SEFA, or Symbolic Emergence Field Analysis, finds structure by combining four features using information theory and self-calibrating to let data decide which features matter most based on their global information content.
SEFA aims to detect emergence, which is the difference between noise and meaning, in various contexts such as neural bursts, social network clusters, and prime number distribution.
It does not rely on fixed thresholds or domain-specific tricks, offering a universal and data-driven approach to reveal hidden order.
SEFA breaks down the process into steps like constructing a base field, capturing the signal's essence with analytic methods, deconstructing geometry, normalizing features, and letting the data dictate importance through self-calibration.
The SEFA score is a composite score that represents structuredness based on multiple informative features agreeing, prioritizing regions with high emergence.
SEFA's weighting scheme is objective, allowing data to determine feature relevance without requiring manual tuning, ensuring robustness and minimizing false positives or biases.
It can be applied to domains beyond number theory, such as EEG burst detection, social network clusters, and even uncovering hidden signals in non-coding DNA.
SEFA's approach involves trusting the data over preconceptions, using entropy to weight features and detect meaningful patterns.
It acknowledges limitations related to data stability, nonstationarity, and computational complexity, emphasizing the importance of cross-validation and critical analysis.
SEFA offers a principled way to uncover meaningful structure in diverse datasets, encouraging curiosity, skepticism, and a deeper understanding of emergence in both data and life.
SEFA is a self-calibrating mathematical method for detecting symbolic emergence in complex data, applicable in various fields beyond number theory due to its domain-agnostic nature.