CDT403 Research Methodology in Natural Sciences and Engineering
Theory of Science
INFORMATION, COMPUTATION,
KNOWLEDGE AND SCIENCE
Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic
School of Innovation, Design and Engineering
Mälardalen University
1
THEORY OF SCIENCE LECTURES
Lecture 1 INFORMATION, COMPUTATION, KNOWLEDGE AND
SCIENCE
Lecture 2 SCIENCE AND CRITICAL THINKING.
PSEUDOSCIENCE AND WISHFUL THINKING - DEMARCATION
Lecture 3 SCIENCE, RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETAL
ASPECTS. PROGRESS. HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC THEORY.
POSTMODERNISM AND CROSSDISCIPLINES
Lecture 4 PROFESSIONAL & RESEARCH ETHICS
2
Science, Knowledge, Information and
Computation
Science is (a well formed) knowledge structure.
Knowledge is (a well formed) information structure.
Information is (a well formed) data structure.
Data (raw data) yet unstructured ”atoms of information”
– signals, visual pixels, before processing and
integrating into common framework.
3
Science, Knowledge, Information and
Computation
Science, based on knowledge, based on information,
based on data are the result of our interactions with the
physical world / the universe.
Our current ability of interaction with the world
is a result of a long evolution of our species.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_evolutionary_history_of_life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ3401XVYww&NR=1 The Miracle in Human Brain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RbPQG9WTZM Evolution. The Origin of the Brain
http://www.neuroinformatics2013.org Neuroinformatics congress 2013 Stockholm
4
Agent-Dependent Reality
Our interactions with the real world are observer-dependent,
depend on what we are - what sensors, actuators and
information processing capabilities we have.
Information /data structures that we develop throughout our
lives depend on our physical architecture and the environment,
and thus are observer (agent)-dependent.
Knowledge is observer-dependent (contextual).
5
Agent-Dependent Reality
Science is agent-dependent but definitely not arbitrary!
Two observers with close enough hardware and background
information/knowledge will have similar understanding of the
same phenomena. We agree on majority of basic things.
We chose the questions we ask and experiments to study
them but we definitely do not control the outcome!
Physical theories that make observer-dependency explicit:
- Relativity theory
- Quantum mechanics
- Chaos theory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2iJF2I94pg The Human Brain: How We Decide
6
Agent-Dependent Reality
Meaning is use. (Wittgenstein) [for an agent!]
Communities of practice share meanings.
Consesnsus and controversy are
two major driving forces
in the development of sciences and human
knowledge in general.
Science is in a constant process
of development.
7
Agent-Dependent Reality
Otto E. Rössler, Endophysics:
The world as an interface
http://books.google.com/books?id=0ckVNqhg3mkC&printsec=frontco
ver&hl=sv&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=fals
e
How does the brain (as a part of a body) provides this
interface? See the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toXkS-MTYCI&feature=related
Brain Evolution: The Accidental Mind (I)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8RNq7DiMTs&feature=related
Brain Evolution: The Accidental Mind (II)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEEXK3A57Hk&feature=related
The Origin of Intelligence
8
SCIENCE: THE BIG PICTURE
Science and the Universe
Info-Computational Framework
Science, Knowledge, Truth and Meaning
The New, Emerging, Networking Paradigm
KNOWLEDGE
The Physical Basis of Knowledge
9
SCIENCE
The Big Picture First
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Science and the Universe
http://www.videopediaworld.com/video/12812/Cosmic-Super-Zoom or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9PnJkB1RGU Cosmic Super Zoom
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2fsNkAnzEI&feature=related
MEGA ZOOM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPkPaHI2Usg Cosmic Voyage from
your Quarks to the Edge of the Universe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDAUqGHl7UA&feature=related
Microcosmos
http://www.youtube.com/show?p=As9CDegGF-A&tracker=show0
Cosmic Journeys
11
The Idea of Universe
The universe is an idea deeply rooted in our human culture,
different in different places and during different epochs.
At one time, it was a living organism (Tree of Life, Mother
Earth, a Turtle, a Fish), at yet another time, mechanical
machinery - the Cartesian-Newtonian clockwork.
Today’s metaphor for the universe is more and more explicitly
becoming a computer.
Dodig Crnkovic G., Investigations into Information Semantics
and Ethics of Computing, 2006
12
Universe as Reality
The universe is defined as everything that exists. According to
this definition and our present understanding, the universe
consists of three elements:
• space-time
• matter-energy and
• physical laws that govern the relationships between the two.
Those three elements correspond roughly to the ideas of Aristotle.
In his book The Physics Aristotle divided everything that exists into three
elements:
-- matter (the stuff of which the universe is made),
-- form (the arrangement of that matter in space) and
-- change (how matter is created, destroyed or altered in its properties, and
similarly, how form is altered).
Physical laws were conceived as the rules governing the properties of matter,
form and their changes.
13
Universe as Reality
Later philosophers such as Averroes and Spinoza discern two
basic elements:
• the passive elements, the fabric of the universe (natura
naturata)
• the active principles governing the universe acting on the
former elements (natura naturans)
This compares to Info-Computational Universe (Dodig Crnkovic
2006):
• Information as structure
• Computation as change
14
Comment: Construction of Knowledge
Our knowledge depends on our ways of interaction with the world –
the nature and the humans as a part of natural world.
If we use scientific instruments, such as microscopes, telescopes
or particle accelerators, our knowledge will be much more far
reaching than if we only use our human bodily sensory organs for
interaction with the world.
We construct knowledge from pieces of information we get directly
from the world or indirectly via other people (again either
exchanging information personally or even more indirectly from the
information found in diverse kinds of documents.)
(See Dodig-Crnkovic, Constructivist Research and Info-Computational Knowledge Generation,
http://www.mrtc.mdh.se/~gdc/work/MBR09ConstructiveResearch.pdf )
15
HISTORY OF IDEAS OF THE UNIVERSE
The Mytho-Poetic Universe: World Egg
In the ancient Hindu Rig-Veda the
universe is a cosmic egg that
cycles between expansion and
collapse. It expanded from a
concentrated form — a point
called a Bindu.
The universe, as a living entity, is
bound to the perpetual cycle of
birth, death, and rebirth ...
This model can be found, besides Sanskrit
scriptures and Vedanta also in Chinese,
Egyptian, and Finnish (Kalevala)
mythology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_egg
http://www.cellularuniverse.org/UniverseModels.htm#SS1
16
The Medieval Geocentric Universe
From Aristotle Libri de caelo (1519).
17
The Clockwork (Mechanistic) Universe
The mechanicistic paradigm which systematically revealed physical
structure in analogy with the artificial. The self-functioning automaton
- basis and canon of the form of the Universe.
Newton Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Matematica, 1687
18
The Computational Universe
We are all living inside a gigantic
computer. No, not The Matrix: the
Universe.
Every process, every change that
takes place in the Universe, may be
considered as a kind of computation.
E Fredkin, S Wolfram, G Chaitin
The universe is on a fundamental level an
info-computational phenomenon. GDC
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020527/020527-16.html
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The Computational Universe
Konrad Zuse was the first to suggest (in 1967) that the physical
behavior of the entire universe is being computed on a basic level,
possibly on cellular automata, by the universe itself which he
referred to as "Rechnender Raum" or Computing Space/Cosmos.
Computationalists: Zuse, Wiener, Fredkin, Wolfram, Chaitin, Lloyd,
Seife, 't Hooft, Deutsch, Tegmark, Schmidhuber, Weizsäcker,
Wheeler..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ0WG3D3m1U Intelligence and the
Computational Universe
Pancomputationalism
http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/work/Pancomputationalism.mht
20
Does The Big Picture Make Any
Difference At All For Us In Practice?
Yes, definitely!
It makes a big difference if we believe that the whole of the
universe is governed by supernatural beings on which we have
hardly any influence or if we believe that humans create their own
world to a high extent.
The understanding of the universe as organic or mechanistic
influences our believes and actions.
Today the big ideal is PROGRESS, EVOLUTION and CONSTANT
IMPROVEMENT.
In the past there were civilizations that avoided change for
millennia. In those eras the STABILITY and PERMANENCY was
the highest principle.
21
However, no model is reality itself as no map is as
detailed as a territory – for quite obvious reasons!
R. Magritte – This is not a pipe
R. Magritte – The two misteries
22
Info-Computationalism as a Framework
Information and computation are two interrelated and mutually
defining phenomena – there is no computation without information
(computation understood as information processing), and vice
versa, there is no information without computation (all information
is a result of computational processes).
Being interconnected, information is studied as a structure, while
computation presents a process on an informational structure. In
order to learn about foundations of information, we must also study
computation.
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Information
A special issue of the
Journal of Logic, Language and Information (Volume 12 No 4 2003)
dedicated to the different facets of information.
A Handbook on the Philosophy of Information (Van Benthem,
Adriaans) is in preparation as one volume Handbook of the
philosophy of science. http://www.illc.uva.nl/HPI/
24
Computation
The Computing Universe: Pancomputationalism
Computation is generally defined as information processing.
(See Burgin, M., Super-Recursive Algorithms, Springer Monographs
in Computer Science, 2005)
For different views see e.g.
http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/mds26/cogsci/program.html Computation
and Cognitive Science 7–8 July 2008, King's College Cambridge
The definition of computation is widely debated, and an entire issue of the
journal Minds and Machines (1994, 4, 4) was devoted to the question
“What is Computation?” Even: Theoretical Computer Science 317 (2004)
25
Present Model of Computation: Turing Machine
......
......
Tape
Control Unit
Read-Write head
1. Reads a symbol
2. Writes a symbol
3. Moves Left or Right
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/turing-machine/
26
Computing Nature and
Nature Inspired Computation
Natural computation includes
computation that occurs in nature or is
inspired by nature. Computing
Inspired by nature:
•Evolutionary computation
•Neural networks
•Artificial immune systems
•Swarm intelligence
In 1623, Galileo in his book The Assayer - Il Saggiatore,
claimed that the language of nature's book is
mathematics and that the way to understand nature is
through mathematics. Generalizing ”mathematics” to
”computation” we may agree with Galileo – the great
book of nature is an e-book!
Simulation and emulation of nature:
•Fractal geometry
•Artificial life
Computing with natural materials:
•DNA computing
•Quantum computing
Journals: Natural Computing and IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation.
27
Turing Machines Limitations –
Self-Generating Living Systems
Complex biological systems must be modeled as
self-referential, self-organizing "componentsystems" (George Kampis) which are selfgenerating and whose behavior, though
computational in a general sense, goes far
beyond Turing machine model.
“a component system is a computer which, when executing its operations
(software) builds a new hardware.... [W]e have a computer that re-wires itself in a
hardware-software interplay: the hardware defines the software and the software
defines new hardware. Then the circle starts again.”
(Kampis, p. 223 Self-Modifying Systems in Biology and Cognitive Science)
28
Beyond Turing Machines
Ever since Turing proposed his machine model which identifies
computation with the execution of an algorithm, there have been
questions about how widely the Turing Machine (TM) model is
applicable.
With the advent of computer networks, which are the main paradigm
of computing today, the model of a computer in isolation, represented
by a Universal Turing Machine, has become insufficient.
The basic difference between an isolated computing box and a
network of computational processes (nature itself understood as a
computational mechanism) is the interactivity of computation. The
most general computational paradigm today is interactive computing
(Wegner, Goldin).
29
Beyond Turing Machines
The challenge to deal with computability in the real world (such
as computing on continuous data, biological computing/organic
computing, quantum computing, or generally natural computing)
has brought new understanding of computation.
Natural computing has different criteria for success of a
computation, halting problem is not a central issue, but instead
the adequacy of the computational response in a network of
interacting computational processes/devices. In many areas, we
have to computationally model emergence not being clearly
algorithmic. (Barry Cooper)
30
Correspondence Principle
Picture after Stuart A. Umpleby
http://www.gwu.edu/~umpleby/recent_papers/2004_what_i_learned_from_heinz_von_foerster_figures_by_umpleby.htm
Natural Computation
TM
31
Info-Computationalism Applied:
Naturalizing Epistemology
(Understanding knowledge as a result of natural processes)
Naturalized epistemology (Feldman, Kornblith, Stich) is, in general, an
idea that knowledge may be studied as a natural phenomenon -that the subject matter of epistemology is not our concept of
knowledge, but the knowledge itself.
“The stimulation of his sensory receptors is all the evidence anybody
has had to go on, ultimately, in arriving at his picture of the world. Why
not just see how this construction really proceeds? Why not settle
for psychology? “("Epistemology Naturalized", Quine 1969; emphasis
mine)
I will re-phrase the question to be: Why not settle for computing?
32
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature, methods, limitations,
and validity of knowledge and belief.
Naturalist Understanding of Cognition
According to Maturana and Varela (1980) even the simplest
organisms possess cognition and their meaning-production
apparatus is contained in their metabolism. Of course, there are
also non-metabolic interactions with the environment, such as
locomotion, that also generates meaning for an organism by
changing its environment and providing new input data.
Maturana’s and Varelas’ understanding that all living organisms
posess some cognition, in some degree. is most suitable as the
basis for a computationalist account of the naturalized
evolutionary epistemology.
33
Info-Computational Account of
Knowledge Generation
Natural computing as a new paradigm of computing
goes beyond the Turing Machine model and applies
to all physical processes including those going on in
our brains.
The next great change in computer science and
information technology will come from mimicking the
techniques by which biological organisms process
information.
To do this computer scientists must draw on
expertise in subjects not usually associated with
their field, including organic chemistry, molecular
biology, bioengineering, and smart materials.
34
Info-Computational Account of
Knowledge Generation
At the physical level, living beings are open complex computational
systems in a regime on the edge of chaos, characterized by maximal
informational content. Complexity is found between orderly systems
with high information compressibility and low information content and
random systems with low compressibility and high information content.
(Flake)
The essential feature of cognizing living organisms is their ability to
manage complexity, and to handle complicated environmental
conditions with a variety of responses which are results of adaptation,
variation, selection, learning, and/or reasoning. (Gell-Mann)
35
Cognition as Restructuring of an Agent in
Interaction with the Environment
As a result of evolution, increasingly complex living organisms arise
that are able to survive and adapt to their environment. It means they
are able to register inputs (data) from the environment, to structure
those into information, and in more developed organisms into
knowledge.
The evolutionary advantage of using structured, component-based
approaches is improving response-time and efficiency of cognitive
processes of an organism.
36
Cognition as Restructuring of an Agent in
Interaction with the Environment
Naturalized knowledge generation acknowledges the body as our
basic cognitive instrument. All cognition is embodied cognition, in both
microorganisms and humans (Gärdenfors, Stuart). In more complex
cognitive agents, knowledge is built upon not only reasoning about
input information, but also on intentional choices, dependent on value
systems stored and organized in agents memory.
It is not surprising that present day interest in knowledge generation
places information and computation (communication) in focus, as
information and its processing are essential structural and dynamic
elements which characterize structuring of input data (data 
information  knowledge) by an interactive computational process
going on in the agent during the adaptive interplay with the
environment.
37
Natural Computing in Living Agents
- Agent-centered (information and
computation is in the agent)
- Agent is a cognizing biological organism
or an intelligent machine or both
- Interaction with the physical world and
other agents is essential
- Kind of physicalism with information as a
stuff of the universe
- Agents are parts of different cognitive
communities
- Self-organization
- Circularity (recursiveness) is central for
biological organisms
http://www.conscious-robots.com
38
What is Computation? How Does Nature
Compute? Learning from Nature *
“It always bothers me that, according to the laws as we understand
them today, it takes a computing machine an infinite number of
logical operations to figure out what goes on in no matter how tiny a
region of space, and no matter how tiny a region of time …
So I have often made the hypothesis that ultimately physics will not
require a mathematical statement, that in the end the machinery will
be revealed, and the laws will turn out to be simple, like the chequer
board with all its apparent complexities.”
Richard Feynman “The Character of Physical Law”
* 2008 Midwest NKS Conference, Fri Oct 31 - Sun Nov 2, 2008
Indiana University — Bloomington, IN
39
Paradigm Shift
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Information/Computation
Discrete/Continuum
Natural interactive computing beyond Turing limit
Complex dynamic systems
Emergency
Logic
Philosophy
Human-centric (agent-centric)
Circularity and self-reflection
Ethics returns to researchers agenda
40
Info-Computational Paradigm of
Knowledge
• Understanding of info-computational mechanisms and processes
and their relationship to life and knowledge
• Argument for evolution of biological life, cognition and intelligence
• Development of new unconventional computational methods
• Learning from nature about optimizing solutions with limited
resources (Organic Computing)
• Providing a unified platform (framework) for specialist sciences to
communicate and create holistic (multi-disciplinary/interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary) views
41
Two Books on Universe as Quantum Information
42
Science, Knowledge, Truth and Meaning
Critical thinking
What is science?
What is scientific method?
What is knowledge?
Information and knowledge
Truth and meaning
Limits of formal systems
Science as learning process
Info-computational view of knowledge production
Complexity
43
Red Thread: Critical Thinking
“Reserve your right to think,
for even to think wrongly
is better than not to think at all.”
Hypatia, natural philosopher and mathematician
44
What is Science?
Eye
Maurits Cornelis Escher
We can see Science from different perspectives…45
Definitions by Goal (Result) and Process (1)
science from Latin scientia, scire to know;
1: a department of systematized knowledge as an
object of study
2: knowledge or a system of knowledge covering
general truths or the operation of general laws
especially as obtained and tested through scientific
method
46
Definitions by Goal (Result) and Process (2)
3: such knowledge or such a system of knowledge
concerned with the physical world and its phenomena
: natural science
4: a system or method reconciling practical ends with
scientific laws <engineering is both a science and an
art>
47
Science: Definitions by Contrast
To do science is to search for repeated patterns, not
simply to accumulate facts.
Robert H. MacArthur
Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt.
Richard Feynman
48
Empirical approach.
What Sciences are there?
Dewey Decimal Classification®
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/8866/15urls.html
000 – Computer science, Library and Information science,
& general work
100 – Philosophy and psychology
200 – Religion
300 – Social sciences
400 – Language
500 – Science
600 – Technology
700 – Arts
800 – Literature
900 – History, geography & biography
49
Dewey Decimal Classification®
500 – Science
510 Mathematics
520 Astronomy
530 Physics
540 Chemistry
550 Earth Sciences & Geology
560 Fossils & Prehistoric Life
570 Biology & Life Sciences
580 Plants (Botany)
590 Animals (Zoology)
50
Language Based Scheme
Classical Sciences in their Cultural Context –
Logic
&
Mathematics
1
Natural Sciences
(Physics,
Chemistry,
Biology, …)
2
Culture
(Religion, Art, …)
5
Social Sciences
(Economics, Sociology,
Anthropology, …)
3
The Humanities
(Philosophy, History,
Linguistics …)
4
51
Understanding what science is
by understanding what scientists do
"Scientists are people of very dissimilar temperaments doing
different things in very different ways.
Among scientists are collectors, classifiers and compulsive
tidiers-up; many are detectives by temperament and many are
explorers; some are artists and others artisans.
There are poet-scientists and philosopher-scientists and even a
few mystics."
Peter Medawar, Pluto's Republic
52
Science defined by its Method
Socratic Method
Scientific Method
1. Wonder. Pose a question
(of the “What is X ?” form).
1. Wonder. Pose a question.
(Formulate a problem).
2. Hypothesis. Suggest a plausible
answer (a definition or definiens) from
which some conceptually testable
hypothetical propositions can be deduced.
2. Hypothesis. Suggest a plausible answer (a
theory) from which some empirically testable
hypothetical propositions can be deduced.
3. Elenchus ; “testing,” “refutation,” or
“cross-examination.” Perform a thought
experiment by imagining a case which
conforms to the definiens but clearly fails
to exemplify the definiendum, or vice
versa. Such cases, if successful, are
called counterexamples. If a
counterexample is generated, return to
step 2, otherwise go to step 4.
3. Testing. Construct and perform
an experiment, which makes it possible to
observe whether the consequences specified
in one or more of those hypothetical
propositions actually follow when the
conditions specified in the same
proposition(s) pertain. If the test fails, return
to step 2, otherwise go to step 4.
4. Accept the hypothesis as provisionally
true. Return to step 3 if you can conceive
any other case which may show the
answer to be defective.
4. Accept the hypothesis as provisionally true.
Return to step 3 if there are predictable
consequences of the theory which have not
been experimentally confirmed.
5. Act accordingly.
5. Act accordingly.
53
The Scientific Method
EXISTING THEORIES
AND OBSERVATIONS
RESEARCH QUESTION/
HYPOTHESIS
PREDICTIONS
2
3
1
Hypothesis
must be
redefined
Hypotesen
Hypothesis
måste
must
be
justeras
adjusted
SELECTION AMONG
COMPETING THEORIES
TESTS AND NEW
OBSERVATIONS
6
4
Consistency achieved
The hypotetico-deductive cycle
EXISTING THEORY CONFIRMED
(within a new context) or
NEW THEORY PUBLISHED
5
The scientific-community cycle
54
The Scientific Method
Formulating Research Questions and Hypotheses
Different approaches:
Intuition – (Educated) Guess
Analogy
Symmetry
Paradigm
Metaphor
and many more ..
55
The Scientific Method
Criteria to Evaluate Theories
When there are several rivaling hypotheses number of criteria can
be used for choosing a best theory.
Following can be evaluated:
– Theoretical scope
– Heuristic value (heuristic: rule-of-thumb or argument
derived from experience)
– Parsimony (simplicity, Ockham’s razor)
– Esthetics
– Etc.
56
The Scientific Method
Criteria which Good Scientific Theory Shall Fulfill
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Logically consistent
Consistent with accepted facts
Testable
Consistent with related theories
Interpretable: explain and predict
Parsimonious
Pleasing to the mind (Esthetic, Beautiful)
Useful (Relevant/Applicable)
57
The Scientific Method
Ockham’s Razor (Occam’s Razor)
(Law Of Economy, Or Law Of Parsimony, Less Is More!)
A philosophical statement developed by William of Ockham,
(1285–1347/49), a scholastic, that Pluralitas non est ponenda
sine necessitate; “Plurality should not be assumed without
necessity.”
The principle gives precedence to simplicity; of two competing
theories, the simplest explanation of an entity is to be preferred.
58
KNOWLEDGE
59
What is Knowledge?
Plato´s Definition
Plato believed that we learn in this life by remembering knowledge
originally acquired in a previous life, and that the soul already
has knowledge, and we learn by recollecting what in fact the
soul already knows.
[At present we know that we inherit some physical preconditions,
structures and abilities already at birth. In a sense those
structures of our brains and bodies may be seen as the result of
evolution, so in a sense they encapsulate memories of the
historical development of our bodies.]
60
What is Knowledge?
Plato´s Definition
Plato offers three analyses of knowledge, [dialogues Theaetetus
201 and Meno 98] all of which Socrates rejects.
Plato's third definition:
" Knowledge is justified, true belief. "
The problem with this concerns the word “justified”. All
interpretations of “justified” are deemed inadequate.
Edmund Gettier, in the paper called "Is Justified True Belief
Knowledge?“ argues that knowledge is not the same as justified
true belief. (Gettier Problem)
61
What is Knowledge?
Descartes´ Definition
"Intuition is the undoubting conception of an unclouded and
attentive mind, and springs from the light of reasons alone; it is
more certain than deduction itself in that it is simpler."
“Deduction by which we understand all necessary inference from
other facts that are known with certainty,“ leads to knowledge
when recommended method is being followed.
62
What is Knowledge?
Descartes´ Definition
"Intuitions provide the ultimate grounds for logical deductions.
Ultimate first principles must be known through intuition while
deduction logically derives conclusions from them.
These two methods [intuition and deduction] are the most certain
routes to knowledge, and the mind should admit no others."
63
What is Knowledge?
– Propositional knowledge: knowledge that such-and-such is the
case.
– Non-propositional knowledge (tacit knowledge): the knowing how to
do something.
64
Sources of Knowledge
– A Priori Knowledge (built in, developed by evolution and
inheritance) (resides the brain as memory)
– Perception (“on-line input”, information acquisition)
– Reasoning (information processing)
– Testimony (network, communication)
65
Knowledge and Ignorance
“Our knowledge is an island in the infinite ocean of
the unknown. “
Knowledge and wonder: the natural world as man
knows it, Victor F. Weisskopf (1962)
"We live in an island of knowledge surrounded by a
sea of ignorance.
As our island of knowledge grows, so does the
shore of our ignorance.“ John Wheeler
66
Greg Chaitin: A More Elaborate, Fractal
Picture of Knowledge
Mathematics is more like an archipelago consisting of
islands of truths in an ocean of incomprehensible and
uncompressible information. Greg Chaitin, in an
interview in September 2003 says:
“You see, you have all of mathematical truth, this ocean of
mathematical truth. And this ocean has islands. An island here,
algebraic truths. An island there, arithmetic truths. An island here, the
calculus. And these are different fields of mathematics where all the
ideas are interconnected in ways that mathematicians love; they fall
into nice, interconnected patterns. But what I've discovered is all this
sea around the islands.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAJE35wX1nQ&feature=related Mandelbrot
http://books.google.se/books?id=RUedyFupPY4C&pg=PA265&lpg=PA265&dq=chaitin+knowledge+island&source=bl&ots=p7AacMKrm
u&sig=1WzbvxKbJF16GCTMgxCJMjOoYhw&hl=sv#v=onepage&q=chaitin%20knowledge%20island&f=false
67
Physical basis of knowledge
68
Cell Processing Information
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJxobgkPEAo&feature=related
From RNA to Protein Synthesis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aVT2DTbtA8&feature=related
Replication, Transcription, and Translation
http://www.goldenswamp.com/page/2
69
Blurring the Boundary Between
Perception and Memory
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=perc
eption-and-memory
http://www.sciencedaily.com
70
The Extended Mind
Andy Clark and David Chalmers propose
the idea of mind delegating cognitive*
functions to the environment - in which
objects within the environment function
as a part of the mind
http://consc.net/papers/extended.html
The term cognition (Latin: cognoscere, "to know", "to conceptualize" or "to recognize") refers
to a faculty for the processing of information, applying knowledge, and changing preferences.
Cognition, or cognitive processes, can be natural or artificial, conscious or unconscious.
(Wikipedia)
71
72
Blue Brain (Human Brain) Project
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124751881557234725.html In Search
for Intelligence, a Silicon Brain Twitches
http://bluebrain.epfl.ch/page-52741-en.html
73
HBP - Computational Brain
Brain Processing Information
•The project
•Introduction
•Goals
•Neuroscience
•The computing challenge
•Towards understanding the brain
•Research areas
•Neuroinformatics
•Neuroscience
•Medicine
•Cognition
•Theory
•Simulation
•Supercomputing
•Neurorobotics
•Neuromorphic computing
•Brain interfaces
•Education
•Ethical, legal and social issues
•A european flagship
•Animated map
•Organisation
•The FET flagship programme
•Flagship call
74
The Human Brain Project:
Science of 21st Century
The FET Flagship Program –
a new initiative launched by the European Commission as part of
its Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) initiative.
http://ist.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/pictures/IST_Lectures/IST_Lecture_Markram/HB
P_presskit__austria.pdf
•
•
•
•
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rPH1Abuu9M Henry Markram:
Simulating the Brain — The Next Decisive Years [1/3]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDY4cFJauls Henry Markram:
Simulating the Brain — The Next Decisive Years [2/3]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h06lgyES6Oc Henry Markram:
Simulating the Brain — The Next Decisive Years [3/3]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrJQ_qkkx4E Five Tomorrows
75
Cognitive Computing
IBM have been working on a cognitive computing project called Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic
Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE).
http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/business_analytics/article/cognitive_computing.html
http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2011/8/114944-cognitive-computing/fulltext
Communications of the ACM , Vol. 54 No. 8, Pages 62-71
76
What is Universe? What is Knowledge?
What is Science?
Based on an enormous boost of extended mind of humanity we witness
a major paradigm shift in our understanding of the universe and our
place in it.
This big picture is important
as it sets the framework
for how we think.
That is why not only theory
of particular sciences
or specific phenomena
but even philosophy of nature
makes.
(And empirical data are as well known theory-laden, even by implicit
theory)
Network Paradigm
Metabolic theory of ecology
http://online.kitp.ucsb.edu/online/pattern_i03/west/oh/29.html
http://www.santafe.edu/about/people/profile/Geoffrey%20West
78
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book
Networks, Crowds, and Markets:
Reasoning About a Highly Connected World
High School Dating
(Bearman, Moody, and Stovel, 2004)
(Image by Mark Newman)
Corporate E-Mail Communication
(Adamic and Adar, 2005)
Trails of Flickr Users in Manhattan
(Crandall et al. 2009)
79
Science as a result of Scientific Community
MAP OF SCIENCE
http://www.lanl.gov/news/albums/science/PL
OSMapOfScience.jpg
This "Map of Science" illustrates
the online behavior of scientists
accessing different scientific
journals, publications, aggregators,
etc. Colors represent the scientific
discipline of each journal, based on
disciplines
http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php/fuseaction/nb.story/story_id/%2015965
80
Summary on Networks and why ”big picture” is necessary:
”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJmGrNdJ5Gw The Power of Networks
81
A Dialogue Concerning Two World Systems: InfoComputational vs. Mechanistic
Dodig Crnkovic, G. and Müller, V. , A Dialogue
Concerning Two World Systems: Info-Computational vs.
Mechanistic; in Dodig Crnkovic G and Burgin, M., Eds.;
World Scientific Publishing Co., Inc.: Singapore, 2010
http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.5001
More articles on Info-Computationalism:
http://www.mrtc.mdh.se/~gdc/work/publications.html
Computation, Information, Cognition
Computation, Information, Cognition
Information and Computation
Editor(s): Gordana Dodig Crnkovic and Susan
Editor(s): Gordana Dodig Crnkovic and
Editor(s): Gordana Dodig Crnkovic and
Mark Burgin, World Scientific, 2011
Raffaela Giovagnoli, Springer, 2013
Stuart, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007
Computing Nature
p. 83