Information And The Internal Structure Of The Universe

Not so if the book has been translated into Arabic. Now the reader can discern no meaning in the letters. The text conveys almost no information to the reader, yet the linguistic informa tion contained by the book is virtually the same as in the English original. The reader, familiar with books will still recognise two things, however: First, that the book is a book. Second, that the squiggles on the page represent a pattern of abstractions which probably makes sense to someone who understands the mean ing of those squiggles. Therefore, the book as such, will still have some meaning for the English reader, even if the content of the text has none. Let us go to a more extreme case. Not a book, but a stone, or a rock with engravings in an ancient language no longer under stood by anyone alive. Does such a stone not contain human information even if it is not decipherable? Suppose at some point in the future, basic knowledge about linguistics and clever computer aids allow us to decipher it? Or suppose someone discovers the equivalent of a Rosetta stone which allows us to translate it into a known language, and then into English? Can one really say that the stone contained no information prior to translation? It is possible to argue that the stone, prior to deciphering contained only latent information.

This unique volume presents a new approach OCo the general theory of information OCo to scientific understanding of information phenomena. Based on a thorough analysis of information processes in nature, technology, and society, as well as on the main directions in information theory, this theory synthesizes existing directions into a unified system. The book explains how this theory opens new kinds of possibilities for information technology, information sciences, computer science, knowledge engineering, psychology, linguistics, social sciences, and education. The book also gives a broad introduction to the main mathematically-based directions in information theory. The general theory of information provides a unified context for existing directions in information studies, making it possible to elaborate on a comprehensive definition of information; explain relations between information, data, and knowledge; and demonstrate how different mathematical models of information and information processes are related. Explanation of information essence and functioning is given, as well as answers to the following questions: how information is related to knowledge and data; how information is modeled by mathematical structures; how these models are used to better understand computers and the Internet, cognition and education, communication and computation. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Introduction (354 KB). Contents: General Theory of Information; Statistical Information Theory; Semantic Information Theory; Algorithm Information Theory; Pragmatic Information Theory; Dynamics of Information. Readership: Professionals in information processing, and general readers interested in information and information processes.

Within the last three decades, information modelling and knowledge bases have become essential subjects, not only for academic communities related to information systems and computer science, but also for businesses where information technology is applied. This book presents the proceedings of EJC 2014, the 24th International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases, held in Kiel, Germany, in June 2014. The main themes of the conference were: conceptual modelling, including modelling and specification languages, domain specific conceptual modelling, and validating and communicating conceptual models; knowledge and information modelling and discovery, including knowledge representation and knowledge management, advanced data mining and analysis methods, as well as information recognition and information modelling; linguistics modelling; cross-cultural communication and social computing; environmental modelling; and multimedia data modelling and systems, which includes modelling multimedia information and knowledge, content-based multimedia data management, content-based multimedia retrieval as well as privacy and context enhancing technologies. This book will be of interest to all those who wish to keep abreast of new developments in the field of information modelling and knowledge bases.

This book aims to synthesize different directions in knowledge studies into a unified theory of knowledge and knowledge processes. It explicates important relations between knowledge and information. It provides the readers with understanding of the essence and structure of knowledge, explicating operations and process that are based on knowledge and vital for society. The book also highlights how the theory of knowledge paves the way for more advanced design and utilization of computers and networks. Contents:IntroductionKnowledge Characteristics and TypologyKnowledge Evaluation and Validation in the Context of Epistemic StructuresKnowledge Structure and Functioning: Microlevel or Quantum Theory of KnowledgeKnowledge Structure and Functioning: Macrolevel or Theory of Average KnowledgeKnowledge Structure and Functioning: Megalevel or Global Theory of KnowledgeKnowledge Production, Acquisition, Engineering, and ApplicationKnowledge, Data, and InformationConclusion Readership: Graduate students and researchers in artificial intelligence and knowledge management.

Mathematical models have been very successful in the study of the physical world. Galilei and Newton introduced point particles moving without friction under the action of simple forces as the basis for the description of concrete motions like the ones of the planets. This approach was sustained by appro priate mathematical methods, namely infinitesimal calculus, which was being developed at that time. In this way classical analytical mechanics was able to establish some general results, gaining insight through explicit solution of some simple cases and developing various methods of approximation for handling more complicated ones. Special relativity theory can be seen as an extension of this kind of modelling. In the study of electromagnetic phenomena and in general relativity another mathematical model is used, in which the concept of classical field plays the fundamental role. The equations of motion here are partial differential equations, and the methods of study used involve further developments of classical analysis. These models are deterministic in nature. However it was realized already in the second half of last century, through the work of Maxwell, Boltzmann, Gibbs and others, that in the discussion of systems involving a great number of particles, the deterministic description is not by itself of great help, in particu lar a suitable "weighting" of all possible initial conditions should be considered.

Preamble The emergence of machine intelligence during the second half of the twentieth century is the most important development in the evolution of this planet since the origin of life two to three thousand million years ago. The emergence of machine intelligence within the matrix of human society is analogous to the emergence, three billion years ago, of complex, self-replicating molecules within the matrix of an energy-rich molecular soup - the first step in the evolution of life. The emergence of machine intelligence within a human social context has set into motion irreversible processes which will lead to an evolutionary discontinuity. Just as the emergence of "Life" represented a qualitatively different form of organisation of matter and energy, so will pure "Intelligence" represent a qualitatively different form of organisation of matter, energy and life. The emergence of machine intelligence presages the progression of the human species as we know it, into a form which, at present, we would not recognise as "human". As Forsyth and Naylor (1985) have pointed out: "Humanity has opened two Pandora's boxes at the same time, one labelled genetic engineering, the other labelled knowledge engineering. What we have let out is not entirely clear, but it is reasonable to hazard a guess that it contains the seeds of our successors".