Proceedings, 2020, IS4SI 2019

Robert K. Logan, Annette Grathoff and I agreed in late summer 2017 to start a research project on the origins of systems thinking. About a year later, we moved the project from the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science to the only recently re-established Institute for a Global Sustainable Information Society (GSIS), of which I had become Director. Bob was a member of the Advisory Committee and Annette was a researcher. It was a GSIS project without funding and has been fed by voluntary contributions so far. The basic hypothesis was that systems thinking did not start with, say, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, but has been part and parcel of mundane thinking and, as such, goes back to the early days of mankind. The presentation at hand outlines three steps of anthroposociogenesis and how systems thinking might have emerged step by step. It connects to my Triple-C Model (Cognition—Communication—Co-operation) and to my characterisation of the current world situation as Great Bifurcation, making use of the term “Third” to depict an evolving anthropological feature. Full article

Due to certain progress made in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related fields, there is a common agreement that we are facing a blurring of the human and the artificial. This presentation will argue that this agreement is rather one that pertains to anthropomorphic notations when dealing with computers and computer-based devices, as opposed to one that is justified by engineering results. In fact, the language used to describe mechanic functions hides what ontologically occurs, and how the autonomy of humans can be endangered. The clarification intended here uses the philosophical distinction between agents and patients and translates it into the systems theoretical distinction between self-organising systems and non-self-organising entities. Full article

One of the imperative tasks of theoretical information studies is exploration of methods and techniques of presentation of information. In this article, we study the presentation of information in the following three books describing the results of the collaboration of researchers with the goal of defining the emergent filed of the Study of Information: Philosophy and Methodology of Information: The Study of Information in a Transdisciplinary Perspective (2019), Theoretical Information Studies: Information in the World (2020) and Information and Computation (2011), published by World Scientific Publishing Co. Series in Information Studies. Full article

This paper contains further analysis of the concept of information aimed at discovering new features of this mysterious but very important phenomenon. We base our analysis on the general theory of information and contemporary theoretical physics. This approach allows for the explication of two basic complementary types of information—potential and impact information. In such a way, we achieve a better understanding of information as a natural and social phenomenon, which serves as a base for developing novel tools for measuring information. Full article

An overview of neural network architectures is presented. Some of these architectures have been created in recent years, whereas others originate from many decades ago. Apart from providing a practical tool for comparing deep learning models, the Neural Network Zoo also uncovers a taxonomy of network architectures, their chronology, and traces back lineages and inspirations for these neural information processing systems. Full article

Local mathematics consists of a collection of mathematical systems located at each space and time point. The collection is limited to the systems that include numbers in their axiomatic description. A scalar map between systems at different locations is based on the distinction of two conflated concepts, number and number value. The effect that this setup has on theory descriptions of physical and geometric systems is described. This includes a scalar spin 0 field in gauge theories, expectation values in quantum mechanics and path lengths in geometry. The possible relation of the scalar map to consciousness is noted. Full article

Up to now both information and its connection to reality do not have scientifically conclusive definitions, nor implicit origin. They emerge in observing multiple impulses’ interactive yes‒no actions modeling information bits. Each memorized bit of information binds a reversible microprocess with an irreversible information macroprocess along a multi-dimensional observing process. Interactive information dynamics assemble geometrical and information structures of observer cognition and intelligence in double spiral rotating code. Information Path Functional integrates multiple interactive dynamics in finite bits which observe and measure reality. The time and space of reality exists only as discrete units of information. The observed information process, creating its Observer, connects reality, information, and the Observer. Full article

The meaning of information can be understood as a relationship between information systems. This study presents a brief outline of theoretical tools for the analysis of this relationship. Considering the informational character of reality, it is natural to extend the relationships between signs to include the concept of meaning as another instance of a relation between the informational entities of a sign and its denotation. However, this approach to the semantics of information does not require any specific ontological commitment, as the intention is always directed towards the object presented to us as a structural manifestation of information. Whether there is something that differs from this informational structure and is beyond our capacity to comprehend directly, or whether there are objects that are the result of our own active engagement in their formation, is a matter of ontological position, with respect to which our approach is neutral. The experience of logic tells us about the dangers of self-reference and the problem of the non-definability of the truth, demonstrated by Tarski. To avoid similar problems, we need precise theoretical tools to analyze relationships between information systems and between instances of information involved in semantics. These tools are also necessary for the definition and analysis of levels of informational abstraction that extend beyond the traditional linguistic and logical context. Full article

What are the appropriate concepts of information? This is an old issue, yet which has to be the No.1 and cannot be ignored in the study of information science. Diverse controversies and confusions in the studies of information are resulted from different understandings of the concept of information. This fact clearly indicates that the real root, which leads to the diversity of approaches, is due to the “divide and conquer” methodology. We suggest here a novel understanding of the concept of information. At first, a group of popular definitions of information are analyzed. Then, the system methodology is applied to the diversity of the definitions with the goal of unification. Based on this methodology, an ecological model for information is established and the systematic definitions of information are hence derived from this model. Full article

The Church–Turing thesis deals with computing functions that are described by a list of formal, mathematical rules or sequences of event-driven actions such as modeling, simulation, business workflows, etc. All algorithms that are Turing computable fall within the boundaries of the Church–Turing thesis. There are two paths to pushing the boundaries. The first is to address the limitation in the clause “ignoring resource limitations”. The second is to search for computing models that solve problems that no ordinary Turing machine can solve using superrecursive algorithms. We argue that “structural machines” provide a new solution to managing both without disrupting the computation itself. Full article

The subject of the paper is a description of how discursive space exists as a space of knowledge. The paper assumes that discourses as retention and articulation of knowledge travel across a multidimensional space, the dimensions of which determine knowledge (i.e., its contents). In this way, discourse achieves the status of a (dynamic) unit of knowledge that is autonomous. Discursive space exists as the realization of the world of affairs (the world of facts by Wittgenstein). Because of the holistic nature of the world so defined, it contains everything, and thus also various discourses and various discursive spaces. Full article

The concept of operator is exceedingly important in many areas as a tool of theoretical studies and practical applications. Here, we introduce the operator theory of computing, opening new opportunities for the exploration of computing devices, networks, and processes. In particular, the operator approach allows for the solving of many computing problems in a more general context of operating spaces. In addition, operator representation of computing devices and their networks allows for the construction of a variety of operator compositions and the development of new schemas of computation as well as network and computer architectures using operations with operators. Besides, operator representation allows for the efficient application of the axiomatic technique for the investigation of computation. Full article

This work presents the main points of Deacon’s theory about the emergence of human language, which are summarized as follows: (1) a relaxed selection processes with the evolution of cooperative social life; (2) the development of first simple symbolic information systems of earlier hominids; (3) their long evolution to language over 2 million years, in a bio-cultural co-evolution of both language and the brain. It examines the main foundations of Deacon’s theory, how these have been deepened gradually, and the hypotheses concerning the first symbolic systems and possible ways that they evolved to language and human species. Full article

Despite the substantial interest in intelligence, both natural and artificial, and active research in this area, there is still considerable disagreement about what exactly constitutes intelligence. The problem-oriented approach to intelligence is based on evaluation of intelligence of a system by the level of problems this system is able to solve. The goal of this work is to develop a problem-oriented theory of intelligence in such a way that ecological characteristics become parameters of the problem-oriented model of intelligence. This model is constructed using mathematical theories and algorithmic reasoning. The suggested approach allows the reorganizing of the existing typologies of intelligence developed in works of different psychologists, providing better theoretical tools for intelligence measurement and evaluation. Full article

Information is often stored in the relational database. This technology is now fifty years old, but there remain patterns of relational data that have not yet been studied. The abstract presents a new data pattern called the branching data model (BDM). It represents the pure alignment of the table’s schema, its data content, and the operations on these two structures. Using a well-defined SELECT statement, an input data condition and its output values form a primitive tree structure. While this relationship is formed outside of the query, the abstract shows how we can view it as a tree structure within the table. Using algorithms, including AI, it goes on to show how this data model connects with others, within the table and between them, to form a new, uniform level of abstraction over the data throughout the database. Full article

Complexity measures allow for reflecting on critical issues and estimating the efficiency of various processes and systems. To better organize the functioning of the legal domain, it is rational to use complexity measures. In essence, any legal process is an information process in the legal domain, involving one or several legal systems. Thus, the goal of this work is the development of theoretical and practical tools for the estimation of complexity of information processes, that is, complexity measures in the legal domain, with the goal to ameliorate functioning of the legal systems. Full article

As Wiener asserted, information is information, not matter, not energy. Physical aspects of information are deeply grounded in energy transformation processes. Adopting an evolutionary perspective, it is demonstrated that there are two complementary informative influences on energy transformation. To do this, we use a simple model of an idealized monochord instrument. This allows modeling information contained in the kinetics of the oscillating string as both (a) generated by the structure of the instrument, and (b) generating non-arbitrary motion structures in sensible receiving configurations that are similar in scale, geometry, and material properties. Full article

Based on Deacon’s biosemiotic theory, the diversification of symbolic systems in human evolution is examined. They are contrasted with human language, chimps using symbolic lexigrams and hominid symbolic systems, like mate contract. Communication, knowledge and normativity are three roles identified in symbolic systems, examined for the power advantages they provide members through emergent constraints whose sources are associated with language, music, marriage and myth, and math and science. Finally, a hypothetical 2^nd symbolic hierarchic transition in human evolution is briefly presented. Full article

The goal of this work is to explain a novel information paradigm claiming that all information results from a process, intrinsic to living beings, of self-production; a sensory commensurable, self-referential feedback process immanent to Bateson’s difference that makes a difference. To highlight and illustrate this fundamental process, a simulation based on one-parameter feedback is presented. It simulates a homeorhetic process, innate to organisms, illustrating a self-referenced, autonomous system. The illustrated recursive process is sufficiently generic to be the only basis for information in nature: from the single cell, to multi-cellular organisms, to consideration of all types of natural and non-natural phenomena, including tools and artificial constructions. Full article

The leading theme of the 2019 Summit of International Society for the Study of Information held 2–6 June 2019 at The University of California at Berkeley was the question “Where is the I in AI and the meaning of Information?” The question addresses one of the central issues not only for scientific research and philosophical reflection, but also for technological, economic, and social practice. The Conference “Morphological, Natural, Analog, and Other Unconventional Forms of Computing for Cognition and Intelligence” (MORCOM 2019) was focused on this theme from the perspective of unconventional forms of computing. The present paper, written by the organizers of the conference, reports the objectives of MORCOM 2019 and provides an overview of the contributions. Full article

Eco-cognitive computationalism considers computation in the context of following some of the main tenets advanced by the recent cognitive science views on embodied, situated and distributed cognition. It is in the framework of this eco-cognitive perspective that we can usefully analyze the recent attention in computer science devoted to the importance of the simplification of cognitive and motor tasks caused in organic entities by the morphological features: ignorant bodies can be domesticated to become useful “mimetic bodies”, that is to be able to render an intertwined computation simpler, resorting to that “simplexity” of animal embodied cognition, which represents one of the main qualities of organic agents. Through eco-cognitive computationalism we can clearly acknowledge that the concept of computation changes, depending on historical and contextual causes and we can build an epistemological view that illustrates the “emergence” of new kinds of computations, such as the one regarding morphological computation. This new perspective shows how the computational domestication of ignorant entities can originate new unconventional cognitive embodiments. I also introduce the concept of overcomputationalism, showing that my proposed framework helps us see the related concepts of pancognitivism, paniformationalism and pancomputationalism in a more naturalized and prudent perspective, avoiding the excess of old-fashioned ontological or metaphysical overstatements. Full article

According to the currently dominant view, cognitive science is a study of mind and intelligence focused on computational models of knowledge in humans. It is described in terms of symbol manipulation over formal language. This approach is connected with a variety of unsolvable problems, as pointed out by Thagard. In this paper, I argue that the main reason for the inadequacy of the traditional view of cognition is that it detaches the body of a human as the cognizing agent from the higher-level abstract knowledge generation. It neglects the dynamical aspects of cognitive processes, emotions, consciousness, and social aspects of cognition. It is also uninterested in other cognizing agents such as other living beings or intelligent machines. Contrary to the traditional computationalism in cognitive science, the morphological computation approach offers a framework that connects low-level with high-level approaches to cognition, capable of meeting challenges listed by Thagard. To establish this connection, morphological computation generalizes the idea of computation from symbol manipulation to natural/physical computation and the idea of cognition from the exclusively human capacity to the capacity of all goal-directed adaptive self-reflective systems, living organisms as well as robots. Cognition is modeled as a layered process, where at the lowest level, systems acquire data from the environment, which in combination with the already stored data in the morphology of an agent, presents the basis for further structuring and self-organization of data into information and knowledge. Full article

The present paper is intended as a defense of the view that whatever makes AI so useful and successful in competition with humans, it does not have to be intelligence, at least as we use this term in the human context. After all, the question of qualification for human beings to be considered intelligent does not have a definite answer. There is not even a common agreement on whether we can identify criteria for one (general or unified) intelligence or whether we should rather consider multiple intelligences. Thus, our discussion is focusing not on a complete definition of intelligence, but only on its necessary conditions, and not on computing artefacts, but on the process of computing in its Turing Machine model. Are there any features of computing which are in contradiction with the idea of intelligence? This is the reason why the title of this paper is formulated in a negative way, with the question of whether intelligent computing is an oxymoron. Full article

Cloud computing makes the necessary resources available to the appropriate computation to improve scaling, resiliency, and the efficiency of computations. This makes cloud computing a new paradigm for computation by upgrading its artificial intelligence (AI) to a higher order. To explore cloud computing using theoretical tools, we use cloud automata as a new model for computation. Higher-level AI requires infusing features of the human brain into AI systems such as incremental learning all the time. Consequently, we propose computational models that exhibit incremental learning without stopping (sentience). These features are inherent in reflexive Turing machines, inductive Turing machines, and limit Turing machines. Full article

Traditional models of computations, such as Turing machines or partial recursive functions, perform computations of functions using a definite program controlling these computations. This approach detaches data, which are processed, and the permanent program, which controls this processing. Physical computers often process not only data but also their software (programs). To reflect this peculiarity of physical computers, symmetric models of computations and automata were introduced. In this paper, we study information processing by symmetric models, which are called symmetric inductive Turing machines and reflexive inductive Turing machines. Full article

In the physical world, computing processes, message communication networks and cognitive apparatuses are the building blocks of sentient beings. Genes and neural networks provide complementary information processing models that enable execution of mechanisms dealing with “life” using physical, chemical and biological processes. A cognizing agent architecture (mind) provides the orchestration of body and the brain to manage the “life” processes to deal with fluctuations and maintain survival and sustenance. We present a new information processing architecture that enables “digital genes” and “digital neurons” with cognizing agent architecture to design and implement sentient, resilient and intelligent systems in the digital world. Full article

Concepts from thermodynamics are ubiquitous in computing systems today—e.g., in power supplies and cooling systems, in signal transport losses, in device fabrication, in state changes, and in the methods of machine learning. Here we propose that thermodynamics should be the central, unifying concept in future computing systems. In particular, we suppose that future computing technologies will thermodynamically evolve in response to electrical and information potential in their environment and, therefore, address the central challenges of energy efficiency and self-organization in technological systems. In this article, we summarize the motivation for a new computing paradigm grounded in thermodynamics and articulate a vision for such future systems. Full article

Current approaches in science, including most machine and deep learning methods, rely heavily at their core on traditional statistics and information theory, but these theories are known to fail to capture certain fundamental properties of data and the world related to recursive and computable phenomena, and they are ill-equipped to deal with high-level functions such as inference, abstraction, modelling and causation, being fragile and easily deceived. How is it that some of these approaches have (apparently) been successfully applied? We explore recent attempts to adopt more powerful, albeit more difficult methods, methods based on the theories of computability and algorithmic probability, which may eventually display and grasp these higher level elements of human intelligence. We propose that a fundamental question in science regarding how to find shortcuts for faster adoption of proven mathematical tools can be answered by shortening the adoption cycle and leaving behind old practices in favour of new ones. This is the case for randomness, where science continues to cling to purely statistical tools in disentangling randomness from meaning, and is stuck in a self-deluding pattern of still privileging regression and correlation despite the fact that mathematics has made important advances to better characterise randomness that have yet to be incorporated into scientific theory and practice. Full article

Knowledge systems often have very sophisticated structures depicting cognitive and
structural entities. For instance, representation of knowledge in the form of a text involves the
structure of this text. This structure is represented by a hypertext, which is networks consisting of
linguistic objects, such as words, phrases and sentences, with diverse links connecting them.
Current computational machines and automata such as Turing machines process information in
the form of symbol sequences. Here we discuss based the methods of structural machines
achieving higher flexibility and efficiency of information processing in comparison with regular
models of computation. Being structurally universal abstract automata, structural machines allow
working directly with knowledge structures formed by knowledge objects and connections
between them. Full article

Whichever definition of autonomy is used, it is usually formulated in a negative way by the absence, rather than presence, of the defining factors. Some definitions refer to the absence of external causes, physical determination, coercion or control. If positive factors are used, autonomy is associated with the shift from effective causes to final ones. Both approaches, the former of which is based on the elimination of determinism to secure free choice, and the latter of which is based on the replacement of determination by the past by determination by the future, are inconsistent with the scientific description of reality. This paper is an attempt to provide the positive, constructive characterization of autonomy consistent with the scientific view of reality, which can guide us in our search for its implementation in artefacts. Full article

Eco-cognitive computationalism sees computation in context, adopting the intellectual visions advanced by the cognitive science perspectives on embodied, situated, and distributed cognition. It is in this framework that we can fruitfully study the relevance in recent computer science devoted to the simplification of cognitive and motor tasks generated in organic entities by the morphological aspects. Ignorant bodies can be cognitively “domesticated” to become useful “mimetic bodies'', which originate eccentric new computational embodiments capable of rendering an involved computation simpler and more efficient. On the basis of these considerations, we will also see how the concept of computation changes, being related to historical and contextual factors, so that the “emergence'' of new kinds of computations can be epistemologically clarified, such as the one regarding morphological computation. Finally, my presentation will introduce and discuss the concept of overcomputationalism, as intertwined with the traditional concepts of pancognitivism, paniformationalism, and pancomputationalism, seeing them in a more naturalized intellectual disposition, more appropriate to the aim of bypass ontological or metaphysical overstatements. Full article

As the degree of intelligence in social development increases, the future society will present new features. For example, the necessary labor time for humans will be greatly shortened. The direct result of this is the rapid growth of unemployed people. Many jobs in the future society will be replaced by intelligent machines, and a differentiation of new social stratification will emerge, bringing new social problems and new institutional appeals. The innovations of this article are: first, “the rapid growth of the unemployed people is a great progress of society” is the creative idea of this article, which is different from the views of many economists; second, this article envisions a differentiation of a new social stratification of the future society—the base stratum, the middle stratum, and the top stratum—and analyzes the social problems brought about by the differentiation of new social stratification; third, this article puts forward the institutional appeal of a shared society based on the principle of economic distribution of “social security + distribution according to labor”, and proposes reasonable philosophical suggestions for the future development of humans. Full article

The spatialization mechanism of time is one of the important ways to explore the essence of time. The theory of cognitive linguistics holds that metaphor and metonymy are two ways of the spatialization of time concept. However, from the perspective of information philosophy, the above research only stays at the level of regenerative temporal and spatial information (concept) and does not trace back to the source of objective ontology to explain the spatialization process of time. According to the ontology theory of information philosophy, information can be divided into three different forms and the concept is just the third form of information. Thus, we can analyze the spatialization process of time under the objective time and space, in-itself, for-self, and regenerative space-time information form, revealing the inevitability spatialization of human’s perception of time. This informational perspective shows the ontological source of the human’s perception of “past, present, and future” and deepens the study of the essence of time. Full article

Followed by the general review of various kinds of information ontology as metaphysical thoughts, two main approaches can be illustrated. The basic feature of this kind of metaphysics is its theoretical explanation for the constructivism of the whole world. However, metaphysics is undermining its study of existence itself by taking existence as substantial entities, attempting to construct the whole world, or separating existence and thoughts. With the insight from anti-metaphysical approaches, this paper discusses three aspects of the information ontology. Full article

This paper addresses some of the major controversies underlying the theme of the IS4SI 2019 Berkeley summit: “Where is the I in AI and the meaning of Information?”. It analyzes the relationship between cognition and intelligence in the light of the difference between old, abstract and the new embodied, embedded, enactive computationalism. It is questioning presuppositions of old computationalism which described the abstract ability of humans to construct knowledge as a symbol system, comparing it to the modern view of cognition found in various degrees in all living beings, with morphological/physical computational processes emerging at a variety of levels of organization. Cognitive computing based on natural/ physical/ morphological computation is used to explain the goal-directed behavior of an agent acting on its own behalf (the “I” as self-referential awareness) applicable to both living beings and machines with varying degrees of intelligence. Full article

When we enter intelligent society, we need to rethink about the topic of human essence. As we know, human beings have no absolute, fixed essence. The essence of human beings is the combination of an innate substrate and acquired creation. As the degree of machine intelligence in the development of human society continues to increase, human beings are constantly changing and creating their own essence, and they are also constantly liberated from the bondage of a certain single old essence, creating and enriching the richer and more diverse aspects of its essence. The transformation of labor from its alienation to its return is also a transformation of labor from the centralized form to the non-centralized form of human essence according to Karl Marx. The new fusion of artificial intelligence and bioengineering will lead to a new track of evolution that “reshapes and regenerates” life itself. This new evolutionary path will fuse the two-track evolution, biological evolution and cultural evolution, which have been relatively isolated in the traditional sense. If human beings are able to work hard together to design and implement a new social system that adapts to the future intelligent development, then the comprehensive development of intelligence that human beings bring about would be not a disaster, but a bright future. Full article

“Concept” is a commonly used word, but there are different opinions on what a “concept” is. There are those who study “concepts” from the field of cognitive science and those who study “concepts” from the field of philosophy. In recent years, people in the field of artificial intelligence have also begun to study “concept learning” related to “concept”. What is “concept learning” in artificial intelligence? Can artificial intelligence really have the same “concept” that humans have? Around these questions, this paper will analyze “concept learning of artificial intelligence” and “concept” respectively, so as to preliminarily answer the question “does artificial intelligence have concept”. Full article

The author examines the notion of informational aesthetics. The origin of aesthetics lies in Epicurus’s notion of aesthesis and the integration of artistic activity within ethics and the ‘good life’—as in the aesthetic theory and practice of the East. The debasement of the word ‘aesthetic’ reflects the increasing alienation of beauty from imagination. The fragmentation of art now packaged as media objects in our digital world is the legacy of this alienation. The author retraces the history of the concept of information aesthetics developed in the 1960s by Birkhoff, Bense and Mole and which sought to marry mathematics, computation and semiotics with artistic activity, based on Birkhoff’s aesthetic measure, and to bridge the gap between science and the humanistic imagination. The failure of the cognitive school is attributed to the limitations of its data-driven view of art itself as an affordance of perception (Arnheim). The roles of algorithmically generated art and of Computational Aesthetic Evaluation (CAE) are assessed. An appeal is made to the more fertile conceptual ground of information civilization—an idea developed by Professor Kun Wu. The author introduces the concept of digital iconography and applies it to Renaissance masterpieces such as Raphael’s School of Athens and Leonardo’s Mona Lisa. In conclusion, Informational Aesthetics is identified as a future discipline for the Philosophy of Information. Full article

Cultural changes run through the historical development of human society. Only by having an insight into the cultural changes in the global information age can we grasp the development and future of contemporary culture. Contemporary culture has two major trends of globalization and informatization. This paper focuses on the background of informatization of contemporary culture. Currently, informatization associated with globalization has strengthened the interdependence of national economies, changed the international environment for their development, and enriched their ways of interaction. Under the unprecedented open international environment, the development of any country can no longer be carried out in a closed state. The influence of international public opinion on national development is becoming increasingly important. As a big developing country, China has to communicate with other countries in an all-round and multi-channel way so that the world can better understand China and China can create a good international public opinion environment for its own development. This paper will spread out expositions for three aspects: the informatization tide promoted the rise of the information culture industry; the informatization tide intensifies the cultural interaction and competition among countries; the informatization tide enriches cultural communication among countries. Full article

In the acceptation of Wu Kun, the Philosophy of Information is a metaphilosophy incorporating informational-philosophical stances on major epistemological and ontological questions. Examples of Brenner’s contributions to previous Philosophy of Information conferences include work on personal identity, symmetry, semiotics, social competence and responsibility, as well as, together with Wu, the informational revolution in philosophy itself. In this approach, the necessity of a non-standard logic of real processes was demonstrated. In this paper, Brenner and Igamberdiev analyze the dialectics and logic underlying the application of Informational Philosophy. The utility of their approach is further demonstrated in the areas of meaning and semiotics, as well as information itself and communication. A new characterization of dynamic units of thought, and hence of information processes, is suggested in advance of a planned, more detailed treatment. Full article

The selection of traditional Chinese painting materials is often accompanied by other meanings given by people, and the process of giving meaning is the process of information development. Wintersweet, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum, from their own form and people’s observation of them, have been given a special meaning: wintersweet, proud like snow and decent people; orchid, symbolizing the gentleman’s integrity and independence; bamboo, symbolizing the gentleman’s humility; chrysanthemum, symbolizing the gentleman’s hidden inner world, which is not trapped in the trivial things. This development process deals with the development process of in-itself information, for-itself information, and regenerated information. The wintersweet, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum expressed by the artist in Chinese traditional painting is the social information of the three states of in-itself information, for-itself information, and regenerated information of three-state information. The selection of traditional Chinese painting materials has gone through the same process. Full article

In big data, we know that it is important to have enough data to analyze, but where can one get more data? How does one get useful information? My novel idea of “infoculture” uses new BIONICS to resolve the problem of how to produce information for the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. Data can be cultivated by humans, just like how humans cultivate fish or shrimp. In the field of infoculture, the network is like an ocean, and the information machine is the fish and shrimp. However, key problems within this field are DATA DNA engineering, information disease engineering, infoculture engineering, and the ecology of information. The Google self-driving car is an example of a cultivated fish in infoculture theory. Full article

Traditional epistemology rests on sources of information and knowledge such as perception, memory, ways of reasoning etc. In social epistemology, we find the primacy of an “indirect” form of information and knowledge, namely “testimony”: a justified belief can be acquired by hearing what others say or write. We focus on the contemporary debate, and in particular, on “communitarian” views. Full article

By applying the concept of natural science to the study of music, on the one hand, we can understand the structure of music macroscopically, on the other, we can reflect on the history of music to a certain extent. Throughout the history of western music, from the classical period to the 20th century, music seems to have gone from order to disorder, but it is still orderly if analyzed carefully. Using the concept of complex information systems can give a good answer in the essence. Full article

The Global Sustainable Information Society is a theoretical concept describing the vision of a good society in the age of global challenges. Globality, sustainability and informationality are understood in an innovative way as essential features of a world society to come that is capable of mastering the global challenges. Regarding informationality, the distinction between informedness and informatisation is made and a law of requisite information is introduced. The terms “intelligence”, “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) and “wisdom” are discussed from the perspective of complex systems. Intelligence and AI without wisdom are not deemed sufficient to meet the conditions of a good society today. Full article

What are laws of nature? This issue has always been one of the core issues of philosophy of science. Info-computationalism uses algorithms and information to explain laws of nature, and analyses its nature from the perspective and invariance, which opens up a new path for laws of nature. Therefore, this paper, based on the theory of info-computationalism, compares them to Cartwright’s concept of laws of nature. It is found that we can follow the laws in computers to understand the laws of nature, and regard the laws of nature as human, metaphorical, prescriptive and creative products. Full article

The emergence of Floridi’s philosophy of information has been directly pushed by the emergence of classical cognitive science and it attempts to provide us with a computational and representational epistemology and ontology. They share some common points: 1. anthropocentrism on cognition; 2. Cartesianism on knowledge; 3. nativism on semantics; 4. methodology on computationalism–representationalism. However, the development of cognitive science is deviating from Floridi’s philosophy of information, as the core concept of representation has been gradually abandoned in more and more cognitive studies, corresponding to the movement of situated, embodied, embedded and dynamic study in cognitive science. Thus, a new philosophy of information should emerge to accommodate the new development in cognitive science. Moreover, Wu’s PI satisfies the demand of this trend, which I will defend in this article. Full article

The process of human understanding of the world starts from viewing complex chaos, proceeding to monism followed by the contradiction theory, and finally returning to complexity theory, but without giving up the pursuit of monism. Lao-Tzu and Heraclitus put forward their own theories of unity of opposites at almost the same time. The thought of unity of opposites has long been contained in the theory of yin and yang and the Book of Changes. In the ontology of information evolution, existence and nonexistence (you and wu in Chinese) can also be roughly interpreted as a contradictory relationship. Existence and nonexistence are two opposing worlds. Our understanding of existence needs medium. We can only indirectly grasp the current meaning of existence after the transmission of multilayer mediums and the distortion and loss of information. Aristotle mentioned the notion of medium, but the real world cannot be explained by his ideas. All transformational processes of existence rely on medium. The transformation process of existence and nonexistence is different from the transformation process in the domain of existence. There is no need to rely on medium. Full article

As a breakthrough in the manner of human survival, the future intelligent society gives the development of our survival infinite opportunities and prospects. However, it also inevitably gives us a lot of new problems. Intelligent society makes individual survival viability face the danger of degradation. Human survival experiences and feelings may be confronted with many psychological troubles and other more serious problems. Therefore, this paper studies the positive and negative effects of the future intelligent society and puts forward reasonable countermeasures to eliminate the possible disorder and crime in the intelligent society from the perspective of morality and the rule of law. Full article

The theory of “ecological symbiosis” discovered by Margulis and Raulock updates the relationship between humans and nature to “the symbiotic relationship between man and ecology as a whole”. Human activities transform human ecology from the aspects of life evolution and cultural evolution. Artificial intelligence, as the core of human ecology, has a symbiotic relationship with human beings, and has the independence of human ecology. The possibility of life becomes a symbiotic species with humans. Full article

With the arrival of the information society, the research on the philosophy of music art has been paid more and more attention to, and the difference and identity in the information of piano performance is worth our deep thinking. In the new era of social information, it is a timely topic which breaks through the traditional research methods of piano art and utilizes the research system of information philosophy. Based on the perspective of information philosophy, this paper attempts to reveal the difference and identity of the main body of piano performance information by observing the ontology and law of music art research and applying the basic principle of information philosophy theory. Thus, the guiding significance of information philosophy in piano performance is discussed and further analyzed. Full article

To study the cognitive process of the human brain in dealing with philosophical issues, for the first time, from the perspective of scientific experiments, the issue of “relationship” in philosophy was verified. A set of algorithms combining physiology analysis and computer technology linearity and a nonlinear manifold learning algorithm were proposed. Two groups of auditory cognitive experiments were performed, and the concept expected effect was defined as the symbol of conceptual intervention. From the perspective of time, whether the concept was involved after the sensation arises was explored. EEG (electroencephalogram) physiology was used to analyze the data. The results showed that the concept induced a positive shift of the waveform after intervention. It has little effect on the early components, but it has a significant effect on the composition of the sensory components. Waveform changes before and after conceptual intervention have significant main effects. Perceptual production does not involve conceptual intervention, which verifies, in time, that “the relationship” exists. Full article

The development of virtual reality brings an old and historic question on the difference between the real world and unreal world. In this paper, starting from the concept of representation, I argued that what we call “virtual reality” is a representation of an actual or non-actual world and the criterion of difference between the “real world” and “virtual reality” is whether we present it with the intention of using it as a representation. After that, the thesis is demonstrated again from different theories of scientific representation. Therefore, the intuitive distinction between the “real world” and “virtual reality” can be drawn on the epistemological criterion; that is to say, the virtual world is a representation while the real world is not. Full article

With the development of artificial intelligence, the field of education is facing unprecedented challenges and great opportunities—how education will change and how to innovate and develop. Through studying the development of artificial intelligence, analyze the artificial intelligence influence in education, especially the revolutionary change in schools, teachers, and students, in order to have a comprehensive understanding of artificial intelligence, on this basis, explore the path of education innovation, and cultivate new talents to meet the requirements of artificial intelligence development. Full article

Marx looked at the word “metabolism” as the law which can be found in the natural science field, rather than as the thought of an individual. Marx used this word in three different contexts within three areas of study focused on the relations among nature, humans and society. With the development of science and technology, information transformation is a well-known concept and has receives considerable interest. Thus, in the information age, besides metabolism, information transformation plays an important role in the relations among nature, humans and society. Full article

Information has been used to explain mental representation. However, whether it succeeds in explaining the mentality of mental representation is an issue. In my view, although there are some advantages of this approach, mental representation cannot be reduced to informational processes for two reasons. First, informational processes cannot cover the distinctively subjective feature of mental representation, Second, informational processes cannot characterize the semantic properties of mental representation. Furthermore, I have some doubts regarding the intelligence of AI based on the problems of the informational approach to mental representation. Full article

This paper collected 128 information science definitions circulating in China from three different sources. By counting the word frequency and generating a word cloud map of the 128 definitions, the high frequency words in the definitions of information science and scholars’ understanding of information science are analyzed. Through an analysis of the characteristics of the 128 information science definitions, this paper summarizes the four basic patterns and three compound patterns of information science definitions, and analyzes the connotations and development characteristics of these definitions of information science in China. Full article

Ritual artifacts are produced by individuals and/or small groups, left over-there, in the environment, perceivable, sharable, and more or less available. Artifacts of this type can be considered cognitive mediators, insofar as they are collective memory stores of related habits, in the sense that they mediate and make available the story of their origin and the actions related to it, which can be learnt and/or re-activated when needed. Indeed, symbolic habits embedded in rites can also be seen as memory mediators which maximize abducibility, which is the human capacity to guess hypotheses, because they maximize recoverability of already stored cognitive contents. In sum, once suitable representations are externalized in a ritual artifact, they can be sensorially picked up and manipulated to re-internalize them when humans attend the rite: the externalization can be seen as the fruit of the so-called “disembodiment of the mind” as a significant cognitive perspective, able to show some basic features of what I called manipulative abduction, which I will describe in my presentation. When analyzing artifacts and habits in ritual settings, it is important to remember that interesting cases of creative meaning formation are also at play. Actually, we can distinguish two kinds of habits that are at play in rites: (a) a knowledge-based kind of habit, for the analysis of which the concept of “affordance” is useful, which also plays a pivotal role in the justification of the agent’s own beliefs; and (b) an ignorance-based kind of habit, which will be proved as necessary for the beginning of thought, and which is at the base of the ampliative abductive reasoning. Full article

The notion of “habit” is at the center of a lively philosophical debate that shows how some ideas from classical thought are still plausible and useful to understand human behavior in ordinary life. Following Aristotle, we can intend habits through the process of “habits learning”, which is a central topic in neuroscience and neurobiology. We investigate the dimensions of habitual behavior and its extension to the social world. Full article

This paper investigates how new social ontologies emerge when individuals and social groups from around the world utilize technology to promote the use of religious, secular, and re-sacralized imagery in preparation for birth as a rite of passage. In particular, the paper looks at how these participants share religious and nonreligious imagery related to birth through websites, social media, multimedia exhibitions, and other formats, examining how the imagery is used to construct meaning around the topics of birth and ritual. This social ontology of birth shows how humans utilize technology to create new meaning related to the birthing body. Full article

In this contribution, I start from Levy’s precious suggestion about the neuroethics of distinguishing between “the slow-conscious responsibility” of us as persons, versus “the fast-unconscious responsiveness” of sub-personal brain mechanisms studied in cognitive neurosciences. However, they are both accountable for how they respond to the environmental (physical, social, and ethical) constraints. I propose to extend Levy’s suggestion to the fundamental distinction between “moral responsibility of conscious communication agents” versus the “ethical responsiveness of unconscious communication agents”, like our brains but also like the AI decisional supports. Both, indeed, can be included in the category of the “sub-personal modules” of our moral agency as persons. I show the relevance of this distinction, also from the logical and computational standpoints, both in neurosciences and computer sciences for the actual debate about an ethically accountable AI. Machine learning algorithms, indeed, when applied to automated supports for decision making processes in several social, political, and economic spheres are not at all “value-free” or “amoral”. They must satisfy an ethical responsiveness to avoid what has been defined as the unintended, but real, “algorithmic injustice”. Full article