[Fis] New Perspectives

[Joseph Brenner]

Dear Pedro and All,

 

Many thanks are due to you, Pedro, for this new and valuable formulation of
the – daunting - task at hand. The task is logical and philosophical, as
well as scientific. Philosophy here, exemplified by the Philosophy of
Information, does not mean standard discussions of ‘where did we come from’
and ‘does a transcendent deity exist’, which are as sterile in their way as
the excesses of the IT and AI ideologists. Natural Philosophy can be a
‘vehicle’ for interaction between people of good will, the collaboration
that you point to that may help to advance IS4SI. Some of you who may not
have been at the Conference in San Francisco (Berkeley) may wish to look at
abstracts of papers from the Philosophy of Information sub-conferences at
the 2015, 2017 and 2019 Summit conferences on Information.

 

To revitalize the list is indeed a key first step. But it starts, in my
opinion, with some self-examination, examination of whether one’s own
theories are just ‘pet’ theories. Applying this criterion to my own Logic in
Reality, about which I have written on several occasions, I claim that it is
not just a pet theory. It is a new perspective on how information, logic and
thought operate as real processes, following laws within the laws of
physics, without loss of a human, ethical dimension. However, LIR makes many
demands on one. It requires an understanding and acceptance of what is /not/
Natural Philosophy, which may include some of the ideas that have appeared
in this list.   

 

Again, accepting my own criterion of interactive non-separability, I do not
call for any exclusions or limitations on the list. I only wish that
everyone makes the necessary effort to position his or her own views in
relation to the overriding need for furthering the Common Good. The sum of
all such honest self-referential (or second-order recursive) opinions of
people about their own work would itself be a useful creative effort, I
think.

 

Thank you and best wishes,

 

Joseph 

 

 

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Fis [mailto:fis-bounces at listas.unizar.es] On Behalf Of Pedro C.
Marijuan
Sent: mardi, 11 juin 2019 13:05
To: 'fis'
Subject: [Fis] New Perspectives

 

Dear FIS Colleagues,

 

A few days ago took place the IS4SI Meeting, in SFco, with one of the 

parallel sessions devoted to FIS and other sessions also with presence 

of veteran parties of this list. Relevant speakers in the plenary 

sessions covered the main topic of the conference, expressed as: Where 

is the I in Artificial Intelligence and the Meaning in Information? From 

Tristan Harris to Melanie Mitchell, to Paul Verschure, etc.

 

In my view the perspectives in these IT fields are changing 

significantly. The tremendous hype in AI, Deep Learning, IOT, etc. keeps 

unabated, but critical voices are being heard, not just from a few 

Academia corners as usual, but now by leading technologists and 

researchers of big companies in these very fields. "Dissent" on the 

contents, methodologies, and consequences of social applications is growing.

 

The industrial development of this IT sector --notwithstanding the 

inflated proclamations and all the hype of the gurus-- does not mean the 

arrival of some great singularity, or the symbiosis with machines, or 

widespread menace of robots & cyborgs... these are slogans coming from 

the industrialists to maintain social/ideological preeminence for their 

whole sector. Rather I think they are starting to feel the consequences 

of their social overstretching in different ways.

 

The fundamental point, in my opinion, is that our solitary, isolated 

efforts from a few Academia places (Sciences & Humanities) in the quest 

for new perspectives in Information Science, and not just AI 

development, should not isolated any more. We can now establish an 

interesting dialog and partnership with those new "dissenters" of the 

technology in its concepts, methods, and social applications. It is upon 

us to improve the discussion procedures, the collaborations, the 

organization, etc. so that this opportunity might materialize 

progressively. Do not ask me how... In any case I pointed out three 

future directions for IS4SI advancement: community building, attracting 

scientific/technological avantgarde, and organizational improvement.

 

Revitalizing this discussion list--shouldn't it be one of the first steps?

 

Best greetings to all,

 

--Pedro

 

-------------------------------------------------

Pedro C. Marijuán

Grupo de Bioinformación / Bioinformation Group

 

pcmarijuan.iacs at aragon.es

http://sites.google.com/site/pedrocmarijuan/

-------------------------------------------------

 

 

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