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Selected Papers from Symposium on Natural/Unconventional Computing and Its Philosophical Significance

A special issue of Entropy (ISSN 1099-4300).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 August 2012) | Viewed by 59548

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
2. School of Innovation, Design and Engineering, Mälardalen University, 721 23 Västerås, Sweden
Interests: computing paradigms; computational mechanisms of cognition; philosophy of science; epistemology of science; computing and philosophy; ethics of computing; information ethics; roboethics and engineering ethics; sustainability ethics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Philosophy, Pontifical Lateran University, Vatican City, Italy
Interests: social ontology; social epistemology; philosophy of language; theories of autonomy; epistemology; philosophy of artificial intelligence
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Summary:
The symposium addresses, but is not limited to, the following topics, grouped in two tracks:

(I) NATURAL COMPUTING/UNCONVENTIONAL COMPUTING
This track will address the emerging paradigm of natural computing, and its philosophical consequences with different aspects including (but not limited to):
- Theoretical and philosophical view of natural computing/unconventional computing with its philosophical significance (such as understanding of computational processes in nature and in human mind).
- Differences between conventional and unconventional computing.
- Digital vs analog & discrete vs continuous computing
- Recent advances in natural computation (as computation found in nature, including organic computing; computation performed by natural materials and computation inspired by nature)
- Computation and its interpretation in a broader context of possible frameworks for modeling and implementing computation.
It is important to bring philosophical reflection into the discussion of all the above topics.

(II) REPRESENTATION AND COMPUTATIONALISM
This track highlights the relevance of the relationship between human representation and machine representation to bring out the main issues concerning the contrast between symbolic representation/processing on the one hand and nature-inspired, non-symbolic forms of computation on the other-with a special focus on connectionism. We also welcome work on hybrids of symbolic and non-symbolic representations. Particular movements that papers may wish to address are:
- 'Embedded, Embodied, Enactive' approach to cognitive science (from Varela et al)
- 'Dynamic Systems' approach (from, say, Port and Van Gelder);
- Other representational possibilities that are clearly available: no representations or minimal representations;
- Process/procedural representations (e.g. from Kevin O'Regan).

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Editorial

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139 KiB  
Editorial
Natural/Unconventional Computing and Its Philosophical Significance
by Gordana Dodig Crnkovic and Raffaela Giovagnoli
Entropy 2012, 14(12), 2408-2412; https://doi.org/10.3390/e14122408 - 27 Nov 2012
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 5455
Abstract
In this special issue we present a selection of papers from the Symposium on Natural/Unconventional Computing and its Philosophical Significance, held during the AISB/IACAP 2012 World Congress in Birmingham (UK). This article is an editorial, introducing the special issue of the journal with [...] Read more.
In this special issue we present a selection of papers from the Symposium on Natural/Unconventional Computing and its Philosophical Significance, held during the AISB/IACAP 2012 World Congress in Birmingham (UK). This article is an editorial, introducing the special issue of the journal with the selected papers and the research program of Natural/Unconventional Computing. Full article

Research

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316 KiB  
Article
Life as Thermodynamic Evidence of Algorithmic Structure in Natural Environments
by Hector Zenil, Carlos Gershenson, James A. R. Marshall and David A. Rosenblueth
Entropy 2012, 14(11), 2173-2191; https://doi.org/10.3390/e14112173 - 05 Nov 2012
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 24771
Abstract
In evolutionary biology, attention to the relationship between stochastic organisms and their stochastic environments has leaned towards the adaptability and learning capabilities of the organisms rather than toward the properties of the environment. This article is devoted to the algorithmic aspects of the [...] Read more.
In evolutionary biology, attention to the relationship between stochastic organisms and their stochastic environments has leaned towards the adaptability and learning capabilities of the organisms rather than toward the properties of the environment. This article is devoted to the algorithmic aspects of the environment and its interaction with living organisms. We ask whether one may use the fact of the existence of life to establish how far nature is removed from algorithmic randomness. The paper uses a novel approach to behavioral evolutionary questions, using tools drawn from information theory, algorithmic complexity and the thermodynamics of computation to support an intuitive assumption about the near optimal structure of a physical environment that would prove conducive to the evolution and survival of organisms, and sketches the potential of these tools, at present alien to biology, that could be used in the future to address different and deeper questions. We contribute to the discussion of the algorithmic structure of natural environments and provide statistical and computational arguments for the intuitive claim that living systems would not be able to survive in completely unpredictable environments, even if adaptable and equipped with storage and learning capabilities by natural selection (brain memory or DNA). Full article
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194 KiB  
Article
Unconventional Algorithms: Complementarity of Axiomatics and Construction
by Gordana Dodig Crnkovic and Mark Burgin
Entropy 2012, 14(11), 2066-2080; https://doi.org/10.3390/e14112066 - 25 Oct 2012
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 6573
Abstract
In this paper, we analyze axiomatic and constructive issues of unconventional computations from a methodological and philosophical point of view. We explain how the new models of algorithms and unconventional computations change the algorithmic universe, making it open and allowing increased flexibility and [...] Read more.
In this paper, we analyze axiomatic and constructive issues of unconventional computations from a methodological and philosophical point of view. We explain how the new models of algorithms and unconventional computations change the algorithmic universe, making it open and allowing increased flexibility and expressive power that augment creativity. At the same time, the greater power of new types of algorithms also results in the greater complexity of the algorithmic universe, transforming it into the algorithmic multiverse and demanding new tools for its study. That is why we analyze new powerful tools brought forth by local mathematics, local logics, logical varieties and the axiomatic theory of algorithms, automata and computation. We demonstrate how these new tools allow efficient navigation in the algorithmic multiverse. Further work includes study of natural computation by unconventional algorithms and constructive approaches. Full article
514 KiB  
Article
Programming Unconventional Computers: Dynamics, Development, Self-Reference
by Susan Stepney
Entropy 2012, 14(10), 1939-1952; https://doi.org/10.3390/e14101939 - 17 Oct 2012
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 7161
Abstract
Classical computing has well-established formalisms for specifying, refining, composing, proving, and otherwise reasoning about computations. These formalisms have matured over the past 70 years or so. Unconventional Computing includes the use of novel kinds of substrates–from black holes and quantum effects, through to [...] Read more.
Classical computing has well-established formalisms for specifying, refining, composing, proving, and otherwise reasoning about computations. These formalisms have matured over the past 70 years or so. Unconventional Computing includes the use of novel kinds of substrates–from black holes and quantum effects, through to chemicals, biomolecules, even slime moulds–to perform computations that do not conform to the classical model. Although many of these unconventional substrates can be coerced into performing classical computation, this is not how they “naturally” compute. Our ability to exploit unconventional computing is partly hampered by a lack of corresponding programming formalisms: we need models for building, composing, and reasoning about programs that execute in these substrates. What might, say, a slime mould programming language look like? Here I outline some of the issues and properties of these unconventional substrates that need to be addressed to find “natural” approaches to programming them. Important concepts include embodied real values, processes and dynamical systems, generative systems and their meta-dynamics, and embodied self-reference. Full article
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498 KiB  
Article
Quantum Theory, Namely the Pure and Reversible Theory of Information
by Giulio Chiribella, Giacomo Mauro D’Ariano and Paolo Perinotti
Entropy 2012, 14(10), 1877-1893; https://doi.org/10.3390/e14101877 - 08 Oct 2012
Cited by 34 | Viewed by 7934
Abstract
After more than a century since its birth, Quantum Theory still eludes our understanding. If asked to describe it, we have to resort to abstract and ad hoc principles about complex Hilbert spaces. How is it possible that a fundamental physical theory cannot [...] Read more.
After more than a century since its birth, Quantum Theory still eludes our understanding. If asked to describe it, we have to resort to abstract and ad hoc principles about complex Hilbert spaces. How is it possible that a fundamental physical theory cannot be described using the ordinary language of Physics? Here we offer a contribution to the problem from the angle of Quantum Information, providing a short non-technical presentation of a recent derivation of Quantum Theory from information-theoretic principles. The broad picture emerging from the principles is that Quantum Theory is the only standard theory of information that is compatible with the purity and reversibility of physical processes. Full article
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368 KiB  
Article
MENS, an Info-Computational Model for (Neuro-)cognitive Systems Capable of Creativity
by Andrée C. Ehresmann
Entropy 2012, 14(9), 1703-1716; https://doi.org/10.3390/e14091703 - 07 Sep 2012
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 6599
Abstract
MENS is a bio-inspired model for higher level cognitive systems; it is an application of the Memory Evolutive Systems developed with Vanbremeersch to model complex multi-scale, multi-agent self-organized systems, such as biological or social systems. Its development resorts to an info-computationalism: first we [...] Read more.
MENS is a bio-inspired model for higher level cognitive systems; it is an application of the Memory Evolutive Systems developed with Vanbremeersch to model complex multi-scale, multi-agent self-organized systems, such as biological or social systems. Its development resorts to an info-computationalism: first we characterize the properties of the human brain/mind at the origin of higher order cognitive processes up to consciousness and creativity, then we ‘abstract’ them in a MENS mathematical model for natural or artificial cognitive systems. The model, based on a ‘dynamic’ Category Theory incorporating Time, emphasizes the computability problems which are raised. Full article
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