Related papers: Meaning = Information + Evolution
Despite its obvious relevance, meaning has been outside most theoretical approaches to information in biology. As a consequence, functional responses based on an appropriate interpretation of signals has been replaced by a probabilistic…
Prediction of events is the challenge in many different disciplines, from meteorology to finance; the more this task is difficult, the more a system is {\it complex}. Nevertheless, even according to this restricted definition, a general…
In designing an intelligent system that must be able to explain its reasoning to a human user, or to provide generalizations that the human user finds reasonable, it may be useful to take into consideration psychological data on what types…
Without an agreed-upon definition of intelligence, asking "is this system intelligent?"" is an untestable question. This lack of consensus hinders research, and public perception, on Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly since the rise…
The construction of an ontology of scientific knowledge objects, presented here, is part of the development of an approach oriented towards the visualization of scientific knowledge. It is motivated by the fact that the concepts that are…
We spell out a definition of sentience that may be useful for designing and building it in machines. We propose that for sentience to be meaningful for AI, it must be fleshed out in functional, computational terms, in enough detail to allow…
I will survey some matters of relevance to a philosophical discussion of information, taking into account developments in algorithmic information theory (AIT). I will propose that meaning is deep in the sense of Bennett's logical depth, and…
The semantic technologies pose new challenge for the way in which we built and operate systems. They are tools used to represent significances, associations, theories, separated from data and code. Their goal is to create, to discover, to…
It is argued that the nature of probability is essentially informational rather than physical and that quantum mechanical predictions should be viewed as logical inferences made on the basis of the information content of a given…
The mind-body problem is reviewed in the context of a non-technical account of quantum information theory. The importance of clearly defining: `what is physical?' is highlighted, since only then can we give meaning to the concept…
Information design is typically studied through the lens of Bayesian signaling, where signals shape beliefs purely based on their correlation with the true state of the world. However, behavioral economics and psychology emphasize that…
Colexification refers to the phenomenon of multiple meanings sharing one word in a language. Cross-linguistic lexification patterns have been shown to be largely predictable, as similar concepts are often colexified. We test a recent claim…
It is generally accepted that human vision is an extremely powerful information processing system that facilitates our interaction with the surrounding world. However, despite extended and extensive research efforts, which encompass many…
This paper proposes a formal framework for modeling the interaction of causal and (qualitative) epistemic reasoning. To this purpose, we extend the notion of a causal model with a representation of the epistemic state of an agent. On the…
Work is a rich source of meaning. However, beyond organizational changes, most approaches in the research field of Meaningful Work neglected the power of work-related technology to increase meaning. Using two cases as examples, this paper…
I discuss several aspects of information theory and its relationship to physics and neuroscience. The unifying thread of this somewhat chaotic essay is the concept of Kolmogorov or algorithmic complexity (Kolmogorov Complexity, for short).…
A key challenge when trying to understand innovation is that it is a dynamic, ongoing process, which can be highly contingent on ephemeral factors such as culture, economics, or luck. This means that any analysis of the real-world process…
Ascribing to inanimate matter a possibility to receive, work on and transfer information allows us to explain quantum-mechanical phenomena including "delayed-choice"- and "Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR)"-type experiments adhering to the…
Biological organisms adapt to changes by processing informations from different sources, most notably from their ancestors and from their environment. We review an approach to quantify these informations by analyzing mathematical models of…
Accepting information as a physical category and ascribing to inanimate matter some spirit (consciousness, intelligence) allows to explain quantum-mechanical phenomena, including delayed-choice and EPR-Bohm-Bell experiments, as well as…