[Fis] Five Clouds over Fundamental Information Science

[joe.brenner at bluewin.ch]

Dear Professor Yan,
 
You have given us – your "students" – a very difficult assignment. To make it a little easier for myself, I decided to look at the different issues from the perspective of the ontic-epistemic distinction, starting with those in your title. The real problem for me, thus is with the two lines of the second footnote (**):
 
Clouds
 
      On first thought, a homogeneous form constituted by water droplets; on a second, the very embodiment of ontic change, appearance, growth and disappearance, with violent exchanges of energy as lightning.
 
Signs
 
      The sign is a representation, as accurate as you please, of a real object or process. On this basis it is essentially epistemic. Information, on the other hand, has both epistemic and ontic properties, and cannot be reduced to signs.
 
Meaning (Cloud 1)
 
      Following the second point, information and meaning can be considered as two different expressions of one existence (or existence tout court), both embodying and applicable to change.
 
Brain or Animal Informatics (Cloud 2)
 
      This Cloud seems mainly concerned with Informatics as an epistemic field, essentially self-defined. I have nothing particular to add.
 
Genetics as a Discipline of Informatics (Cloud 3)
 
      What is being elaborated here is a further aspect of what I have concluded is an epistemic domain. Bases can function as signs, if you will, but the phenomena of interest are, exactly, those in neuroscience and endocrinology and it is the ontic properties of the bases (residual charge, etc.) that determine how the genetic material functions.
 
Communication between Infowares
 
      Hidden in this Cloud 4 is the “philosopher’s stone” with which the nature of information can be tested. The question, as many have stated in their definitions of information, is whether the phenomenon under study is capable of effecting change. On this basis, I can confirm by experience that my cats (pace) and I communicated.
 
Exploration of Fundamental Information Science
 
      The commonalities between in information disciplines, as embodied in most of the above Clouds, remain for me epistemic, questions of semantic modes of existence. That their “complexity and enormity” exist all right and have been difficult to handle in science and philosophy is clear. In this view, however, Cloud 2 on Meaning is the counterargument to Line **, which I reproduce here:
 
      “Studies focused solely on substrates typically (emphasis mine) fall under the technical or natural sciences rather than information science.”
 
      What this says to me is that at worst (at best?), my ontic approach to meaning-information is a-typical but can exist. It thus co-exists with the largely epistemic standard view, and this co-existence can be studied as an aspect of information science as well. I give the last word to the 5th Century BCE Greek playwright Aristophanes, whose a-typical play The Clouds focused on problems of knowledge and existence (“The Thinkery”).   
 
Best wishes,
Joseph               
 

> Le 02.12.2024 10:09 CET, Xueshan Yan <yxs at pku.edu.cn> a écrit :
>  
>  
> Dear colleagues,
> 
> I have summarized five sets of puzzles faced by fundamental information science and called them 'clouds' ― some of which have been emphasized by Pedro on many occasions. I am now glade to hear everyone's different opinions.
>  
> Best wishes,
> Xueshan Yan
> 
> Professor Emeritus
> Department of Information Management
> Peking University, China
>  
>  
>  
> Five Clouds over Fundamental Information Science
> 
> Xueshan Yan
> 
> Inforware*: Information must exist in signs, and signs must exist on substrates**. We define a trinity composed of information, sign, and substrate as an Inforware.
> 
> Four Concomitant Disciplines: Based on the structure of an inforware, we have Informatics for studying information, and Semiotics for studying signs―the existence mode of information. Since communication is the transmission of information and computation is the processing of information, we also have another two fundamental disciplines: Communication Studies and Computation Studies. These four disciplines are concomitant; that is, if one is present, the other three (or more) will eventually emerge.
> 
> Cloud 1. Information and Meaning: What is information? Since 1948, information scientists have been discussing it for 76 years, yet still cannot provide a definitive answer. What is meaning? Since 1825, linguists have been debating it for 200 years and still cannot reach a definitive conclusion. Nevertheless, linguistics has been established successfully. Let’s consider a hypothesis: if we were to suspend all discussions about the definition of information for three years, what else could we do? From a human perspective, are information and meaning two homogenous issues? Or are they two different expressions of one existence?
> 
> Cloud 2. Brain Informatics or Animal Informatics: It has been demonstrated that any organism with a brain inforware can communicate with others; therefore, brain informatics must exist, ―storing, sending, and receiving information are fundamental functions of the brain―, and human informatics already exists. Similarly, we could explore bee informatics, elephant informatics, and so on. Can we assume that there are as many types of animal informatics as there are animal species?
> 
> Cloud 3. Genetics as a Discipline of Informatics: Cells can communicate. The central dogma of molecular biology describes the pathway of DNA→RNA→protein, through which genetic information flows. In this process, DNA serves as substrate, bases function as signs, and genomics represents informatics. If we propose that genetics is the most successful branch of informatics, what would be the response from biologists? Could a similar phenomenon also be observed in neuroscience and endocrinology?
> 
> Cloud 4. Communication between Inforwares: Some speculate that two supramolecules can communicate with each other. But can two ordinary molecules communicate? Can two atoms communicate? Can two celestial bodies communicate? Can plants communicate with one another? Can different inforwares communicate across different levels? Is the communication between humans and cats true communication (language comprehension) or false communication (conditional reflex)?
> 
> Cloud 5. Exploration of Fundamental Information Science: Can we regard fundamental information science as an exploration based on the inductive method, focusing on the commonalities among various fundamental information disciplines, especially the four concomitant disciplines mentioned above? The complexity and enormity of this venture have far exceeded anyone's imagination. Is it one of the most challenging disciplines to study in contemporary times? Or, does it not exist at all?
> 
> ---------------------
> *Any discipline has its own concept framework, which is why I coined the new term Inforware. For example, the computer science is built on the two primary concepts of hardware and software.
> **Studies focused solely on substrates typically fall under the technical or natural sciences rather than information science.
> 
>  
> 
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