidence that the information
that the block e is on the table is related to the procedure makeclear. It could,
in principle, be related to other procedures.
The above procedure makeclear is an example of primitive recursion. A
recursion that is not primitive goes even further in representing symbiotically
information that concerns control, rigor, and reproducibility. Ackermann’s
function is the simplest example of a non-primitive recursive function.
Therefore, it is a suitable representative for explaining how non-primitive
recursion modelizes a particular kind of pulsation in SRPS.
14 Artificial Intelligence and Computing Logic

In the following part, we shall give a formalized presentation of the


pulsation, starting with a presentation of a construction procedure that result
in Ackermann’s function. It will become clear how this construction and the
notion of pulsation are linked together.

1.3.5 A CONSTRUCTION OF ACKERMANN’S FUNCTION AND A


‘SIMPLIFICATION’ OF ITS COMPUTATION

The idea to model pulsation by Ackermann’s function comes from the under­
standing of how this function may be constructed. The practical use of this
function becomes then exploitable by a ‘simplification’ the computation of
its values using the knowledge of its construction process.

1.3.5.1 A CONSTRUCTION OF ACKERMANN’S FUNCTION

Let ack be Ackermann’s function defined by its standard definition, i.e.:


ack(0,n) = n+1
ack(m + 1,0) = ack(m,1)
ack(m+1, n+1) = ack(m,ack(m+1,n)).
We shall show here how this function can be constructed.
Since ack is a non-primitive recursive function, by definition of
non-primitive recursion, it is a particular composition of an infinite sequence
of primitive recursive functions. We shall thus define a function ack’ as a
particular composition of an infinite sequence of primitive recursive functions
and it will be clear then that the definitions of ack and ‘ack’ are identical.
By definition of a primitive recursive function, each primitive recursive
function f is a composition of a finite number of primitive recursive functions
and of ‘f’ itself. Let us, therefore, construct such an infinite sequence of
primitive recursive functions f0, f1, f2, …, fn, fn+1, …. We define:
f0(n) = n+1
fi+1(n+1) = fi(fi+1(n))
for each i from 0, 1, 2…. We are thus able to define a new function ack’
as follows: ack’(0,n) = f0(n) and ack’(m + 1, n + 1) = fm+1(n+1). Note that
ack’(m + 1,0) is not yet defined. Since we want ack’ to be a non-primitive
recursive function, we need to guarantee that it cannot be reduced to any
of fi. To do so we shall simply perform a diagonalization on this infinite
sequence of functions by defining:
Fundamental Notions and Applications of Symbiotic 15

fi+1(0) = fi(1).
In other words, we define:
ack’(m + 1,0) = fm(1).
By this construction, we see that fi+1 is more complex than fi for each i. It
is obvious that:
ack’(m,n) = ack(m, n) = fm(n).
This construction is at the same time a guarantee that ack is not primitive
recursive, since it is indeed a composition of an infinite sequence of primitive
recursive functions, each of them more complex than those before it and
ack cannot be reduced to any one of them. As a by-product, we have thus
simplified also the standard presentation of the non-primitive character of
ack which is usually done by a proof by a projection of Ackermann’s function
back into a sequence of primitive recursive functions am(n) = ack(m,n) and
showing that ack grows more rapidly than any of these primitive recursive
function (see Yasuhara, 1971). The difference thus lies in our use of an indirect
construction (instead of a projection) and relying on a diagonalization.

1.3.5.2 A PARTICULAR SIMPLIFICATION OF THE COMPUTATION


OF ACKERMANN’S FUNCTION

The above construction of Ackermann’s function shows immediately that the


computation of its values for given m and n using non-primitive recursive
definition can be simplified by a definition of m primitive recursive functions
obtained by a suitable macro-procedure.
Our recursive macro-procedure will simply compute, step by step, each
of the values fi+1(0) in advance and will define the whole fi+1 with this already
computed value. This may not lead to a fast computation, but we are not
concerned now with the computational efficiency of this way of proceeding,
only by its practical feasibility and reproducibility.
We define a macro-procedure, ack_macro. Our ack_macro uses the
standard LISP procedures add_to_file and load_file. The procedure add_to_
file(text,F) adds the text at the end of the file F. The procedure load_file(F)
loads the file F to make computable the functions written in the file. We
create at the start an auxiliary file F that stores the functions fi generated by
ack_macro. Our macro-procedure ack_macro(m,n) uses the infinite sequence
of functions defined above as being representative of Ackermann’s function
(Figure 1.6).
16 Artificial Intelligence and Computing Logic

FIGURE 1.6 A macro-procedure for computing particular values of ack.

ack_macro(m,n) is now completed and file F collects the definitions of m


primitive recursive functions. We are now able to compute ack(m,n) = fm(n),
where the definition of fi from the file F is used for all i = 0, 1, …, m.
On the internet, we can find several programs that compute Ackermann’s
function values faster and much further than our presented macro-procedure.
The problem with those programs is that they are based on the knowledge
that Ackermann’s function can be represented as a generalized exponen­
tiation function. The advantage of our presentation lies in its suitability for
practical purposes in the following sense. As we shall see with the notion
Fundamental Notions and Applications of Symbiotic 17

of pulsation, complex real-world problems may require modelization by


non-primitive Ackermann’s like programs that will not be reducible to an
arithmetic generalized exponentiation. In other words, it is useful to consider
non-primitive recursion that is defined not for natural numbers, as it is the
case for Ackermann’s function, but that is defined for practically useful and
exploitable recursive systems.

1.3.5.3 PREVENTION AND CONTROL ARE MODELIZED BY


ACKERMANN’S FUNCTION

We have seen above in the example of the program makeclear that


primitive recursion captures the effects (the value of the computation) and
the secondary effects (the consequences of the computation that are the
intermediary values that are the results of the same procedure). We have
also seen that the non-primitive recursive Ackermann’s function is obtained
using the diagonalization procedure. This diagonalization brings forward
complementary information about the process of this symbiotic information
in the recursion. Since diagonalization is a meta-level procedure, we
understand this complementary information as a kind of meta-level
prevention from primitive recursion reducibility. In other words, we interpret
it as a prevention factor simply because diagonalization prevents ack to be
reduced to computation and consequences of computations of functions
from which it is constructed.
It is interesting to note that some scientists may intuitively ‘feel’ that
Ackermann’s function provides a model of human thinking of ‘everything’
for a particular situation. The above-mentioned ‘makeclear’ program shows
that this intuition can be presented in terms of symbiosis of the information
included in a particular situation. Note that the above macro-procedure
(Figure 1.6) simplifies only the computation of thinking of ‘everything.’
To illustrate this simplification of the computation we may mention that,
as it can be checked, the trace of the computation of the value for ack(3,2)
using standard definition shows (see Franova, 2008); that the value ack(1,1)
is computed 22 times for obtaining the result of ack(3,2). This is not the
case for the computation of simplified f3(2). However, it is necessary to
understand that the overall complexity of this situation remains the same
since, to be able to ‘simplify’ (i.e., to define the above macro-procedure), we
already need to have available Ackermann’s function equivalent sequence of
fi. In other words, the principle and effectiveness of ‘thinking of everything’
remain on the global level. The simplification concerns only focusing on
18 Artificial Intelligence and Computing Logic

one particular local level defined by the two values a and b, instantiating
Ackerman’s variables. Of course, the macro-procedure is general, but for a
and b given, it generates only the finite sequence of primitive functions f0,
f1, …, fa.
This makes explicit that ‘thinking of everything’ keeps its order of
complexity after applying our simplification.
Systems requiring a simultaneous handling of the prevention and control
factors such as information security systems or strategic planning in flexible
environments are practical examples of a problem requesting to think of
‘everything.’

1.3.6 SYSTEMIC RECURSION

In the previous sections, we have presented what can be seen as a recursive


structure. In a recursive structure, there is an obvious so-called base step
element (for instance, Xanthippe, aTable, and 0 in our previous examples). We
shall speak about systemic recursion when a system is defined or constructed
recursively, but there is no such an obvious ‘element.’ It is mostly the case
when all the parts of the system may themselves be considered as symbiotic
systems. In other words, in systemic recursion, symbiotic constructors are
also systems.
To give a simple example, we may consider a method M that is defined
recursively and in terms of a finite number of complex symbiotically depen­
dent rules (procedures) R1, R2, …, Rn. Then, a systemic equation for such a
method can be represented in the following way:
M = R1 + R2 + … + Rn + M.
Since the whole, i.e., the method is symbiotically interrelated with the
rules R1, R2, …, Rn, the order of these rules in the equation is a question of
convenience rather than necessity. Of course, the rules R1, R2, …, Rn may
be recursive procedures themselves. Thus, we can see that the notion of
systemic recursion is rather complex.
We believe that it is obvious that systemic recursion is different from
linear-like, tree-like or network-like representations.
The above construction of Ackermann’s function and our particular
simplification of its computation by a primitive recursive macro-procedure
allows us to consider it as a model for a particular kind of pulsation. The
notion of oscillation provides an informal background for the notion of
pulsation presented later in Section 1.5.
Fundamental Notions and Applications of Symbiotic 19

1.4 OSCILLATION-REPRESENTATION OF A ONE-LEVEL CREATION


PROCESS

In scientific fields the obvious basic paradigm is, for a given problem, to find
an idea leading to a solution. This can, in general, be expressed by the formula:
" Problem $ Idea Leads_to_a_solution(Idea,Problem).
We shall call this formulation: “first paradigm.”
However, another, and rather unusual (except in Physics) paradigm is to
find an idea that provides a solution for all problems. We shall show how
Ackermann’s function provides a model for this second paradigm. Similarly,
to Ackermann’s function, in a sense, it is a kind of ‘thinking of everything.’
First, however, let us express this paradigm by the formula:
$ Idea " Problem Leads_to_a_solution(Idea,Problem).
We shall call this formulation: “second paradigm.”
The difference between these two formulas lies in the fact that, in this
second case, the ‘Idea’ obtained is unique, while in the first formula, each
problem can use its own idea.
We call oscillation this approach of symbiotic switching between the two
above paradigms.
The oscillation may be performed in the following way. We start to
consider a large variety of problems for which we try to find an idea for a
general solution to all of them. This solution needs to be open to the need
for further improvement. We shall introduce a particular kind of such an
improvement in the next section.

1.5 PULSATION-REPRESENTATION OF ‘EVOLUTIVE IMPROVEMENT’

1.5.1 PULSATIVE SYSTEMS ARE MODELIZED BY ACKERMANN’S


FUNCTION

The above sections will help us explaining how Ackermann’s function


enables us to formally specify the notion of pulsation. This is interesting
not only from the point of view of building particular formal theories for
unknown domains but also for understanding the difference between revolu­
tion, innovation, and evolutive improvement in this building process.
Let us consider a potentially infinitely incomplete theory. In unknown
environments that may be seen as a framework for potentially infinitely
20 Artificial Intelligence and Computing Logic

incomplete theories, building a formal theory becomes then a process of suit­


able completions of a particular initial theory T0. We shall say that this theory
T0 is practically complete when it formalizes solutions for the problems that
have been met so far. Since the theory is potentially incomplete, sooner or
later we shall meet a problem that cannot be solved in the framework of
T0. In the vocabulary of scientific discoveries, we may say that we need a
conceptual switch (a new axiom or a set of axioms) that completes T0. Note
that we speak here about completion and:
• Not about a revolution-which would mean in a sense rejecting T0;
• Not about an innovation-which may simply mean a particular refor­
mulation of T0.
So, this completion T1 contains T0 and thus it is coherent with T0.
However, since a new conceptual switch guarantees that T1 is more powerful
than T0, we consider this particular kind of completion as a suitable model
for one step of improvement in our search for suitable completions. Since
we consider here a potentially infinitely incomplete theory, we can then see
the pulsation as an infinite sequence of theories T0, T1, …, Tn, …. In this
sequence, Ti+1 completes and is coherent with Ti for all i = 0, 1, 2, …
We have seen that, in the infinite sequence from which Ackermann’s func­
tion is built, the function f1 relies on (is coherent with) f0, and fi+1 relies on fi
for each i. We can, therefore, see that Ackermann’s function really provides
a model for evolutive improvement (or progress in Bacon’s sense (Bacon,
1994)) and we understand it different from revolution and innovation.
Let us now come back to our notion of pulsation. We have seen that, in
the informally specified notion of oscillation, we switch coherently between
two paradigms. In our interpretation, the second paradigm, i.e.:
$ Idea " Problem Leads_to_a_solution(Idea,Problem)
represents the idea of Ackermann’s function and the first paradigm, i.e.:
" Problem $ Idea Leads_to_a_solution(Idea,Problem).
represents particular primitive recursive functions from which Ackermann’s
function is constructed. In the definition of Ackermann’s function, we have
seen that:
fi+1(0) = fi(1)
Analogously, we shall state that the sequence of completing theories can be
written as:
Ti+1 = Ti + Ai+1
Fundamental Notions and Applications of Symbiotic 21

where; Ai+1 is an axiom or a set of axioms representing the conceptual switch


that enables solving the problem unsolvable in Ti and solvable in Ti+1.
Let us stress the fact that by pulsation we understand an infinite sequence
of theories T0, T1, …, Tn, Tn+1, … with the just mentioned property and not
only one particular step in this sequence. This means that pulsative systems
are systems that are formalized progressively and potentially indefinitely.

1.5.2 PREVENTION AND CONTROL FACTORS ALREADY EXIST


IN T0

We have seen above that Ackermann’s function is also a model for symbiotic
consideration of prevention and control.
Let us return therefore to the construction of Ackermann’s function. We
could see that, with respect to our requirement to obtain a non-primitive
recursive function, f0 must be defined in a way that guarantees the
non-primitive recursion of the final composition of the constructed infinite
sequence. Indeed, if f0 were a constant, for instance, 3 (which would mean
that f0(n) = 3 for all n), the resulting infinite composition would also be
the constant 3. This means that, even though f0 is the first function of this
infinite construction, since it must be defined as a symbiotic part of the final
composition, the prevention and the control factors must be present already
in this function.
So, we can see that Ackermann’s function provides a model for the
pulsation that intends and guarantees symbiotic handling prevention and
control already from the start.

1.6 PUTTING IT TOGETHER: SRPS AND CARTESIAN


INTUITIONISM

In the previous part, we have introduced the notions of symbiosis, systemic


recursion, and pulsation. We have seen that symbiosis is different from
compositions that are not separation-sensitive. Usually, systems that are not
separation-sensitive are considered as modular also in the case of interde­
pendency. In modular interdependent systems, the parts, when separated,
preserve their essential properties. This is not the case for symbiotic parts of
a symbiotic system.
We have also seen that recursive systems are different from systems that
allow linear-like, tree-like or network-like representation.
22 Artificial Intelligence and Computing Logic

It is somewhat obvious that the paradigm of pulsation is different from


what is understood as a process of evolution that tends to preserve only
the strongest ‘individuals.’ A similar kind of evolution can be recognized
in self-organized systems. Edward de Bono (de Bono, 1992), one of the
recognized experts of practically exploitable creativity and innovation, has
characterized such a self-organizing system by the fact that “an idea may be
logical and even obvious in hindsight but invisible to logic” of externally
organized systems. Conversely, in externally organized systems, any idea
which is logical in hindsight must be accessible to logic in the first place.
This last assertion is true for the classical systems but not for our SRPR
systems. Pulsative systems are externally organized by human creators and
developers. However, in pulsative systems, no conceptual switch can be
considered as logical in hindsight. This follows from the fact that the axiom
(or system of axioms) Ai+1 that extends a theory Ti is logically independent of
the previously constructed theories. In consequence, Ai+1 cannot be logically
explained in Ti.
Moreover, the main problem of the pulsation is that of construction and
completion-like procedures. The decision procedures are secondary and
dependent on the construction and completion-like procedures. In pulsation,
all ‘individuals’ collaborate symbiotically towards one goal that is informally
specified from the start.
This means that SRPS are complementary to non-recursive systems
that are usually considered in Science or business. When compared to such
non-recursive systems, a careful study of SRPS and their construction (or
development) shows that the research performed in the creation of SRPS
requires accepting and developing new relevant ways of evaluation and
management. Therefore, in Section 1.6.1, we shall illustrate-by a simple
example-why the standard methods of evaluation and management are not
relevant to SRPS. Then, in Section 1.6.2, we shall introduce a terminology
that will enable us to distinguish between the standard paradigm of systemic
construction (or development) and the paradigm relevant to SRPS. The
differences presented will justify a need to develop evaluation criteria and
management techniques that are relevant to SRPS.

1.6.1 AN EXTERNAL OBSERVATION IS NOT RELEVANT TO SRPS

The next example points out that a widely spread interpretation of the relativity
of truth is incorrect and has harmful consequences when this interpretation is
applied to SRPS.
Fundamental Notions and Applications of Symbiotic 23

In 2005, Science et Vie Junior (2005), an article reports the following


experiment. Two nearly placed rockets take off simultaneously. They are
observed by a pedestrian and a pilot in a plane flying with a near-light speed.
While the pedestrian infers the simultaneity of taking off, the pilot infers that
one rocket takes off sooner than the other one. The article concludes that, by
Einstein, they are both right.
This illustrates that ‘truth’ is now understood as a simple result of external
observations, which, if we dare say, is not ‘true.’
In the context of management, the same understanding of ‘relativity of
truth’ as a simple external observation can be found in the work of Steven
Covey, one of the experts of modern management. Indeed in 1999, Steven
Covey claimed that a group of people, while viewing that illusory figure,
rightly to their perceptions that was either a young or old woman, or both.
We have explained above that this picture represents a symbiosis of two
‘parts’ that cannot exist one without the other. In the context of security,
opinions of the two groups mentioned by Covey may lead to an irrecoverable
break-down of a symbiotic system.
Since simultaneity is related to symbiosis in the sense that symbiotic
parts need to be created all at the same time, we shall illustrate a somewhat
harmful character of the standard interpretation of relativity of truth on an
example from the medical environment.
Let us imagine that “young girl-old woman illusion” (Weisstein, 2021) is
a representation of a surgical technology consisting of two symbiotic parts.
Let us suppose that the essential roles of these two parts are as follows. One
part ensures the main core of a problem (for instance, eliminating pain or
paralysis). The other part ensures that no secondary effects are propagated
(thus, for instance, ensuring longevity). Let us suppose that two different
surgeons have seen in the symbiotic technology only one of the symbiotic
parts. One learns how to eliminate the main core of the problem, while the
second one learns how to extend longevity. Both are convinced that they
have learned the correct one, i.e., the symbiotic technology. Since, moreover,
by the standard interpretation of truth relativity, they are both right, it is not
important for patients which of two surgeons is operating them, even though
the results of two surgeries are different. In one case, one will guarantee
relative health but may provide a short life. The other one will guarantee,
for instance, a long life of paralysis. It seems obvious that in such a case, we
would all like to have a surgeon that is an expert in symbiotic technology.
The previous examples illustrate that, among all the possible referential
systems (or, what is called usually ‘point of view’), there is a particular refer­
ential system that is the only one that should count when SRPS is concerned.
24 Artificial Intelligence and Computing Logic

This particular referential system is that of its creation. We shall call it a


creational referential system. Only working in the creational referential
system of an SRPS guarantees that, after its creation, the system can be
reproduced (thus understood) as an identical copy or ‘clone.’
In order to distinguish between the standard interpretation of relative truth
that seems to claim the validity of all referential systems (‘they are all right’)
and the interpretation that focalizes on the creational referential system,
we shall speak of the Newtonian approach and Cartesian Intuitionism.
The Newtonian approach covers external points of view, and Cartesian
Intuitionism covers creational reference systems. In the following section,
we shall present a motivation for this new terminology.

1.6.2 NEWTONIAN AND CARTESIAN WAY OF CONCEPTION


NEW SYSTEMS

The main difference between Newtonian and Cartesian paradigms is easily


perceptible from comments pronounced by Newton and Descartes themselves.
In a letter to Robert Hooke, Newton wrote: “If I have seen further (than
you and Descartes) it is by standing upon the shoulders of Giants.”
Newtonian Science can be seen as established on the logic of sequential
‘observational’ research. In a little more systemic way, we can thus describe
the Newtonian way by a sequence of advancements built one upon the other
from a ‘beginning’ until an ‘end.’
We say that this research is observational since, at each step of advance­
ment, it does not require that the previous results are fully recreated. They
are only observed externally and adopted as true. This is a model of what
means “standing upon the shoulders of Giants.”
Descartes wrote his first rule in the discourse on the method of rightly
conducting the reason, and seeking truth in the sciences (Descartes, 1988)
in the following way: “The first was never to accept anything for true
which I did not obviously know to be such; that is to say, carefully to avoid
precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in my judgment
than what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude
all ground of doubt.”
This formulation could be looked upon as being similar to Newton’s
except that Newton expresses the utmost confidence in the ‘giants’ while
Descartes wants to check, or rather to re-create everything by himself
before accepting new knowledge. Indeed, Descartes always recreated all the
knowledge useful to him when it had been previously obtained by someone
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
“In forty-six American cities, having a combined population of
only a little more than one-fifth the total for the country, the
mortality resulting from the influenza epidemic during the nine
weeks period ended November 9th was nearly double that in the A.
E. F. from the time the first contingent landed in France until the
cessation of hostilities.”
The mortality, even as the morbidity, has varied in different
localities and at different periods. The low morbidity and mortality in
the spring of 1918 has been frequently mentioned. Among the
Esquimaux in Alaska the death toll was terrific. Whole villages of
Esquimaux lost their entire adult population. It has been estimated
that in British India the death roll totalled 5,000,000. “The central,
northern and western portions of India were the worst sufferers. The
hospitals in the Punjab were choked so that it was impossible to
move the dead quickly enough to make room for the dying. The
streets and lanes of the cities were littered with dead and dying
people. The postal and telegraph services were completely
disorganized; the train service continued, but at all principal stations
dead and dying people were being removed from the trains. The
burning ghats and burial grounds were literally swamped with
corpses, while an even greater number awaited removal. The
depleted medical service, itself sorely stricken by the epidemic, was
incapable of dealing with more than a minute fraction of the sickness
requiring attention. Nearly every household was lamenting death,
and everywhere terror and confusion reigned. No part of the Punjab
escaped.”
The Bureau of the Census estimates that 445,000 deaths from the
epidemic of influenza occurred in the United States in the period
between September 1st and December 31st, 1918. There is no doubt
but that the total death toll for that epidemic exceeded 500,000
individuals.
According to Winslow and Rogers, the two highest annual death
rates on record in Connecticut are both rates of 19.4 per 1,000 and
these two rates are for the influenza epidemic years of 1892 and 1918.
In the earlier of these two the normal general death rate was several
points higher than it is today, so that the effect of the recent epidemic
was much more serious than was that of its predecessor. For a single
month the death toll of October, 1918, was absolutely unprecedented
in Connecticut. They estimate that the epidemic between September,
1918, and January, 1919, cost the State 5.5 lives per 1,000
population, or, in all, 7,700 lives.
In the United States Army there was a total of 688,869 admissions
for influenza. The total deaths ascribed to the disease are 39,731,
which gives a rate of 15.64 per 1,000 for the acute respiratory
diseases out of the total disease death rate of 18.81 for the year. In
1915 the per cent. of deaths from this group of infections was under
18 per cent. of the total from all diseases. During the last four months
of 1918, 11,670 deaths from influenza and pneumonia occurred in the
American Expeditionary Forces in France. There were approximately
1,600,000 officers and men in the United States and an equal
number in France.
Carnwath gives the following comparison of the number of deaths
in London and in certain American cities from influenza and all
forms of pneumonia during the eight weeks of the 1918–19 epidemic.

Deaths in London and in American cities.


Number of Rate eight weeks per 100,000 of
deaths. population.
London 13,744 341
New York 20,681 360
Chicago 8,785 343
Philadelphia 12,806 749
Boston 4,211 548

The cause of death in the vast majority of cases is some form of


pneumonia. In fact it has been questioned whether influenza
uncomplicated can cause a fatal issue. Postinfluenzal meningitis has
been the cause of death in an appreciable number of cases. More
remotely the disease has caused many deaths by hastening the fatal
outcome of what were otherwise subacute or chronic conditions of
the respiratory, cardiovascular, or renal systems.
Vaughan and Palmer record that, “The pandemic of influenza in
1918 seems to have been more closely associated with the
pneumonias than appears in any previous pandemic. From the
reports as sent to the Surgeon General’s Office, it appears that
uncomplicated influenza was not by any means a fatal disease and
that the high death rate was due to the pneumonias which followed.
Pneumonia is a serious disease at all times. Recent records for the
United States Army show that the case mortality rate for this disease
has been as follows during the different periods of the last two years:

Per cent.
The year 1917 11.2
6 winter months, 1917–18 23.1
5 summer months, 1918 18.8
4 autumn months, 1918 (Influenza period) 34.4

“It is not strange that once pneumonia has secured a foothold in


patients already weakened by influenza their chances of recovery
were lessened.”
Woolley reports that for the troops stationed at Camp Devens,
Mass. there were no fatalities from uncomplicated influenza. In every
fatal case but two a diagnosis of pneumonia was made, and in these
two cases pure cultures of pneumococcus were obtained from the
blood after death, so it appears that they were cases of
pneumococcus septicemia. Up to October 29, 1918, 19 per cent. of the
total number of influenza cases reported developed pneumonia and
of these there was a case mortality of 27.9 per cent. The mortality
rate among the influenza cases was 5.4 per cent.
At Camp Humphreys, Virginia, 16 per cent. of the camp was
attacked by the disease; 28 per cent. of influenza cases had
pneumonia; 10 per cent. of influenza cases died; and 35 per cent. of
pneumonia cases died. One and six tenths per cent. of the population
of the camp died from influenza. The camp had an average strength
of 26,600 individuals. Fifty-two per cent. of the entire number of
cases occurred during the peak week which ended October 4th.
Between September 21st and October 18th, 1918, 9,037 patients
were admitted to the Base Hospital at Camp Grant. This represented
about one-fourth of the strength of the camp. Of these 26 per cent.
developed pneumonia and 43 per cent. of the pneumonia cases died.
Death occurred to about 11 per cent. of the total admissions.
The death rate at Camps Devens, Sherman and Grant were among
the highest of all of the camps in this country. The annual death rate
from all causes per 1,000 for the four last months of 1918 were 132
for Camp Cody, 123 for Syracuse, 116 for Camp Sherman, 102 for
Camp Beauregard, 97.3 for Camp Grant, 75.0 for Camp Dix, 67.0 for
Camp Devens. These seven camps stood out high above the majority.
By far the majority, 28 camps, had an annual rate between 61.9 and
25.5 per 1,000. Only four camps recorded lower rates than the latter
figure.
The Municipal Statistics of Paris showed that during the first half
of October, 1918, the average weekly mortality was from two to three
times that of nonepidemic years. The returns for the Departments of
France also showed a mortality three times above the average for
previous years, though not uniformly so. In the Departments the
mortality from influenza did not exceed 10 per cent. and in many
cases it was below 5 per cent. On the other hand cases admitted to
hospital, which consisted of the worst forms of the disease, showed a
mortality varying between 12 and 30 per cent. Returns received from
Italy were similar. The disease in that country was especially severe
in the northern part and in the provinces bordering on Switzerland.
Marcus, of Stockholm, reported in September, 1918, that the
epidemic in Sweden was running a very severe course, more than
1,000 deaths having occurred up to the time of his report. According
to Weber, 2,770 deaths occurred in Berlin during October, 1918,
from influenza and pneumonia alone. In Vienna there died from
influenza between September 1st and October 19th, 1918, 3,125
persons. The deaths in Vienna from influenza and pneumonia
normally total 40 to 50 per week. At the highest point of the
epidemic this number had increased to 1,468. Böhm estimates the
total influenza incidence in Vienna as 180,000 cases, with a probable
mortality around 1.7 per cent. Dunlop estimates that the total
number of influenza deaths in Scotland in the winter of 1918–19 may
be assessed at 20,000.
A. Giltay has compared the epidemics of 1890 and 1900 with that
of 1918 as regards mortality, in Amsterdam. He has studied figures
for seven consecutive weeks in each of the three periods under
observation and found that the maximum figures for mortality were
61.5 in 1890, 41.2 in 1900, and 52.7 in 1918, but if these figures are
compared with the average mortality for the year it is found that the
increase of mortality as the result of influenza alone is 39.3 for 1890,
24.5 for 1900, and 40.3 for 1918. Thus the present epidemic is more
severe than that of 1890.
Many reported mortality figures are without value because they
are either death rates in selected groups such as those in a hospital,
or, because the report does not state the status of the individual.
Thus, Hoppe-Seyler stated at a meeting of the Kiel Medical Society
that of 577 cases treated in the Municipal Hospital, nearly all of
which were severe, 28.9 per cent. died. This was reduced to 18 per
cent. after deducting the cases admitted in a moribund condition.
Again, Rondopoulos reports that the October wave in Greece
resulted in a mortality of from 15 to 24 per cent, in different
localities.
Just as current vital statistics are of little value in determining the
morbidity rate, so also they cannot be relied upon in obtaining
fatality percentages. In organizations such as the Army, where all
cases are reported, we may get some idea of the fatality rate. The
deaths in the United States Army have already been discussed.
Marcus, of Stockholm, reports that the military records showed that
there had been 34,000 cases in the Swedish Army, with 444 deaths,
making a mortality of 1.3 per cent, in that Army.
House surveys also give a fair idea of the mortality. Winslow and
Rogers conclude that the fatality rate was as a rule somewhere
between two and four deaths per 100 cases, the lower being more
likely to be correct. Reeks found in his house census that there had
been 3.9 deaths per 100 cases in the autumn of 1918. Carnwath
reports that Dr. Niven, in his census, discovered that out of 1,108
cases in the spring and autumn of 1918 there were but 15 deaths,
which would give a fatality rate of 1.3 per 100 cases.
Frost has found from his large survey that the ratio of deaths to
total cases of influenza varied in the localities surveyed from 3.1 per
cent. in New London as a high point to 2.8 per cent. in San Antonio,
Texas. There was some apparent relationship between fatality rate
and geographic distribution, the higher rates being in San Francisco
on the Pacific Coast, and in the localities studied on the north half of
the Atlantic Seaboard, and the lower rates being in the central and
southern states. The fatality rate on the Pacific Coast was 2.33, on the
Atlantic Seaboard 2.05, and in the last district 1.08 per cent.
Our own figures correspond very closely with those of Frost.
Among the 10,000 living individuals surveyed in 1920 there were
1,970 cases of influenza in 1918. Add to this the 50 deaths for 1918,
which were not included in the 10,000 living individuals, which
makes a total incidence of 2,021. This case fatality rate of 2.47 per
100, corresponds closely to Frost’s rate for the North Atlantic
Seaboard.
The relative mildness of the 1920 recurrence is indicated in the
lower case fatality rate. Fourteen out of 955 cases died, giving a rate
of 1.47 per 100 cases.
Mortality by sex.—There is not a uniformity of opinion as to which
sex suffered the higher fatality rate during the 1918–19 spread.
Winslow and Rogers found for Connecticut a distinctly heavier
mortality among males for the last four months of 1918, 58 per cent.
of the influenza-pneumonia deaths being among this sex. They
believe that this is probably due to a greater exposure to the original
infection.
Fränkel and Dublin point out that in a study of 70,729 policy
holders of the Industrial Department of the Metropolitan Life
Insurance Company in the period from October 1, 1918, to June,
1919, the death rates for males and females were practically the same
for both white and colored individuals.
The excess of males over females among the whites is only three
per cent., and there was no excess among colored. In contrast, the
respiratory diseases, including influenza-pneumonia, under normal
conditions, show a higher mortality incidence among males than
among females. In the seven year period from 1911 to 1917 the
mortality rate showed an excess of 18 per cent. males over females,
among whites, and of 30 per cent. among colored. This would seem
to indicate that the effect of the epidemic was not much, if any,
greater on males than on females, and suggests that the excess
mortality caused by the epidemic did not operate on the sexes as the
normal mortality from influenza-pneumonia had in previous years.
Dunlop finds that in a study of 10,797 deaths registered in
Scotland up until the end of December, 1918, 52.44 per cent. were
females and 47.56 were males. These were for deaths reported as due
only to influenza. Apert and Flipo found a decided predominance
among the female deaths in Paris. In both of these observations the
absence from the civilian population of male inhabitants of military
age obscured correct comparative statistics.
Once again, Frost gives the most comprehensive discussion of the
subject. He found, as we have stated, that the influenza case
incidence in persons over fifteen years of age was higher in females
than in males, and that in persons under fifteen the relative
incidence as between males and females is variable, but with very
slight excess in males for the localities studied, combined. On the
other hand, the case fatality, the per cent. of influenza cases dying,
under fifteen years of age, was higher in females than in males. Over
sixty years of age it was considerably higher among the females, but
between the ages of fifteen and sixty the general tendency was to a
much higher case fatality among the males. The difference was
greatest between the ages of 20 and 40. The case fatality between the
ages of 15 and 45 in the group of southern and central states was in
decided contrast to that in the Northern Atlantic and Pacific groups,
the case fatality in the former being remarkably low in both sections
and slightly higher in females than in males. He suggests that in the
south and middle west where the epidemic was generally milder in
respect to mortality than in the northeast and far west, the essential
difference was not in case incidence, but in case fatality, especially in
persons from 15 to 45 years of age, and in the relatively low case
fatality among young male adults. Frost makes the important point
that the relative mortality is determined more accurately by case
fatality than by case incidence, and that without a full and exact
knowledge of the variations in case fatality, statistics of mortality are
by no means translatable to terms of relative morbidity. The fact that
certain cities showed, as described by Pearl, relatively high mortality
rates, does not give conclusive evidence that the morbidity was
higher in these cities than elsewhere. The lower influenza case
fatality in females from 15 to 60 years of age appears to be accounted
for in part at least: first, by a decreased incidence of pneumonia as
compared with the males; and, second, by a lower fatality in those
cases which did develop pneumonia.
The relatively small number of fatalities in our own records do not
warrant a classification by age groups. We found that for all ages in
1918 7.9 per cent. of females developed pneumonia as contrasted
with 6.8 per cent. males. This does not include those who died. In
1920, 1.87 per cent. of the male cases died, while only 0.37 per cent.
of the females died. Five and fifteen-hundredths per cent. of all male
cases developed pneumonia and recovered, and 3.56 of the females
did likewise. In 1920 a higher proportion of males than females
developed pneumonia, and likewise a higher proportion died.
Relationship of age.—Leichtenstern has summarized the results
for the epidemic of thirty years ago, in saying that the death rate for
children under one year was little disturbed by the influenza
epidemic; that there was very little increase in mortality in the other
ages of childhood; that the higher age periods showed the greatest
relative mortality for the disease. On the contrary, the records for
England and for Switzerland showed during those periods a higher
death rate in children up to five years of age.

Percentages.
Ages. 1847–8 1890
1–5 10.5 5.2
5–20 13.1 4.3
20–40 3.8 4.7
40–60 18.5 36.2
60–80 16.9 22.4
Above 80 8.6 2.5

Giltay has compared the age mortality in Amsterdam in 1890,


1900 and 1918 as shown in the following table:
Under
14– 20– 50– Over
one 1–4 5–13 Total.
19 49 64 64
year.
1890 8.4 8.1 2.3 3.0 30.7 19.3 28.1 100
1900 9.7 8.8 1.6 3.2 17.6 18.3 40.8 100
1918 3.0 13.0 8.7 8.3 51.9 8.7 6.4 100
Evans has studied the records for the city of Chicago in the
epidemic of the year 1890, and found that the number of deaths was
highest among persons from 20 to 40 years of age. The greater
increase above the expected was in deaths of persons over 60 years of
age. Children of school age seemed to enjoy some relative immunity,
as shown in the mortality reports.
This latter age grouping for 30 years ago corresponds with those of
1918. Frost found that the death rate per 1,000 was notably high in
children under one year of age, in adults from 20 to 40, and in
persons over 60. The case fatality from pneumonia in his series
tended to be fairly constant, around 30 per cent., except in San
Antonio, Texas, where it was only 18.5 per cent. Case fatality was also
higher in the following age groups: Under one year, 20 to 40, and
over sixty.
This age distribution was probably the same in all countries.
Filtzos, describing the epidemic in Greece, said that the ages that
suffered most and had the most fatal cases were between 20 and 45.
In Spain in May and June of 1918 the mortality was much lower
among children and the aged than it was among the adults,
especially between 20 and 39 years of age. The disease appeared fatal
almost exclusively in these ages. In Vienna, 29.5 per cent. of all the
fatal cases were between the ages of 20 and 30. Hoppe-Seyler stated
that the ages of most of the cases were between 20 and 40 and the
majority between 30 and 40, but that the mortality was highest
among the older patients.
Dunlop found that in Scotland the most frequent ages at death
were between 25 and 35, 25.28 per cent. of the total being between
these two ages. 53.85 per cent. of the total deaths were between 15
and 45 years. The highest age group death rates occurred in age
groups 75 and over, and 25 to 35, the former being 7.87 per 1,000,
and the latter 7.12. High rates also occurred in age groups under one,
and 65 to 75, the former being 6.49, and the latter 5.33. The lowest
age group death rates were found in the groups which included
children of school age, 5 to 15, being 2.20 per cent., and the age
group 10 to 15, being 1.80 per cent. Dunlop has apparently only
included those cases in which influenza was diagnosed as the cause
of death, and has omitted all in which the diagnosis was bronchitis or
pneumonia.
The Bureau of the Census has issued a report based on the
mortality in Indiana, Kansas and Philadelphia, for the period
September 1st to December 31st, 1918. It shows that the highest rate
occurred in the age period from 30 to 34 years, with the period from
25 to 29 second. Of all the deaths tabulated more than half occurred
between the period of 20 to 40, although this age group represents
only 33 per cent. of the total population concerned.
Age mortality has been studied thoroughly by Winslow and Rogers
in Connecticut:
“The four last months of 1917 show a normal age distribution with
one quarter of all deaths occurring under five years of age, one
quarter between 5 and 40 years, and one-half over 40 years, the
proportion of the infant deaths decreasing and the proportion of
deaths in old age increasing as one passes from the season of
intestinal disturbances to the season of respiratory diseases. In 1918
the distribution of deaths from all causes is strikingly different.
Instead of less than a quarter of all deaths occurring between the
ages of 5 and 40 years, this period included 49 per cent. of all deaths
in 1918; and the two decades between 20 and 40 included 40 per
cent. of all deaths (as against only 14 per cent. in 1917).
“Considering influenza and pneumonia alone, these two decades
included 56 per cent. of the deaths, while only nine per cent.
occurred at ages over 49. The decade between 20 and 29 was most
severely affected, including 30 per cent. of all deaths, while the
decade between 30 and 39 was a close second with 26 per cent. An
even higher incidence occurred at ages under five years, as has been
brought out in other investigations, since this age period contributed
16 per cent. of all the influenza-pneumonia deaths. The proportion of
deaths from all causes in infancy did not rise even to normal, but
with the enormous rise in total deaths the maintenance of a nearly
normal ratio, of course, means a heavy influenza mortality.”
Jordan observes in his analysis a low pneumonia incidence among
the pupils of elementary and high schools. There were no deaths in
188 cases.
Wollstein and Goldbloom report that in a series of 36 children
with influenza and bronchopneumonia at the Babies Hospital in the
City of New York, 66.6 per cent. died. Achard and his co-workers
review a similar series of 32 infants in Paris with influenza. Eight of
the 32 died. In both of these studies we are dealing with selected
groups of hospital cases and the mortality rates are of little value for
this type of study.
Fränkel and Dublin in a study of 70,729 deaths from influenza-
pneumonia among the policyholders of the Industrial Department of
the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, find that during the
normal period between 1911 and 1917, influenza-pneumonia attacked
primarily the first age period of life, ages one to four years, and the
period of late middle life and old age. The rates are normally minimal
between 5 and 30 years. In the last quarter of 1918, on the other
hand, the highest rate among the whites is in the period of early
adult life, between the ages of 25 and 34. There appear three modal
points instead of the two at the extremes. They find that the excess
over normal was most marked in infancy and early childhood, and
particularly in early adult life, culminating between the ages of 25
and 34. The period of old age shows no significant excess during the
period of the epidemic.
If the deaths among the white males of the age period of active
adult life had continued throughout the whole year as they did
during the last quarter of 1918, approximately four per cent. of the
population of that age would have died.
Fränkel and Dublin are of the opinion that this change in the age
incidence of influenza mortality between epidemic and endemic
periods suggests strongly that the two diseases are different; that
endemic influenza is not the same disease as epidemic influenza. Or
perhaps they should say more correctly that the diseases occurring in
interepidemic times which are reported to them as deaths due to
influenza-pneumonia are not the same as the epidemic influenza.
They draw similar conclusions from the different manner in which
the white and black races are affected during the interepidemic and
epidemic periods, from so-called influenza-pneumonia. We have
seen from Frost’s results that it is hazardous to compare mortality
rates of different localities and different times with the idea of
comparing the disease, influenza, itself.
The ages showing highest mortality in the autumn of 1918 appear
to have been essentially the same as those which predominated thirty
years ago. There appears to be nothing in the age distribution that
could be explained by an immunity persisting over from the
epidemic of 1889–93. The age group 30 to 40 has almost universally
a higher mortality than the groups below 20, which would by this
theory be non-immune and would be expected to have a higher rate.
The drop in rate is nearer the age group of 40 than 30. The presence
of smaller or larger influenza epidemics in the course of the thirty
years would further complicate such an hypothesis.
Relationship to occupation.—Dublin found in a study of 4,700
miners that the death rate was unusually high from influenza in
these individuals for the last quarter of 1918. In fact in the age period
45 to 65 the rate among bituminous coal miners is close to four times
as high as among all occupied males. The annual death rate per
thousand for all ages among the former is 50.1; among all industrial
white males, 22.3. The increase is apparent in all age groups from 15
to 65 inclusive. These results are based on the records of the
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
Density of population. Rural and urban environment.—There
have been few reports which have like the above described clearly
variations due apparently only to occupational differences. Some
attention has been paid to a comparison of the rural incidence with
that in large cities. Although other factors play a part here, we may
consider this under the general subject of occupation. Statistics for
the fall of 1918 from the Netherlands show that with the exception of
men over 80 years of age the mortality was remarkably increased for
both sexes in communities of less than 20,000 inhabitants.
Winslow and Rogers have studied the variations in the urban and
rural incidence and find that in Connecticut with the single exception
of Tolland County, in which the small towns were severely hit, the
rates were in every case higher in the large communities. In New
Haven County, for instance, among nine towns which were purely
agricultural, the combined death rate from influenza and pneumonia
for the three months of September to November, inclusive, was 9.2
on an annual basis. For six towns in the same county in which there
were manufacturing plants the corresponding rate was 15.6. In
Litchfield County the twelve purely agricultural towns had a
combined rate of 6.5, whereas among eleven partly manufacturing
towns the rate was 18.3. This was true for other counties. The figures
quoted are for influenza-pneumonia rates only up to December 1st,
but study of the records during the early months of 1919 did not
show any change in the figures. The rates for the entire state for
January, 1919, was 19.8, and that for the towns under 5,000, only
17.5.
These observations differ somewhat from those reported by Pearl,
who studied 39 large cities of the United States in an attempt to find
a correlation between the explosiveness of the influenza outbreak
and the density of population. He concluded that there was no such
correlation. Pearl, however, was dealing with cities which were all
sufficiently large to offer practically complete opportunities for
contact infection, and the two reports, therefore, cannot be justly
compared. Winslow and Rogers suggest as possible causes for
lessened incidence in rural communities either diminished
opportunities for contact infection or differences in age distribution
and racial composition of the different populations.
Let us consider in greater detail the fate of both rural and urban
individuals who had been recently drafted into the military forces of
this country. Almost universally the raw recruit was found more
susceptible to disease than was the seasoned soldier. A report by
Lieutenant W. D. Wallis from Camp Lee “shows that while those who
had been in the service less than one month constituted only 9.19 per
cent. of the total strength, they furnished 30.11 per cent. of the total
deaths from influenza and consequent pneumonia. Furthermore, it is
shown that while those who had been in the service from one to three
months constituted 45.18 per cent. of the camp, they furnished 46.24
per cent. of deaths. On the other hand, those who had been in the
service more than three months constituted 46.63 per cent. of the
population and furnished only 23.69 per cent. of deaths.
Lieutenant Wallis says: “These figures show a much greater
percentage of deaths for the first month in camp than the
corresponding proportion of the population would warrant; while in
the period of three months or more of service the percentage is less
than half of that of the camp population having this length of service.
The only approach to a correspondence is in the period from one to
three months where the respective percentages differ but little. The
increase in length of service is accompanied by a progressive
decrease in the percentage of deaths from 30.11 per cent. to 27.41 per
cent. to 18.87 per cent., although only 9.19 per cent. of the
population in the camp falls within the class of less than one month’s
service.
“The incidence of mortality is in the first month’s service more
than three-fold the percentage of the number of men; and in the
period of three months or more of service is scarcely more than half
of the percentage of the number of men of the camp in that group.
“The fact that the case mortality is higher among those who came
from rural homes than among those who came from cities seems to
hold even after three month’s of service, or more.”
Vaughan and Palmer found that the case fatality at Camp Dix
among those who came from cities with a population of 10,000 or
more was 10.8; while among those who came from more rural homes
the rate was 15.8, although the average service of both groups was
the same.
The Camp Surgeon of Camp Grant concluded from his records that
the new recruit is more susceptible to influenza and is more apt to
succumb than is the man who has been trained and is accustomed to
Army life.
Wooley reports data collected from four Infantry organizations at
Camp Devens comprising 15,502 men. Of 9,559 men who had been
in camp less than five months, 3,575 or 37.5 per cent. developed
influenza, whereas of 5,943 men who had seen more than five
months service in the army, 1,033 or 17.5 per cent. developed the
disease. He concludes that the large number of recruits in the camp
certainly was a factor in increasing the disease incidence. It should
be remarked that Camp Devens appears not to have had any
influenza epidemic in the spring of 1918.
It is to be regretted that we have not several reports dealing with
the same subject from camps where the disease was definitely
recognized in the spring. Fortunately we have one such. Opie and his
co-workers have observed that the epidemic at Camp Funston, which
occurred between March 4th and March 29th, 1918, and which
attacked 1,127 out of a total of 29,000 men, involved chiefly the
organizations which had been at Camp Funston during six months or
more. At that time it seems to have infected all susceptible
individuals, and to have spent itself. Subsequent waves of influenza,
four in number, and coming at a little less than one month intervals,
occurred when newly drafted men were brought into the camp in
April and May. In these latter cases the disease affected the men
newly arrived in camp.
At Camp Funston, at least, the higher incidence in the raw recruit
appears to be explained in part by a relative immunity of those who
had been in camp a month or more, existing as a result of an earlier
prevalence of the disease. More abundant evidence would, however,
be necessary before we could deny a diminution of natural immunity
in the recruits, caused by the exposure, overwork, fatigue, and
change of daily routine. As V. C. Vaughan has remarked: “It appears
that natural immunity gives way before exposure, overwork and
fatigue, as was demonstrated years ago by Pasteur in his experiments
on birds with anthrax. Likewise, it is possible for human beings to
have their resistance lowered by exposure to unaccustomed
environment, so that although naturally immune, the standard of
immunity is reduced to the point where the influenza virus gains
admittance and overcomes the lowered resistance.”
Race stock and mortality.—The relationship of morbidity to race
stock has already been considered and should be borne in mind in a
discussion of mortality by race.
We have seen how the natives of India suffered unusually from the
influenza, the total deaths being estimated at over 5,000,000
individuals. A preliminary report from the Department of the
Interior on the mortality from influenza among American Indians
showed that during the six months period from October 1, 1918, to
March 31, 1919, over two per cent. of the Indian population died of
influenza. The mortality among Indians in the Mountain States,
especially in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico, was very high. For the
Indian population as a whole the annual mortality rate from
influenza alone during the six months period was according to the U.
S. Public Health Reports 41.2 per 1,000, which is above that for the
larger cities in the United States during the same epidemic period.
In both of the above races we cannot say that it was not factors
other than race, particularly living conditions, that resulted in the
high mortality.
Winslow and Rogers found in Connecticut that the proportion of
influenza-pneumonia deaths was lower than would be expected
among persons of native Irish, English and German stock, but higher
than would be expected among Russian, Austrian, Canadian and
Polish stock, and enormously high among Italians. They suggest that
this marked difference in racial incidence may be very largely due to
the differences in age distribution of the various race stocks, the
races showing the highest ratios being those which have arrived
more recently in the country and which are made up more largely of
young adults at the ages which suffer most severely from influenza.
They further refer to the work done by Armstrong in Framingham,
and state that their results tend to confirm his conclusions in regard
to the Italians, as do the figures presented by Greenberg from the
records of the Visiting Nurse Association of New Haven. “It appears
that Italy suffered very severely from the influenza epidemic in
Europe, and Dublin has shown that the normal pneumonia rate of
this race is a very high one.”
We have rather more abundant comparison of the white and black
races in this country. Frost found in his extensive survey that the
case fatality was generally higher among the colored than among the
white population. A similar observation was made by Howard and
Love, who found that the case mortality for influenza and its
complications in the United States and in the American
Expeditionary Forces, in 1918, was for colored troops 4.3 per cent.
and for white troops 3.3.
These two series of observations are of great importance, for they
are about all we have describing case fatality rate. The majority of
other reports describe mortality rate only, and are therefore not
complete.
The death rate in the Army was higher among colored troops, but
the incidence of influenza, the rate per 1,000, was lower for the
colored race. “Considering only the southern states, the nativity rate
for influenza for the white was 247.11 and for the colored, 154.58. For
lobar pneumonia it was 10.77 for the white and 28.31 for the colored;
for bronchopneumonia and unclassified pneumonia 7.26 for the
whites and 11.43 for the colored. It seems probable that the negro is
less susceptible to influenza than the southern whites, but that he is
much more susceptible to pneumonic infections, either primary or
secondary.”
Fränkel and Dublin have studied the racial distribution of 70,729
deaths among policy holders of the Industrial Department of the
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, particularly with respect to
incidence among white and black. Normally the mortality from
respiratory diseases is higher among colored persons than among
whites. In the seven year period from 1911 to 1917, influenza-
pneumonia death rates showed an excess of 72 per cent. colored
males over white males and of 56 per cent. colored females over
white females. During the period of the epidemic the situation was
reversed. The whites suffered from higher rates than the colored.
While the rate among white males during the period, October to
December, 1918, was nearly fifteen times as great as during the
period 1911 to 1917; that of colored males was only seven times as
great as the rate during the same seven year period. White females
during the height of the epidemic showed a rate more than sixteen
times as high as the normal, while colored females experienced a rate
only nine times as high. After the first of January, 1919, the excess
rate returned slowly to the normal figures. These facts are based on
death rate only.
Any comparison of race morbidity or mortality, to be of value,
must be based on observations of individuals living in the same
climate, in the same domestic environment, and in similar age
distribution. It is practically impossible to discover groups living
under such conditions. Howard and Love, perhaps, approached more
nearly to such an ideal in studying the white and black races in the
Army, but even in the military forces many factors are at play. Thus,
the death rate among enlisted men was highest among the American
troops in the United States (12.02); second in Europe (6.07); third in
Panama (1.09); fourth in Hawaii (0.55); fifth in the Philippine
Islands (0.14). By race it was highest for the colored troops (12.69);
second for the white (8.83); third for the Porto Ricans (7.80); fourth
for the Filippinos (2.84); and fifth for the Hawaiians (1.72). The
authors point out that while the native troops had higher admission
rates than the whites, the death rates were lower, which illustrates
the point that the death rate for this type of disease is lower in the
summer and in the tropics.
SECTION IV.
An Intensive Study of the Spread of Influenza in
Small Groups of Closely Associated Individuals.
We have been discussing the disease under consideration chiefly from the
viewpoint of the statistician. The statistician, possessing a wealth of information
of a general nature, and from all parts of the world, and armed with fascinating
complex mathematical instruments, is able to dissect the information at his
disposal, and to reconstruct therefrom both facts and apparent facts of absorbing
interest. To him we are indebted for the bulk of our knowledge of the distribution
and spread of the influenza through metropolises, through countries, and
through continents.
Like the aviator flying over enemy territory he acquires a breadth of vision and
a general perspective which is to a great extent denied to those remaining on the
ground. But also like the aviator, from the very fact of his high position he loses
the ability to recognize detail. The small subdivisions in the enemy lines are
slightly blurred and he can distinguish the front line trenches in which most of
the action is occurring no more clearly than the reserve and support trenches. An
Army depending entirely upon its aeroplane reconaissance would find itself
helpless in combating the enemy. The aeroplane is useful, yes, it could not be
dispensed with, but never an opportunity is lost for scouting parties to explore
the enemy front lines; it is these latter who bring back information as to the local
strength and distribution of the enemy, as to what particular divisions are in
action, as to the strength of the entrenchments, the enemy distribution within
the trenches, and finally what is most important, information as to the weak
points in the enemy’s lines, places at which we may concentrate our attack with
the hope of driving the enemy from its stronghold. Occasionally a raiding party
will return with a prisoner. He will be examined thoroughly and may yield some
valuable information. All such prisoners are not dressed alike. We recognize that
some belong to one regiment and some to another. After we have extracted what
information we can from the prisoner he is incarcerated, if we may extend our
metaphor, in a test tube, and there he remains for future reference. We do not
believe that these individual private soldiers are the cause of the war, but we do
know that they are doing their share of the killing—that they are doing most of
the killing.
It is characteristic of human enthusiasm and hopefulness that each raiding
party prays that it may bring back with it a general officer, a field marshall, the
one who is chiefly responsible for the enemy offensive. In our own little battle
with our invisible host we have long since discovered that field marshalls here as
elsewhere are difficult to discover by raiding parties. But the raids are and should
be made just the same. They almost invariably bring back some new item of
information, and it is the experience of many wars that even though the
commanding general be never captured, repeated small or large attacks
following preliminary reconaissance, if diligently and valiantly prosecuted under
good leadership may win the war.
In studying the life and habits of the influenza virus and its army of secondary
invaders, and the results thereof in small groups composed of individuals as the
unit, instead of large groups with communities as a unit, we will be able to
discover a certain number of additional facts, some of which may have
considerable value.
In the study by the author of six selected districts in Boston a special study was
made of the occurrence and manner of spread of the influenza in the household
or family as a unit. The 10,000 individuals canvassed were distributed through
2,117 families. Of these two thousand odd families, 45.44 per cent. were visited
with one or more cases of the disease in the 1918–19 epidemic, and 27.25 per
cent. in the winter of 1920. Of these, 14.31 per cent. had cases in both epidemics.
In either one or both of the two epidemics under consideration, 58.38 per cent.
of all families had influenza (see Table III).
TABLE III.
Per cent. of families invaded by influenza.
Boston District 1918–19 and
1918–19. 1920. Total.
No. 1920.
1 49.59 32.79 20.05 62.33
2 36.04 17.36 7.25 46.15
3 45.89 26.43 14.71 57.61
4 48.48 32.20 14.39 66.29
5 52.48 34.11 19.53 67.06
6 43.16 24.21 11.23 56.14
All Districts 45.44 27.25 14.31 58.38

Explanatory 45.44 per cent. of all families were invaded in 1918.


note:
27.25 per cent. of all families were invaded in 1920.
14.31 per cent. of all families were invaded in both epidemics.
58.38 per cent. of all families were invaded in one or the other or both.
41.62 per cent. of all families remained free from influenza throughout both
epidemics.

In this discussion of family incidence, as in our work on the incidence among


individuals, the question naturally arises as to the reliability of our information
and the accuracy of our results. We have shown the close correspondence
between our own results and those of Frost, done on a vastly larger number of
individuals. The information for families was obtained from the same sources
and from the same individuals. The thoroughness with which the inspectors did
their work is indicated by the fact that in addition to the 2,117 families on which
we base our results, only the records of 194 families have been discarded for
various reasons. In discarding the family records we also discarded the
individual records and such are, therefore, for individuals above our total of

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