Nature as a network of morphological infocomputational processes for cognitive agents

Abstract

Abstract. This paper presents a view of nature as a network of infocomputational agents organized in a dynamical hierarchy of levels. It provides a framework for unification of currently disparate understandings of natural, formal, technical, behavioral and social phenomena based on information as a structure, differences in one system that cause the differences in another system, and computation as its dynamics, i.e. physical process of morphological change in the informational structure. We address some of the frequent misunderstandings regarding the natural/morphological computational models and their relationships to physical systems, especially cognitive systems such as living beings. Natural morphological infocomputation as a conceptual framework necessitates generalization of models of computation beyond the traditional Turing machine model presenting symbol manipulation, and requires agent-based concurrent resource-sensitive models of computation in order to be able to cover the whole range of phenomena from physics to cognition. The central role of agency, particularly material vs. cognitive agency is highlighted. The necessity of an agent/observer/actor for generation of knowledgeInformation is a concept known for its multiplicity of use and ambiguity in both common, everyday application and in its specific formal definitions throughout different fields of research. However, most people are unaware that matter/energy today is also a concept with uncertain content. Matter that for Democritus was substance of the whole universe, appears today to constitute only 4% of its observed content [1]. The rest constituting 96% is labeled "dark matter" (conjectured to explain gravitational effects otherwise unaccounted for) and "dark energy" (introduced to account for the expansion of the universe). We do not know what "dark matter" and "dark energy" actually are. This indicates that our present understanding of the structure of the physical world might need re-examination. By connecting two ambiguous and currently much discussed ideas -information and matter/energy -can we hope to a

Computational Dynamics of Natural Information Morphology, Discretely Continuous

“…Computing nature, as an explanatory framework, is a layered architecture of morphological computations over informational structures based on the fundamental layer of physical computations [1]. Sometimes, it is claimed that computational nature essentially depends on the universe being discrete at some fundamental level.…”

“…Physical theories are based on representations of systems, while the reality is, in practice, inexhaustible, and can never be captured in its entirety in a representation. Different classes of cognitive agents have different representations of reality based on their morphologies (structures), which constrain possible interactions (morphological computations) at different levels of organization, such as physical, chemical, and biological to cognitive computation [1,2,38].…”

“…In the most general formulation of computing nature/pancomputationalism, where all of nature computes on different levels of organisation [1], there is no special reason to consider only discrete aspects-we may instead wish to learn from nature how to compute [18,19].…”

“…Epistemologically, this requires connecting the domains directly accessible to our cognition with those we reach via tools-instruments and theories. It is therefore instructive to examine the conceptual basis of our contemporary understanding of nature, with an emphasis on the view of computing nature known as info-computation [1], where cognizing agents construct their reality (their view of the world) as information (structured data), with information dynamics understood as computation [2]. The process of reality construction starts with the most fundamental idea of a difference (distinction) and its opposite; similarity, via processes of differentiation and integration.…”

Foundations of an Information Based Psychology

“…In most CAS the adaptation shows the same pattern, what we call Rapid, Repeated Restructuring (RRR), a concept reminding us of morphological computation [4].…”