Differation

Differation is a term devised by Charles Douglas Wehner for the discovering of logical similarities and logical differences between data sets. The reverse of differation is "summaration".

The processes of differating and summarating are defined as the "New Calculus of Sets", an extension to the "Set Theory" of Georg Cantor.

Incoming data is compared with sets of past data. If two consecutive closed sets of past data match – both qualitatively and consecutively – with the new data, that new data is encapsulated as a new set.

The consequence upon the data is that it becomes compressed by this encapsulation process. Furthermore, new data that cannot be compressed becomes emphasised in the output data-stream.

The uses are manyfold. Firstly, high-definition television and audio systems may be devised in which the only data-processing is the generic detection of repeats. The transmission bandwidth requirements depend only on the quantity of new data (of "Data Events") in the source data.

Secondly, the discovery of this generic algorithm for "newness" detection leads to the realisation that time and storage are opposites. That which is in the time domain is changing. Data in the storage domain is unchanging. So a machine may be made aware of changes in the domain of time and emulate the consciousness of humans and of higher animals.

The conscious mind lives in the domain of time. The subconscious mind exists in the domain of storage.

Single-channel data processing will never generate a "personality" as complex as that of a human. There are seven senses – the five from Aristotle (taste, smell, vision, hearing and touch) as well as the sense of balance (added to the set by Martin Wilsher) and the sense of temperature (added by Charles Douglas Wehner). However, when sets of data from one such "sensory channel" are differated, and differated with differated sets from other "channels", something approaching high-level artificial intelligence might be achieved.

Charles Douglas Wehner applied for a patent for the processing algorithm in March 2005, but published the details for academic research. They can be found at http://www.wehner.org/compress .

CDW