Next Issue
Volume 3, June
Previous Issue
Volume 2, December
 
 

Information, Volume 3, Issue 1 (March 2012) – 8 articles , Pages 1-174

  • Issues are regarded as officially published after their release is announced to the table of contents alert mailing list.
  • You may sign up for e-mail alerts to receive table of contents of newly released issues.
  • PDF is the official format for papers published in both, html and pdf forms. To view the papers in pdf format, click on the "PDF Full-text" link, and use the free Adobe Reader to open them.
Order results
Result details
Section
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
818 KiB  
Article
The Causal-Compositional Concept of Information Part I. Elementary Theory: From Decompositional Physics to Compositional Information
by Gerhard Luhn
Information 2012, 3(1), 151-174; https://doi.org/10.3390/info3010151 - 16 Mar 2012
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 7395
Abstract
This first part of the study introduces an elementary concept of information. Our interest for newness, our curiosity in the new, will be considered as a main building block of information, and of reality itself. A typical definition of information (the reduction of [...] Read more.
This first part of the study introduces an elementary concept of information. Our interest for newness, our curiosity in the new, will be considered as a main building block of information, and of reality itself. A typical definition of information (the reduction of uncertainty) needs to be fundamentally inverted: Information is a compositional activity, including the inconsistent, the paradox, the contradiction and the incoherent meaning. This study expands on the analysis of the composition of new structure (new macrophysical laws), and the analysis of the causality and causal state of such structures (“causally active symbols”). The classical, scientific-objective, passive understanding of information gives meaning to the fact that modern information technology does not by itself lead to an increase of human values. However, our social and moral stance is an informational one, and our informational, active conscious process holds the power to mediate and to enforce this process towards an enriched life. The indicator for such enrichment is given to us by information, and the knowledge about this process will feed us with energy to move towards an active spirit of ethics, and towards the information society. Part I of this study expands on the fundament basis and on our intrinsic responsibility to release the forces that are based on the active dimension of information. Those forces are required in order to reveal the so-called information society from its metaphorical character (Part II). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Information and Energy/Matter)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

557 KiB  
Article
Toward a New Scientific Visualization for the Language Sciences
by Luca Onnis and Michael J. Spivey
Information 2012, 3(1), 124-150; https://doi.org/10.3390/info3010124 - 20 Feb 2012
Cited by 114 | Viewed by 8697
Abstract
All scientists use data visualizations to discover patterns in their phenomena that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. Likewise, we also use scientific visualizations to help us describe our verbal theories and predict those data patterns. But scientific visualization may also constitute a hindrance [...] Read more.
All scientists use data visualizations to discover patterns in their phenomena that may have otherwise gone unnoticed. Likewise, we also use scientific visualizations to help us describe our verbal theories and predict those data patterns. But scientific visualization may also constitute a hindrance to theory development when new data cannot be accommodated by the current dominant framework. Here we argue that the sciences of language are currently in an interim stage using an increasingly outdated scientific visualization borrowed from the box-and-arrow flow charts of the early days of engineering and computer science. The original (and not yet fully discarded) version of this obsolete model assumes that the language faculty is composed of autonomously organized levels of linguistic representation, which in turn are assumed to be modular, organized in rank order of dominance, and feed unidirectionally into one another in stage-like algorithmic procedures. We review relevant literature in psycholinguistics and language acquisition that cannot be accommodated by the received model. Both learning and processing of language in children and adults, at various putative ‘levels’ of representation, appear to be highly integrated and interdependent, and function simultaneously rather than sequentially. The fact that half of the field sees these findings as trivially true and the other half argues fiercely against them suggests to us that the sciences of language are on the brink of a paradigm shift. We submit a new scientific visualization for language, in which stacked levels of linguistic representation are replaced by trajectories in a multidimensional space. This is not a mere redescription. Processing language in the brain equates to traversing such a space in regions afforded by multiple probabilistic cues that simultaneously activate different linguistic representations. Much still needs to be done to convert this scientific visualization into actual implemented models, but at present it allows language scientists to envision new concepts and venues for research that may assist the field in transitioning to a new conceptualization, and provide a clear direction for the next decade. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cognition and Communication)
Show Figures

Figure 1

320 KiB  
Article
If Physics Is an Information Science, What Is an Observer?
by Chris Fields
Information 2012, 3(1), 92-123; https://doi.org/10.3390/info3010092 - 16 Feb 2012
Cited by 60 | Viewed by 5949
Abstract
Interpretations of quantum theory have traditionally assumed a “Galilean” observer, a bare “point of view” implemented physically by a quantum system. This paper investigates the consequences of replacing such an informationally-impoverished observer with an observer that satisfies the requirements of classical automata theory, [...] Read more.
Interpretations of quantum theory have traditionally assumed a “Galilean” observer, a bare “point of view” implemented physically by a quantum system. This paper investigates the consequences of replacing such an informationally-impoverished observer with an observer that satisfies the requirements of classical automata theory, i.e., an observer that encodes sufficient prior information to identify the system being observed and recognize its acceptable states. It shows that with reasonable assumptions about the physical dynamics of information channels, the observations recorded by such an observer will display the typical characteristics predicted by quantum theory, without requiring any specific assumptions about the observer’s physical implementation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Information and Energy/Matter)
155 KiB  
Review
What Is Information?: Why Is It Relativistic and What Is Its Relationship to Materiality, Meaning and Organization
by Robert K. Logan
Information 2012, 3(1), 68-91; https://doi.org/10.3390/info3010068 - 14 Feb 2012
Cited by 143 | Viewed by 14592
Abstract
We review the historic development of concept of information including the relationship of Shannon information and entropy and the criticism of Shannon information because of its lack of a connection to meaning. We review the work of Kauffman, Logan et al. that shows [...] Read more.
We review the historic development of concept of information including the relationship of Shannon information and entropy and the criticism of Shannon information because of its lack of a connection to meaning. We review the work of Kauffman, Logan et al. that shows that Shannon information fails to describe biotic information. We introduce the notion of the relativity of information and show that the concept of information depends on the context of where and how it is being used. We examine the relationship of information to meaning and materiality within information theory, cybernetics and systems biology. We show there exists a link between information and organization in biotic systems and in the various aspects of human culture including language, technology, science, economics and governance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Information: Its Different Modes and Its Relation to Meaning)
217 KiB  
Review
Strategies for Successful Information Technology Adoption in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
by Morteza Ghobakhloo, Tang Sai Hong, Mohammad Sadegh Sabouri and Norzima Zulkifli
Information 2012, 3(1), 36-67; https://doi.org/10.3390/info3010036 - 13 Feb 2012
Cited by 144 | Viewed by 34455
Abstract
Information Technology (IT) adoption is an important field of study in a number of areas, which include small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Due to the numerous advantages of IT, SMEs are trying to adopt IT applications to support their businesses. IT adoption by [...] Read more.
Information Technology (IT) adoption is an important field of study in a number of areas, which include small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Due to the numerous advantages of IT, SMEs are trying to adopt IT applications to support their businesses. IT adoption by SMEs differs from larger organizations because of their specific characteristics, such as resources constraints. Therefore, this research aims to provide a better and clearer understanding of IT adoption within SMEs by reviewing and analyzing current IT literature. In this research, the review of literature includes theories, perspectives, empirical research and case studies related to IT adoption, in particular within SMEs from various databases such as Business Premier, Science Direct, JStor, Emerald Insight and Springer Link. The proposed model of effective IT adoption is believed to provide managers, vendors, consultants and governments with a practical synopsis of the IT adoption process in SMEs, which will in turn assist them to be successful with IT institutionalization within these businesses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Review)
Show Figures

Figure 1

257 KiB  
Article
Chemical Affinity as Material Agency for Naturalizing Contextual Meaning
by Koichiro Matsuno and Stanley N. Salthe
Information 2012, 3(1), 21-35; https://doi.org/10.3390/info3010021 - 16 Jan 2012
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 7149
Abstract
Chemical affinity involves the integration of two different types of interaction. One is the interaction operating between a pair of reactants while forming a chemical bond, and the other is the prior interaction between those reactants when they identify a reaction partner. The [...] Read more.
Chemical affinity involves the integration of two different types of interaction. One is the interaction operating between a pair of reactants while forming a chemical bond, and the other is the prior interaction between those reactants when they identify a reaction partner. The context of the environments under which chemical reactions proceed is identified by the interaction of the participating chemical reactants themselves unless the material process of internal measurement is substituted by theoretical artifacts in the form of imposed boundary conditions, as in the case, for example, of thermal equilibrium. The identification-interaction specific to each local participant serves as a preparation for the making of chemical bonds. The identification-interaction is intrinsically selective in precipitating those chemical bonds that are synthesized most rapidly among possible reactions. Once meta-stable products appear that mediate chemical syntheses and their partial decompositions without totally decomposing, those products would become selective because of their ongoing participation in the identification-interaction. One important natural example must have been the origin and evolution of life on Earth. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Information and Energy/Matter)
72 KiB  
Editorial
Introduction to the Special Issue on Information: Selected Papers from “FIS 2010 Beijing”
by Raquel del Moral and Pedro C. Marijuán
Information 2012, 3(1), 16-20; https://doi.org/10.3390/info3010016 - 04 Jan 2012
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 5367
Abstract
During the last two decades, a systematic re-examination of the whole information science field has taken place around the FIS—Foundations of Information Science—initiative. With the occasion of its Fourth Conference in Beijing 2010, a group of selected contributors and leading practitioners of those [...] Read more.
During the last two decades, a systematic re-examination of the whole information science field has taken place around the FIS—Foundations of Information Science—initiative. With the occasion of its Fourth Conference in Beijing 2010, a group of selected contributors and leading practitioners of those fields have been invited to contribute to this Special Issue. What is the status of information science today? What is the relationship between information and the laws of nature? Is information merely “physical”? What is the difference between information and computation? Has the genomic revolution changed the contemporary views on information and life? And what about the nature of social information? Cogent answers to these questions and to quite many others are attempted in the contributions that follow. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from "FIS 2010 Beijing")
149 KiB  
Article
Self-Organized Complexity and Coherent Infomax from the Viewpoint of Jaynes’s Probability Theory
by William A. Phillips
Information 2012, 3(1), 1-15; https://doi.org/10.3390/info3010001 - 04 Jan 2012
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 8578
Abstract
This paper discusses concepts of self-organized complexity and the theory of Coherent Infomax in the light of Jaynes’s probability theory. Coherent Infomax, shows, in principle, how adaptively self-organized complexity can be preserved and improved by using probabilistic inference that is context-sensitive. It argues [...] Read more.
This paper discusses concepts of self-organized complexity and the theory of Coherent Infomax in the light of Jaynes’s probability theory. Coherent Infomax, shows, in principle, how adaptively self-organized complexity can be preserved and improved by using probabilistic inference that is context-sensitive. It argues that neural systems do this by combining local reliability with flexible, holistic, context-sensitivity. Jaynes argued that the logic of probabilistic inference shows it to be based upon Bayesian and Maximum Entropy methods or special cases of them. He presented his probability theory as the logic of science; here it is considered as the logic of life. It is concluded that the theory of Coherent Infomax specifies a general objective for probabilistic inference, and that contextual interactions in neural systems perform functions required of the scientist within Jaynes’s theory. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Information and Energy/Matter)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Previous Issue
Next Issue
Back to TopTop