info-computationalism and morphological computing...

1st Annual Conference on Integral Biomathics,Stirling University, Scotland, 29-31 August 2011

Info-computationalism and Morphological Computing of Informational Structure

Gordana Dodig CrnkovicGordana Dodig CrnkovicSchool of Innovation, Design and Engineering, Mälardalen University, Sweden

http://www.inbiosa.eu/en/Workshops-And-Conferences-View.html?article=acib-11

What is Universe? What is Knowledge? What is Science?

Based on an enormous boost of extended mind of humanity we witness a major paradigm shift in our understanding of the universe and our place in it.p g g p

This big picture is important as it sets the frameworkas it sets the framework for how we think.

That is why not only theory of particular sciences or specific phenomena but even philosophy of naturemakesmakes.(And empirical data are as well known theory-laden, even by implicit theory)

Historical Development: The Mytho-Poetic Universe

In ancient Egypt the dome of the sky was represented by the goddess Nut, the night sky, and the sun, the god Ra, was born from her every morning.

In Hindu myth, the tortoise supports elephants that hold up the world, and everything is encircled by the world serpent.

There are numbers of similar myths of creationin ancient times, and even old Greeks had corresponding mythological explanations.

Greek Natural Philosophy – Protoscience

Anaximander of Miletus (c. 610 -c. 546 bc) a pupil of Thales, and as other members of the

Ionian School, he was an early scientist. He constructed the first geometrical model of the

universe, and made maps of the earth and the skies. He said that the arche ('beginning and

basis') of existing things is an apeiron ('limitless') nature of some kind, from which come the

heavens and the kosmos ('world order').

Anaximander advocated the idea of biological evolution with human beings, like other

animals evolved from fishanimals, evolved from fish.

Anaximander was the author of the first written work of philosophy in ancient Greece, On

Nature, which has been lost. His philosophy was a natural dialectics.

The Mechanical Universe

The Clockwork Universe The Clockwork Universe The Geocentric Universe

Newton Philosophiae NaturalisThe universe depicted in The Newton Philosophiae NaturalisPrincipia Matematica, 1687

The universe depicted in The Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)

The Computational Universe

Konrad Zuse was the first to suggest (in 1967) that the physical behavior of the entire universe is being computed on a basic level, possibly on cellular automata, by the universe itself which he referred to as "Rechnender Raum" or Computing Space/Cosmos.

Computationalists: Zuse, Wiener, Fredkin, Wolfram, Chaitin, Lloyd, Seife, 't Hooft, Deutsch Tegmark Schmidhuber Weizsäcker WheelerDeutsch, Tegmark, Schmidhuber, Weizsäcker, Wheeler..

htt //www nature com/nsu/020527/020527 16 htmlhttp://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v435/n7042/full/435572a.htmlhttp://www.nature.com/nsu/020527/020527-16.html

Three Major Paradigm Shifts

Info-ComputationalHuman-CentricUniverse

(Classical) MechanicUniverse

Mytho-poetic, God-CentricUniverse UniverseUniverseUniverse

Dodig-Crnkovic G and Müller V, A Dialogue Concerning Two World Systems: Info-Computational vs. Mechanistic. In: INFORMATION AND COMPUTATION , World Scientific Publishing Co. Series in Information Studies. Editors: G Dodig-Crnkovic and M Burgin, 2011. http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.5001 2009

Natural Philosophy

Natural philosophy (Philosophia Naturalis) is a study of nature and the physical universeNatural philosophy (Philosophia Naturalis) is a study of nature and the physical universe

that was dominant before the development of modern science in the 19th century.

Newton was natural philosopher. At older universities, long-established Chairs of

Natural Philosophy are nowadays occupied mainly by physics professors. *

At present, interesting complexity phenomena are studied on the intersection of several

research fields such as computing, biology, neuroscience, cognitive science,

philosophy physics and similar information/computation intensive fields which mightphilosophy, physics, and similar information/computation intensive fields which might

again form a core of a new life-centric natural philosophy, which will include human as

natural being.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_philosophy

Information as a Fabric of Reality

According to Bateson, Information is the difference that makes a difference. Informational

t t l R li (Fl idi S ) th t i f ti th f b i f litstructural Realism (Floridi, Sayre) argues that information the fabric of reality.

“It is tempting to suppose that some concept of information could serve eventuallyIt is tempting to suppose that some concept of information could serve eventually

to unify mind, matter, and meaning in a single theory.” Daniel C. Dennett And John Haugeland. Intentionality. in Richard L. Gregory, Editor. The

Oxford Companion To The Mind. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987.

Information in the World

Philosophy of Information (Van Benthem andPhilosophy of Information (Van Benthem and Adriaans, 2008), part of the Handbook of the philosophy of science. http://www.illc.uva.nl/HPI/shows clearly promises and confusions of the nascent y pfield which takes form because of the vacuum in both Information Science and the Philosophy of Information Science.

http://www.sdsc.edu/News%20Items/PR022008_moma.html The Internet

Structure vs. Process

As we can observe, structures in the world constantly change.

The knowledge of structures is half a story.The other half is understanding processes, dynamics.

In a classical formulation: being and becoming.

Info-computationalism

Information and computation are two interrelated and mutually defining phenomena – there is no computation without information (computation understood as information processing) and vice(computation understood as information processing), and vice versa, there is no information without computation (all information is a result of computational processes).

Being interconnected, information is studied as a structure, while computation presents a process on an informational structure. In order to learn about foundations of information, we must also study

t ticomputation.

ComputationThe Computing Universe: Pancomputationalism

Computation is generally defined as information processing.(See Burgin, M., Super-Recursive Algorithms, Springer Monographs in Computer Science, 2005)p , )

For different views see e.g.http://people pwf cam ac uk/mds26/cogsci/program html Computation andhttp://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/mds26/cogsci/program.html Computation and Cognitive Science 7–8 July 2008, King's College Cambridge

Computing Nature and Nature Inspired ComputationComputing Nature and Nature Inspired Computation

Natural computation includes:Natural computation includes:

Computation Inspired by nature: Evolutionary computation Neural networks Artificial immune systems Swarm intelligence

Simulation and emulation of nature:In 1623, Galileo in his book The Assayer - Il Saggiatore, claimed that the language of nature's book is mathematics and that the way to understand nature is through mathematics. Generalizing ”mathematics” to

Simulation and emulation of nature:Fractal geometry Artificial life

”computation” we may agree with Galileo – the great book of nature is an e-book!

Computing with natural materials: DNA computing Quantum computing

Journals: Natural Computing and IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA5QoTMvsiE&feature=related

Turing Machine Limits. Self-Generating Systems

Complex biological systems must be modeled as self-referential, self-organizing "component-systems" (George Kampis) which are self generating and whose(George Kampis) which are self-generating and whose behavior, though computational in a general sense, goes far beyond Turing machine model.

“a component system is a computer which, when executing its operations (software) builds a new hardware.... [W]e have a computer that re-wires itself in a hardware-software interplay: the hardware defines the software and the software defines new hardware. Then the circle starts again.” (Kampis, p. 223 Self-Modifying Systems in Biology and Cognitive Science)

Dodig Crnkovic, G. (2011). Significance of Models of Computation from Turing Model to Natural Computation. Minds and Machines, (R. Turner and A. Eden guest eds.) Volume 21, Issue 2, p.301.

Beyond Turing Machine Model

With the advent of computer networks, which are the main paradigm of

computing today, the model of a computer in isolation, represented by a

Universal Turing Machine, has become insufficient.

The basic difference between an isolated computing box and a network of

computational processes (nature itself understood as a computational

mechanism) is the interactivity of computation. The most general

computational paradigm today is interactive computing (Wegner, Goldin).

The challenge to deal with computability in the real world (such as computing

on continuous data, biological computing/organic computing, quantum

ti ll t l ti ) h b ht d t dicomputing, or generally natural computing) has brought new understanding

of computation.

Natural computing has different criteria for success of a computation, halting

problem is not a central issue but instead the adequacy of the computationalproblem is not a central issue, but instead the adequacy of the computational

response in a network of interacting computational processes/devices.

InfoInfo--computationalism Appliedcomputationalism Applied

Info-computationalism aims at connecting non-living and living nature in a unified natural philosophy.p p y

Among others observer must be integrated in the scientific epistemology.That just mean that we need to understand how an observing agent interacts with the system and what knowledge might be constructed from that kind of interaction.

The knowledge constructed by different kinds of agents will be different evenThe knowledge constructed by different kinds of agents will be different even though it is about the same physical world.

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature, methods, limitations, and validity of knowledge and belief.

InfoInfo--computationalism Applied: Epistemology Naturalizedcomputationalism Applied: Epistemology Naturalized

Naturalized epistemology (Feldman, Kornblith, Stich) is, in general, an idea

that knowledge may be studied as a natural phenomenon -- that the subject

matter of epistemology is not our concept of knowledge, but the knowledge

itself.

“Th ti l ti f hi t i ll th id b d h h d“The stimulation of his sensory receptors is all the evidence anybody has had

to go on, ultimately, in arriving at his picture of the world. Why not just see

how this construction really proceeds? Why not settle for psychology? “how this construction really proceeds? Why not settle for psychology?

("Epistemology Naturalized", Quine 1969; emphasis mine)

I will re-phrase the question to be: Why not settle for computing?

Naturalist Understanding of Cognition

According to Maturana and Varela (1980) even the simplest organisms possess

cognition and their meaning-production apparatus is contained in their g g

metabolism. Of course, there are also non-metabolic interactions with the

environment, such as locomotion, that also generates meaning for an organism by

changing its environment and providing new input data.

M t d V l ’ d t di th t ll li i i hMaturana and Varela’s understanding that all living organisms have some

cognition, in some degree, is the most suitable basis for a computationalist

account of the naturalized evolutionary epistemology. y p gy

Info-computational Account of Knowledge Generation

Natural computing as a new paradigm of computing goes

beyond the Turing Machine model and applies to all physical y g pp p y

processes including those going on in our brains.

To do so computer scientists must draw on the expertise in

subjects not usually associated with computing, including

organic chemistry, molecular biology, bioengineering, and

smart materials.

Info-computational Account of Knowledge Generation

At the physical level, living beings are open complex computational

systems in a regime on the edge of chaos, characterized by maximal

informational content. Complexity is found between orderly systems with

high information compressibility and low information content and random

systems with low compressibility and high information content (Flake)systems with low compressibility and high information content. (Flake)

The essential feature of cognizing living organisms is their ability to

manage complexity, and to handle complicated environmental conditions

with a variety of responses which are results of adaptation, variation,

selection learning and/or reasoning (Gell-Mann)selection, learning, and/or reasoning. (Gell Mann)

Cognition as Restructuring* of an Agent in the Interaction with the Environment

As a result of evolution, increasingly complex living organisms arise that are able to survive

and adapt to their environment. It means they are able to register inputs (data) from the

environment, to structure those into information, and in more developed organisms into

knowledge. The evolutionary advantage of using structured, component-based approaches

is improving response-time and efficiency of cognitive processes of an organism.is improving response time and efficiency of cognitive processes of an organism.

The Dual network model, suggested by Goertzel for modeling cognition in a living organism

describes mind in terms of two superposed networks: a self-organizing associative memory

network, and a perceptual-motor process hierarchy, with the multi-level logic of a flexible

command structurecommand structure.

*This is morphological computing

Cognition as Restructuring of an Agent in the Interaction with the Environment

Naturalized knowledge generation acknowledges the body as our basic cognitive instrument.

All iti i b di d iti i b th i i d h (Gä d fAll cognition is embodied cognition, in both microorganisms and humans (Gärdenfors,

Stuart). In more complex cognitive agents, knowledge is built upon not only reaction to input

information, but also on intentional choices, dependent on value systems stored and

organized in agents memory.

It is not surprising that present day interest in knowledge generation places information and p g p y g g p

computation (communication) in focus, as information and its processing are essential

structural and dynamic elements which characterize structuring of input data (data →

information → knowledge) by an interactive computational process going on in the agentinformation → knowledge) by an interactive computational process going on in the agent

during the adaptive interplay with the environment.

Natural Computing in Cognizing Agents

Agent-centered (information and computation is in the agent)

Natural Computing in Cognizing Agents

agent)

Agent is a cognizing biological organism or an autonomous adaptive intelligent machine or bothp g

Interaction with the physical world and other agents is essential

Kind of physicalism with information as a stuff of the universe

Agents are parts of different cognitive communities

Self-organization is a fundamental mechanism

Circularity (recursiveness, self-reflexiveness) is central for biological organisms

What is computation? How does nature compute? Learning from Nature *

“It always bothers me that, according to the laws as we understand them t d it t k ti hi i fi it b f l i ltoday, it takes a computing machine an infinite number of logical operations to figure out what goes on in no matter how tiny a region of space, and no matter how tiny a region of time …

So I have often made the hypothesis that ultimately physics will not require a mathematical statement, that in the end the machinery will be revealed, and the laws will turn out to be simple like the chequer board with all itsand the laws will turn out to be simple, like the chequer board with all its apparent complexities.”

Richard Feynman “The Character of Physical Law”Richard Feynman “The Character of Physical Law” * 2008 Midwest NKS Conference, Indiana University — Bloomington, IN

Morphogenesis in Biological SystemsMorphogenesis means the creation of form and it is used most frequently in the context of the creation of shape during animal development It is one of the fourcontext of the creation of shape during animal development. It is one of the four fundamental interrelated classes of event that characterize all of development:

Patterning - The setting up of the positions of future events across space at a variety of scales)scales)

Regulation of timing - The 'clock' mechanisms that regulate when events happen. Clocks can directly regulate morphogenesis of individual tissue. Changes of relative timing of events (heterochrony) can drive the evolution of new body plans. (compare to the concept of “real time” in computing)of real time in computing)

Cell differentiation: Changes in a cell's set of expressed genes (its molecular phenotype)

Morphogenesis: The processes that generate tissue organization and shape and are usually the downstream response to the timing and patterning.

(Morphogenetic field - in developmental biology, a group of cells able to respond to discrete localized biochemical signals leading to the development of specificdiscrete, localized biochemical signals leading to the development of specific morphological structures or organs.)

http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Morphogenesis

Morphogenesis as Computation (Information Processing) -Turing's Reaction-Diffusion Model of Morphogenesis

“Patterns resulting from the sole interplay between reaction and diffusion are probably involved in certain stages of morphogenesis in biological systems as initially proposed by Alan Turing Selfcertain stages of morphogenesis in biological systems, as initially proposed by Alan Turing. Self-organization phenomena of this type can only develop in nonlinear systems (i.e. involving positive and negative feedback loops) maintained far from equilibrium.” Dulos, E., Boissonade, J., Perraud, J. J.Rudovics, B., Kepper, P. (1996) Chemical morphogenesis: Turing patterns in an experimental chemical system, Acta Biotheoretica, Volume: 44, Issue: 3, pp. 249 -261

http://cgjennings.ca/toybox/turingmorph

Morphological Computation Connecting Body, Brain, And Environment

soft robotics / self-assembly systems and molecular robotics/ self-assembly systems at all scales / embodied robotics /self assembly systems at all scales / embodied robotics /reservoir computing / physical reservoir computing/ real neural systems systems medicine / functional architecture / organization / process management / computation based on spatio-temporal dynamics/ information theoretical approach to embodiment mechatronics /

http://morphcomp.org/2nd International Conference on Morphological Computation ICMC2011.

information theoretical approach to embodiment mechatronics /amorphous computing / molecular computing

http://www.eucognition.org/index.php?page=theoretical-scheme Tutorial on Embodiment:R PfeiferR Pfeifer

Fig. 3.1.1. A theoretical scheme illustrating different components whose interaction comprises an agent's embodiment (Pfeifer et al. 2007)

An Ongoing Paradigm Shift

Information/Computation as basic building blocks of understanding

Discrete/Continuum as two complementary levels of description

Natural interactive computing beyond Turing limit – not only computing as is but also computing as it may be

Complex dynamic systems (grounds for future communication across cultural gaps of research)

An Ongoing Paradigm Shift

Emergency (emergent property - a quality possessed by the whole but not by its parts)

Logical pluralismLogical pluralism

Philosophy (“Everything must go*” approach, synthetic besides analytic approaches, philosophy informed by sciences)sciences)

Human-centric (agent-centric) models

Circularity and self reflection (computing cybernetics)Circularity and self-reflection (computing, cybernetics)

Ethics returns to researchers agenda (Science as a constructivist project – what is it we construct and why?)

*Ladyman, J., Ross, D., Spurrett, D., and Collier, J. (2007). Everything must go: metaphysics naturalized. Clarendon Press, Oxford

Convergence

ARTIFACTUALHUMAN AGENCY

AGENCY

Comment on Machina Mundi Model –Observers on the Interface

Planisphaerium Ptolemaicum siue machina orbium mundisiue machina orbium mundi ex hypothesi Ptolemaica in plano disposita

Author: Cellarius, AndreasPublisher: Date: 1661L ti S l tLocation: Solar system

http://maps.bpl.org/id/M8727/

Instead of Conclusion, some Proposed Answers To iBioMath2011 Discussion Questions

- Do living systems compute at all? - Do we compute where a ball that has been thrown is going to land or do we

use some other form of “calculation” to optimize our chances of catching it?use some other form of calculation to optimize our chances of catching it?

(Most people don't think we compute. So what do we do? )

People are right in thinking that we do not perform classical computation when we move or metabolize.

But our body performs morphological computationBut our body performs morphological computation.That sort of computation is non-classical and non-symbolical physical

computation that we do not think about, but has developed during evolution and through our interaction with the physical world.g p y


- Does our underlying understanding of computation and cognition, of sensing and action suffice for building systems that really can mimic living systems?

Our understanding of computation is changing.Unlike the Turing machine model which originates from Hilbert’s program for logics and mathematics (proposed in the early 1920s), other types of models of computation such as process models (Petri nets, Process Algebra, and Agent-Based models) appeared in the past decades (the theory of Petri nets in 1962), specifically in computing dealing with concurrent networks.

Indicatively, the present day formal methods in Systems Biology include Rule-Based Modeling of Signal Transduction, Process Algebras, Abstract Interpretation, Model Checking, Agent-Based Modeling of Cellular Behavior, Boolean Networks, Petri Nets, State Charts and Hybrid Systems. However concurrency models have emerged in a bottom-up fashion in order to tackle presentHowever, concurrency models have emerged in a bottom up fashion in order to tackle present day networks of computational systems and it will take a few years until they reach the shared world view as tools of thinking in a new paradigm of computation.


- Does our underlying understanding of computation and cognition, of sensing and action suffice for building systems that really can mimic living systems?and action suffice for building systems that really can mimic living systems?

Natural computation is developing bottom-up by solving specific problems, in th fi t l ithi tithe first place within computing.

Bio-informatics , systems biology and other theoretical fields of biology , y gy gyassimilate info-computational approaches, which in this context of living-systems will necessarily become top-down models as well.


- What is missing from our understanding of the human mind?

Understanding of its underlying structures (information) and processes (computation)

- How far are we from a formal Theory of Mind & Consciousness?

What sort of formal do we expect it to be? Would we be satisfied with the understanding of mind and consciousness on the level of simulator (like flight simulator) ?. That is what we may wish to go for.


- How should we relate to existing large projects SyNAPSE (DARPA, more computational focus) and Human Brain Project (EU Flagship, more biological focus)?

Obviously the above two projects have different goals, and they will answer specific questions. Making general conclusions and especially establishing permanent bridges between different fields contributing to the construction of practically workable models of cognition, including consciousness, volition, awareness, creativity and similar higher functions – still remains to be done! This is a huge effort of establishing links to both current knowledge and relevant historical sources that current knowledge is built upon., given the fact that so many disciplines are undergoing radical changes such as computing biologyfact that so many disciplines are undergoing radical changes such as computing, biology, mathematics, logic, etc. and new fields are formed as bio-informatics, information science, etc. This work of relating knowledge fields must proceed simultaneously bottom-up and top-down, in many cycles.

ReferencesReferences

Dodig Crnkovic G, Info-computationalism and Morphological Computing of Informational Structure, forthcoming

Dodig Crnkovic, G. and Müller, V. , A Dialogue Concerningg , , , g gTwo World Systems: Info-Computational vs. Mechanistic; in Dodig Crnkovic G and Burgin, M., Eds.; World ScientificPublishing Co., Inc.: Singapore, 2010

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