12,153 research outputs found
Modeling Life as Cognitive Info-Computation
This article presents a naturalist approach to cognition understood as a
network of info-computational, autopoietic processes in living systems. It
provides a conceptual framework for the unified view of cognition as evolved
from the simplest to the most complex organisms, based on new empirical and
theoretical results. It addresses three fundamental questions: what cognition
is, how cognition works and what cognition does at different levels of
complexity of living organisms. By explicating the info-computational character
of cognition, its evolution, agent-dependency and generative mechanisms we can
better understand its life-sustaining and life-propagating role. The
info-computational approach contributes to rethinking cognition as a process of
natural computation in living beings that can be applied for cognitive
computation in artificial systems.Comment: Manuscript submitted to Computability in Europe CiE 201
Nature as a Network of Morphological Infocomputational Processes for Cognitive Agents
This paper presents a view of nature as a network of infocomputational agents organized in a dynamical hierarchy of levels. It provides a framework for unification of currently disparate understandings of natural, formal, technical, behavioral and social phenomena based on information as a structure, differences in one system that cause the differences in another system, and computation as its dynamics, i.e. physical process of morphological change in the informational structure. We address some of the frequent misunderstandings regarding the natural/morphological computational models and their relationships to physical systems, especially cognitive systems such as living beings. Natural morphological infocomputation as a conceptual framework necessitates generalization of models of computation beyond the traditional Turing machine model presenting symbol manipulation, and requires agent-based concurrent resource-sensitive models of computation in order to be able to cover the whole range of phenomena from physics to cognition. The central role of agency, particularly material vs. cognitive agency is highlighted
Cognition as Embodied Morphological Computation
Cognitive science is considered to be the study of mind (consciousness and thought) and intelligence in humans. Under such definition variety of unsolved/unsolvable problems appear. This article argues for a broad understanding of cognition based on empirical results from i.a. natural sciences, self-organization, artificial intelligence and artificial life, network science and neuroscience, that apart from the high level mental activities in humans, includes sub-symbolic and sub-conscious processes, such as emotions, recognizes cognition in other living beings as well as extended and distributed/social cognition. The new idea of cognition as complex multiscale phenomenon evolved in living organisms based on bodily structures that process information, linking cognitivists and EEEE (embodied, embedded, enactive, extended) cognition approaches with the idea of morphological computation (info-computational self-organisation) in cognizing agents, emerging in evolution through interactions of a (living/cognizing) agent with the environment
Informational Mode of the Brain Operation and Consciousness as an Informational Related System
Introduction: the objective of the investigation is to analyse the informational operating-mode of the brain and to extract conclusions on the
structure of the informational system of the human body and consciousness.
Analysis: the mechanisms and processes of the transmission of information in the body both by electrical and non-electrical ways are analysed
in order to unify the informational concepts and to identify the specific essential requirements supporting the life. It is shown that the electrical
transmission can be described by typical YES/NO (all or nothing) binary units as defined by the information science, while the inter and intra
cell communication, including within the synaptic junction, by mechanisms of embodiment/disembodiment of information. The virtual received
or operated information can be integrated in the cells as matter-related information, with a maximum level of integration as genetically codified
info. Therefore, in terms of information, the human appears as a reactive system changing information with the environment and between inner
informational subsystems which are: the centre of acquisition and storing of information (acquired data), the centre of decision and command
(decision), the info-emotional system (emotions), the maintenance informational system (matter absorption/desorption/distribution), the genetic
transmission system (reproduction) and info-genetic generator (genetically assisted body evolution). The dedicated areas and components of the
brain are correlated with such systems and their functions are specified.
Result: the corresponding cognitive centres projected into consciousness are defined and described according to their specific functions. The
cognitive centres, suggestively named to appropriately include their main characteristics are detected at the conscious level respectively as: memory,
decisional operation (attitude), emotional state, power/energy status and health, associativity and offspring formation, inherited predispositions,
skills and mentality. The near-death and religious experiences can be explained by an Info-Connection pole.
Conclusion: consciousness could be fully described and understood in informational terms
Informational Neuro-Connections of the Brain with the Body Supporting the Informational Model of Consciousness
Introduction: The objective of this investigation is to analyse the informational circuits of the brain connections with the body from neurologic
and neuroscience point of view, on the basis of the concepts of information promoted by the Informational Model of Consciousness.
Analysis: Distinguishing between the virtual and matter-related information promoted by the Informational Model of Consciousness, the main
specific features of consciousness are analyzed from the informational perspective, showing that the informational architecture of consciousness
consists in seven groups of specific activities, defined as cognitive centres, each of them with specific distinct tasks, but correlated each other: centre
of acquisition and storing of information (memory), centre of decision and command (decision), centre of the emotional states (emotions), centre of
the body maintenance (power and health), centre of the genetic elaboration/transmission (reproduction) and the info-genetic generator, inherited
from the parents (predispositions, talents and skills). A special centre, dedicated to the connectivity with some extra-power properties of the mind
is also introduced, assuring an intimate supra-sensitive detection of the world to explain the associated phenomena of the near-death experiences.
Result: The activity of all these centres should be supported neurologically by the brain neuro-connectivity to the body and to external and
internal info-signals. On the basis of the informational analysis, the neuro-connections of the brain regions associated to the main characteristics
of the cognitive centres are highlighted, showing the anatomic and neuro-functional relation between the distinct components of the brain and
the specific operating body regions. These connections describe in terms of information the brain-body neuro-activities as informational specific
circuits, composed by the info-operational subsystems managed by the brain, and sensors, transducer and execution elements.
Conclusion: The components and connections mind-body stipulated by the Informational Model of Consciousness are supported by the
neurologic/neuroscience evidenc
Epigenetic Information-Body Interaction and Information-Assisted Evolution from the Perspective of the Informational Model of Consciousness
Introduction: the objective of this investigation is to analyses the advances of understanding in the epigenetic processes and to extract
conclusions concerning the information-based evolution from the perspective of the Informational Model of Consciousness (IMC).
Analysis of epigenetic mechanisms: it is shown that the study of the epigenetic mechanisms are of increasing interest not only to discover the
responsible mechanisms of some diseases, but also to observe the acquisition and transmission mechanisms of some traits to the next generation/
transgenerations, without affecting the DNA sequences. These advances were especially supported by the spectacular progresses in the high
technological tools like digital microfluidic techniques and semiconductor-based detection systems, allowing to apply sequencing methods of DNA
and to observe its structural modifications. The specific typical steps of the epigenetic mechanisms are analysed, showing that these mechanisms
could be fully described in terms of information, as signal transmission agents embodying or disembodying information in three different stages and
under specific conditions, including especially the signal persistence as a main conditional epigenetic factor.
Results concerning the information-assisted evolution from the perspective of IMC: the epigenetic mechanisms are discussed as a function of
each component of the informational system of the organism, consisting in memory, decisional operability, emotional reactivity, metabolic driving
processes, genetic transmission, genetic info-generator and the info-connection explaining the special extra-power properties of the mind. It is
shown that the epigenetic mechanisms could be related to the specific functions of each informational component, mainly exhibiting five levels of
integration of information as matter-related information, culminating with the stable integration in the procreation cells and transmission to the
next generation. The results were extended to explain the transgenerational adaptive processes of isolated population groups.
Conclusion: the epigenetic mechanisms discussed within IMC allow to understand the transgenerational adaptation as an information-assisted
proces
Transdisciplinarity seen through Information, Communication, Computation, (Inter-)Action and Cognition
Similar to oil that acted as a basic raw material and key driving force of
industrial society, information acts as a raw material and principal mover of
knowledge society in the knowledge production, propagation and application. New
developments in information processing and information communication
technologies allow increasingly complex and accurate descriptions,
representations and models, which are often multi-parameter, multi-perspective,
multi-level and multidimensional. This leads to the necessity of collaborative
work between different domains with corresponding specialist competences,
sciences and research traditions. We present several major transdisciplinary
unification projects for information and knowledge, which proceed on the
descriptive, logical and the level of generative mechanisms. Parallel process
of boundary crossing and transdisciplinary activity is going on in the applied
domains. Technological artifacts are becoming increasingly complex and their
design is strongly user-centered, which brings in not only the function and
various technological qualities but also other aspects including esthetic, user
experience, ethics and sustainability with social and environmental dimensions.
When integrating knowledge from a variety of fields, with contributions from
different groups of stakeholders, numerous challenges are met in establishing
common view and common course of action. In this context, information is our
environment, and informational ecology determines both epistemology and spaces
for action. We present some insights into the current state of the art of
transdisciplinary theory and practice of information studies and informatics.
We depict different facets of transdisciplinarity as we see it from our
different research fields that include information studies, computability,
human-computer interaction, multi-operating-systems environments and
philosophy.Comment: Chapter in a forthcoming book: Information Studies and the Quest for
Transdisciplinarity - Forthcoming book in World Scientific. Mark Burgin and
Wolfgang Hofkirchner, Editor
Informational Model of Consciousness: From Philosophic Concepts to an Information Science of Consciousness
On the long and well-worn road of many, but justifiable attempts of human to discover his origin, his trajectory as a
species, and a suitable understanding consciousness, his system allowing the connection to the environment and to
his own organism, the concepts and models of philosophy enunciated or experienced by millennia, meet today with
modern science concepts of physics and of science of information. Based on recent discoveries of quantum physics
and astrophysics, revealing a new understanding of our environment and starting from some philosophical concepts
on information of matter and of living structures, this work discusses the dynamics of information within the frame
of the Informational Model of Consciousness as an informational system of the human body, connected both to the
environment and to the body itself, to control the adaptation for survival. It is shown that consciousness is actually
an informational projection in the mind of seven informational subsystems, three of which forming the operative
system of consciousness for the short-term adaptation, and other three forming the programmed operating system,
dedicated to the maintenance of body and to the long-term survival of species, showing various inputs and outputs
of information. The seventh subsystem is the information pole, connecting the organism with the external
information, especially related to the extra-sensorial properties of the mind, the human body appearing as a bipolar
info-matter structure, managed by the brain. The received information is progressively integrated into the
informational system of the organism, which absorbs and emanates information as a reactive system for adaptation,
able to operate both with matter-related (codified) and non-matter related (virtual) information. As both connections
with external and internal environment (body itself) can be described in terms of information, this model opens the
gate to investigate consciousness by means of the tools of the information science, offering also answers to the
philosophic “mind-body” problem and to the “hard” problem and showing correspondences with some ancient
philosophies
Destiny or Free Will Decision? A Life Overview from the Perspective of an Informational Modeling of Consciousness Part I: Information, Consciousness and Life Cycle
We drive our lives permanently by decisions YES/NO, and even we no longer distinguish the elementary intermediary steps of such decisions
most often, they form stereotyped chains that once triggered, they run unconsciously, daily facilitating our activities. We lead our lives actually by
conscious decisions, each of such decisions establishing our future trajectory. The YES/NO dipole is actually the elemental evaluation and decisional
unit in the informational transmission/reception equipment and lines and in computers, respectively. Based on a binary probabilistic system, this is
defined as a unit of information (Bit). We operate therefore as an informational system and we actually live in a bipolar universe, which is fundamentally
informational. Indeed, the laws of nature and its equilibrium or steady state conditions are based on bipolar units with opposite characteristics, such as
action/reaction, attraction/rejection, gravity/anti-gravity, matter/antimatter, entropy/anti-entropy, to enumerate just a few examples. As part of this
bipolar universe, we are also bipolar entities connected to information and matter. Starting from the informational features of the human being, seven
informational components are identified, forming the informational system of the human body, distinguished by their different functions, reflected at the
conscious level through the center Iknow (the memory, including whole life experience), Iwant (decisions center), Iove (emotions), Iam (body status),
Icreate (informational genetic transmitter), Icreated (genetic generator inherited from parents) and Ibelieve, which is the gateway to the antientropic
component, favorable to maintain the life structure and functioning. Taking into account the characteristics of these centers, it is discussed the life cycle
and are deduced suitable conclusions concerning an optimal, active lifestyle, that would contribute to a successful life, aging and destiny
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