Scope of Fundamentals of Informatics： Neo-Cybernetics as an Intellectual Revolution

The link to the document is: https://www.iii.u-tokyo.ac.jp/manage/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/83_2.pdf

Foundational Informatics

• What is the grotesque gap that characterizes today’s information society? It is none other than the dark chasm between the surface transformations of society accelerated by rapid technological innovations such as the web and mobile information devices, and the inescapable academic stagnation lurking in its depths.

• Aiming to establish the foundations of various fields dealing with information

  • Examining the “basic concepts related to information”
    • What is this?
  • Its main feature lies in focusing on the semantic function of information, where “meaning” emerges
  • And analyzing the mechanism of its propagation using a self-referential systems theory.

• The introduction of communication engineering concepts into the so-called social communication patterns among humans in a simplistic manner can be considered a major factor that led to the aforementioned academic confusion surrounding information and amount of information.

  • @_anohito: Shannon’s information theory completely detached information from semantics, enabling advanced information communication and processing. If there is a theory related to content, it could be said that efforts to reintroduce the once-discarded ”semantics” into information technology are underway.

    • This discussion is interesting
    • Shannon-Weaver Model
    • Shannon

• The difference between human-handled information (meaning) and machine-handled information is the root of the problem.

  • The former is called autopoietic systems, while the latter is referred to as allopoietic systems.

  • Oh, Systems Theory
    • Distinguishing between humans and machines based on autopoiesis..?
    • Not quite grasping it yet

• Trend of Neocybernetics

  • Cybernetics controls the state of the target system through feedback loops, with the model itself assuming an open system where an absolute observer of the target system is envisioned outside of it. However, in second-order cybernetics, this observer is also integrated into the model, forming a closed system through what could be called a ”double loop“.

  • I’m lost in the complexity of Systems Theory too.