Category: Philosophy and/of Information

Talk on a Logic for Agent-Oriented Relevance

Details for an upcoming talk I am giving:

Title: A Logic for Agent-Oriented Relevance

Abstract: Relevance here is taken to be agent-oriented/epistemic, where the relevance of a piece of information is determined in terms of how well it satisfies an agent’s request, how well it answers their question. A logic is given in which a relevance operator (Ra) is defined and investigated; Rai means something like ‘the piece of information i is relevant to agent a’. The erotetic foundation for this logic is Hintikka’s approach to analysing questions as requests for information in terms of epistemic modal logic, which is then combined with a logic of intention.

Location: Melbourne University Logic Seminar Series, September 17th.

Talk on Knowledge and Information

Details for an upcoming talk I am giving. Date and time TBA:

Title: Knowledge and Information

Abstract: Information and knowledge are commonly associated with each other; colloquially, in dictionaries, the two terms are often treated as synonymous. Within philosophy however, information-theoretic epistemology goes beyond this casual, colloquial association. It involves the development of specialised accounts of information and furthermore attempts to develop an explication of knowledge with such accounts, to show how information causes or leads to knowledge. In this presentation I outline and discuss a theory of information and how it is used to develop an information-theoretic epistemology. Information is treated as a fundamental precursor to knowledge, with knowledge encapsulating truth because it encapsulates information, which itself is also veridical by definition.

Database, Information and Knowledge (DIK)

Have decided to swiftly read through a copy of Luciano Floridi’s Philosophy and Computing, which I have had borrowed out from the library for a while. It was published in 1999 and seems to be a precursor of the establishment of the Philosophy of Information.

One part I found particularly interesting, titled ‘Data, information and knowledge: an erotetic approach’, is a short subsection of the fourth chapter, ‘The digital domain: Infosphere, databases and hypertexts’.

Continue reading “Database, Information and Knowledge (DIK)”

Luciano Floridi’s Philosophy of Technology: Critical Reflections

Collections of literature looking at Floridi’s work keep on coming. Firstly, Knowledge, Technology and Policy has a special issue titled “Luciano Floridi’s Philosophy of Technology: Critical Reflections”. Papers to feature can already be found online: http://www.springerlink.com/content/105285/?Content+Status=Accepted.

Also, the Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence apparently has a special issue coming out titled “Inforgs and the Infosphere: Themes from Luciano Floridi’s Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence”.

The Paradox of Inference and the Non-Triviality of Analytic Information

New paper in the Journal of Philosophical Logic with a new take on the Scandal of Deduction: The Paradox of Inference and the Non-Triviality of Analytic Information. Part of the abstract:

Hence, although analytically true sentences provide no empirical information about the state of the world, they convey analytic information, in the shape of constructions prescribing how to arrive at the truths in question.

Some more material on the matter:

Vlatko Vedral: Everything is information

Was listening to the Sun, 11 Jul 10 edition of the BBC’s The Forum program, in which Physicist Vlatko Vedral was a participant. Decided to look at some of his stuff and found this: Vlatko Vedral: Everything is information

Here Vedral explains why he believes the fundamental stuff of the universe is information – and how he hopes that one day everything will be explained in this way.

He has recently published a book title Decoding Reality: The Universe as Quantum Information.

Looks interesting, but I should read my copy of Seth Lloyd’s Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos before I get another book on the matter.

An Analysis of Informational Relevance

Am currently working on a paper to be given at this years AAL conference. Tentative details:

Title: An Analysis of Informational Relevance

Abstract: In this presentation a logical definition and analysis of informational relevance is given. Relevance is taken to be agent-oriented/epistemic, where the relevance of a piece of information is determined in terms of how well it satisfies an agent’s request, how well it answers their question. Firstly, a general metric is outlined whereby the relevance of a statement is measured in terms of its truthlikeness measure. Secondly, a logic is given in which a relevance operator is defined and investigated. The erotetic foundation for this logic is Hintikka’s approach to analysing questions as requests for information in terms of epistemic modal logic, which is then combined with a logic of intention.

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.