4 papers
Agent-based imitation dynamics can yield efficiently compressed population-level vocabularies
Nathaniel Imel, Richard Futrell, Michael Franke +1
Natural languages have been argued to evolve under pressure to efficiently compress meanings into words by optimizing the Information Bottleneck (IB) complexity-accuracy tradeoff.…
On convexity and efficiency in semantic systems
Nathaniel Imel, Noga Zaslavasky
There are two widely held characterizations of human semantic category systems: (1) they form convex partitions of conceptual spaces, and (2) they are efficient for communication.…
Evolution and compression in LLMs: On the emergence of human-aligned categorization
Nathaniel Imel, Noga Zaslavsky
Converging evidence suggests that human systems of semantic categories achieve near-optimal compression via the Information Bottleneck (IB) complexity-accuracy tradeoff. Large lang…
Density, asymmetry and citation dynamics in scientific literature
Nathaniel Imel, Zachary Hafen
Scientific behavior is often characterized by a tension between building upon established knowledge and introducing novel ideas. Here, we investigate whether this tension is reflec…