Philosophy of Information and Computing Research Papers (original) (raw)

ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) was originally meant to enforce and harmonise IPR provisions in existing trade agreements within a wider group of countries. This was commendable in itself, so ACTA’s failure was all the more... more

ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) was originally meant to enforce and harmonise IPR provisions in existing trade agreements within a wider group of countries. This was commendable in itself, so ACTA’s failure was all the more disappointing. In this article, I wish to contribute to the post-ACTA debate by proposing a specific analysis of the ethical reasons why ACTA failed, and what we can learn from them. I argue that five kinds of objections — namely, secret negotiations, lack of consultation, vagueness of formulation, negotiations outside any international body, and the creation of a new governing body outside already existing forums — had only indirect ethical implications. This takes nothing away from their seriousness but it does make them less compelling, because agreements should be evaluated, ethically, for what they are, rather than for the alleged reasons why they are being proposed. I then argue that ACTA would have caused three ethical problems: an excessive and misplaced kind of responsibility, a radical decrease in freedom of expression, and a severe reduction in information privacy. I conclude by indicating three lessons that can help us in shaping ACTA 2. First, we should acknowledge the increasingly vital importance of the framework of implicit expectations, attitudes, and practices that can facilitate and promote morally good decisions and actions. ACTA failed to perceive that it would have undermined the very framework that it was supposed to foster, namely one promoting some of the best and most successful aspects of our information society. Second, we should real- ise that in advanced information societies, any regulation affecting how people deal with information is now bound to influence the whole ‘onlife’ habitat within which they live. So enforcing IPR becomes an environmental problem. Third, since legal documents, such as ACTA, emerge from within the infosphere that they affect, we should apply to the process itself, which one day may lead to a post-ACTA treaty, the very framework and ethical values that we would like to see promoted by it.

First Paragraph: I live just off of Bell Road outside of Newburgh, Indiana, a small town of 3,000 people. A mile down the street Bell Road intersects with Telephone Road not as a modern reminder of a technology belonging to bygone days,... more

First Paragraph: I live just off of Bell Road outside of Newburgh, Indiana, a small town of 3,000 people. A mile down the street Bell Road intersects with Telephone Road not as a modern reminder of a technology belonging to bygone days, but as testimony that this technology, now more than a century and a quarter old, is still with us. In an age that prides itself on its digital devices and in which the computer now equals the telephone as a medium of communication, it is easy to forget the debt we owe to an era that industrialized the flow of information, that the light bulb, to pick a singular example, which is useful for upgrading visual information we might otherwise overlook, nonetheless remains the most prevalent of all modern day information technologies. Edison’s light bulb, of course, belongs to a different order of informational devices than the computer, but not so the telephone, not entirely anyway.

The following paper will trace the recently established field of Information Ethics through it’s various evolutions, from it’s origins in Librarianship to it’s role as a global player in areas as diverse as technology, media, global... more

The following paper will trace the recently established field of Information Ethics through it’s various evolutions, from it’s origins in Librarianship to it’s role as a global player in areas as diverse as technology, media, global humanitarianism, and the philosophy of information. The praxis of the field will be outlined for the uninitiated reader, followed by an intimate history of the founding players and their continued contribution to this ever-evolving field. The current evolutions of Information Ethics will then be explored in the context of their application to the viral global phenomena of Intercultural Information Ethics (IIE), and finally, the paper will conclude with projections towards future evolutions in Information Ethics, as well as an exploration of potential definitions for the field.

Information has come to be perceived, on the whole, as something ordinary and seems to be slowly losing its value. In this article, this is explored in four respects. It is no longer possible to have an overview with respect to the... more

Information has come to be perceived, on the whole, as something ordinary and seems to be slowly losing its value. In this article, this is explored in four respects. It is no longer possible to have an overview with respect to the information at one’s disposal. Furthermore, there is a relatively great supply of information, provided by a greater number of contributors than before. Some recent developments in education are also relevant in evaluating the situation. The impact of technical developments, in particular the Internet, on present society, is important from several points of view. This is given attention accordingly.

It is common in cognitive science to equate computation (and in particular digital computation) with information processing. Yet, it is hard to find a comprehensive explicit account of concrete digital computation in information... more

It is common in cognitive science to equate computation (and in particular digital computation) with information processing. Yet, it is hard to find a comprehensive explicit account of concrete digital computation in information processing terms. An Information Processing account seems like a natural candidate to explain digital computation. But when "information" comes under scrutiny, this account becomes a less obvious candidate.
Four interpretations of information are examined here as the basis for an Information Processing account of digital computation, namely Shannon information, algorithmic information, factual information and instructional information. I argue that any plausible account of concrete computation has to be capable of explaining at least the three key algorithmic notions of input, output and procedures. Whilst algorithmic information fares better than Shannon information, the most plausible candidate for an Information Processing account is instructional information.

n this thesis, we aim at contributing to the theory of conceptual modeling and ontology representation. Our main objective here is to provide ontological foundations for the most fundamental concepts in conceptual modeling. These... more

n this thesis, we aim at contributing to the theory of conceptual modeling and ontology representation. Our main objective here is to provide ontological foundations for the most fundamental concepts in conceptual modeling. These foundations comprise a number of ontological theories, which are built on established work on philosophical ontology, cognitive psychology, philosophy of language and linguistics. Together these theories amount to a system of categories and formal relations known as a foundational ontology

What is nontrivial digital computation? It is the processing of discrete data through discrete state transitions in accordance with finite instructional information. The motivation for our account is that many previous attempts to answer... more

What is nontrivial digital computation? It is the processing of discrete data through discrete state transitions in accordance with finite instructional information. The motivation for our account is that many previous attempts to answer this question are inadequate, and also that this account accords with the common intuition that digital computation is a type of information processing. We use the notion of reachability in a graph to defend this characterization in memory-based systems and underscore the importance of instructional information for digital computation. We argue that our account evaluates positively against adequacy criteria for accounts of computation.

In this paper, I present an informational approach to the nature of personal identity. In ‘‘Plato and the problem of the chariot’’, I use Plato’s famous metaphor of the chariot to introduce a specific problem regarding the nature of the... more

In this paper, I present an informational approach to the nature of personal identity. In ‘‘Plato and the problem of the chariot’’, I use Plato’s famous metaphor of the chariot to introduce a specific problem regarding the nature of the self as an informational multiagent system: what keeps the self together as a whole and coherent unity? In ‘‘Egology and its two branches’’ and ‘‘Egology as synchronic individualisation’’, I outline two branches of the theory of the self: one concerning the individualisation of the self as an entity, the other concerning the identification of such entity. I argue that both presuppose an informational approach, defend the view that the individualisation of the self is logically prior to its identification, and suggest that such individualisation can be provided in informational terms. Hence, in ‘‘A reconciling hypothesis: the three membranes model’’, I offer an informational individualisation of the self, based on a tripartite model, which can help to solve the problem of the chariot. Once this model of the self is outlined, in ‘‘ICTs as technologies of the self’’ I use it to show how ICTs may be interpreted as technologies of the self. In ‘‘The logic of realisation’’, I introduce the concept of ‘‘realization’’ (Aristotle’s anagnorisis) and support the rather Spinozian view according to which, from the perspective of informational structural realism, selves are the final stage in the development of informational structures. The final ‘‘Conclusion: from the egology to the ecology of the self’’ briefly concludes the article with a reference to the purposeful shaping of the self, in a shift from egology to ecology.

n this article I argue that the best way to understand the information turn is in terms of a fourth revolution in the long process of reassessing humanity’s fundamental nature and role in the universe. We are not immobile, at the centre... more

n this article I argue that the best way to understand the information turn is in terms of a fourth revolution in the long process of reassessing humanity’s fundamental nature and role in the universe. We are not immobile, at the centre of the universe (Copernicus); we are not unnaturally distinct and different from the rest of the animal world (Darwin); and we are far from being entirely transparent to ourselves (Freud). We are now slowly accepting the idea that we might be informational organisms among many agents (Turing), inforgs not so dramatically different from clever, engineered artefacts, but sharing with them a global environment that is ultimately made of information, the infosphere.

The attempt to establish a unified taxonomy for the field of Information Ethics is both unattainable and unwarranted. The categorization of Information Ethics as a defined discipline, an applicable practice, a philosophy and a worldview... more

The attempt to establish a unified taxonomy for the field of Information Ethics is both unattainable and unwarranted. The categorization of Information Ethics as a defined discipline, an applicable practice, a philosophy and a worldview remains constantly in flux due to, what Luciano Floridi terms, ‘philosophical naturalism’. As such, a broadening understanding of the field will only serve to further collapse categorization. The following paper will outline, using a discourse analysis methodology, how the nature of the field of Information Ethics at a foundational level must necessarily defy classification. The assumptions behind the current classifications of the field will be questioned. Beginning with the history of the inception of the field through Librarianship and Cybernetics and questioning the yet unresolved ontological debates between information philosophers such as Rafael Capurro and Floridi, this paper will explicate how any such attempt to develop an agreed upon taxonomy will and should always remain incomplete.

The paper develops some of the conclusions, reached in Floridi (2007), concerning the future developments of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their impact on our lives. The two main theses supported in that article... more

The paper develops some of the conclusions, reached in Floridi (2007), concerning the future developments of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their impact on our lives. The two main theses supported in that article were that, as the information society develops, the threshold between online and offline is becoming increasingly blurred, and that once there won’t be any significant difference, we shall gradually re-conceptualise ourselves not as cyborgs but rather as inforgs, i.e. socially connected, informational organisms. In this paper, I look at the development of the so-called Semantic Web and Web 2.0 from this perspective and try to forecast their future. Regarding the Semantic Web, I argue that it is a clear and well-defined project, which, despite some authoritative views to the contrary, is not a promising reality and will probably fail in the same way AI has failed in the past. Regarding Web 2.0, I argue that, although it is a rather ill-defined project, which lacks a clear explanation of its nature and scope, it does have the potentiality of becoming a success (and indeed it is already, as part of the new phenomenon of Cloud Computing) because it leverages the only semantic engines available so far in nature, us. I conclude by suggesting what other changes might be expected in the future of our digital environment.

Is information always true? According to some authors, including Dretske, Grice, Barwise, and recently, Floridi, who has defended the Veridicality Thesis, the answer is positive. For, on Floridi’s view, there is an intimate relation... more

Is information always true? According to some authors, including Dretske, Grice, Barwise, and recently, Floridi, who has defended the Veridicality Thesis, the answer is positive. For, on Floridi’s view, there is an intimate relation between information and knowledge, which is always true. It is argued in this article that information used in inferential knowledge can, nevertheless, be false, thereby showing that the Veridicality thesis is false.

The following review explores Intercultural Information Ethics (IIE) in terms of comparative philosophy, supporting IIE as the most relevant and significant development of the field of Information Ethics (IE). The focus of the review is... more

The following review explores Intercultural Information Ethics (IIE) in terms of comparative philosophy, supporting IIE as the most relevant and significant development of the field of Information Ethics (IE). The focus of the review is threefold. First, it will review the core presumption of the field of IIE, that being the demand for an inter- mission in the pursuit of a founding philosophy for IE in order to first address the philosophical biases of IE by western philosophy. Second, a history of the various philosophical streams of IIE will be outlined, including its literature and pioneering contributors. Lastly, a new synthesis of comparative philosophies in IIE will be offered, looking towards a future evolution of the field. Examining the interchange between contemporary information ethicists regarding the discipline of IIE, the review first outlines the previously established presumptions of the field of IIE that posit the need for an IE as grounded in western sensibilities. The author then addresses the implications of the foregoing presumption from several non-western viewpoints, arguing that IIE does in fact find roots in non-western philosophies as established in the concluding synthesis of western and eastern philosophical traditions.

Agents require a constant flow, and a high level of processing, of relevant semantic information, in order to interact successfully among themselves and with the environment in which they are embedded. Standard theories of information,... more

Agents require a constant flow, and a high level of processing, of relevant semantic information, in order to interact successfully among themselves and with the environment in which they are embedded. Standard theories of information, however, are silent on the nature of epistemic relevance. In this paper, a subjectivist interpretation of epistemic relevance is developed and defended. It is based on a counterfactual and metatheoretical analysis of the degree of relevance of some semantic information i to an informee/agent a, as a function of the accuracy of i understood as an answer to a query q, given the probability that q might be asked by a. This interpretation of epistemic relevance vindicates a strongly semantic theory of information, according to which semantic information encapsulates truth. It accounts satisfactorily for several important applications and interpretations of the concept of relevant information in a variety of philosophical areas. And it interfaces successfully with current philosophical interpretations of causal and logical relevance.

There has been an ongoing conflict regarding whether reality is fundamentally digital or analogue. Recently, Floridi has argued that this dichotomy is misapplied. For any attempt to analyse noumenal reality independently of any level of... more

There has been an ongoing conflict regarding whether reality is fundamentally digital or analogue. Recently, Floridi has argued that this dichotomy is misapplied. For any attempt to analyse noumenal reality independently of any level of abstraction at which the analysis is conducted is mistaken. In the pars destruens of this paper, we argue that Floridi does not establish that it is only levels of abstraction that are analogue or digital, rather than noumenal reality. In the pars construens of this paper, we reject a classification of noumenal reality as a deterministic discrete computational system. We show, based on considerations from classical physics, why a deterministic computational view of the universe faces problems (e.g., a reversible computational universe cannot be strictly deterministic).

This article offers an account and defence of constructionism, both as a metaphilosophical approach and as a philosophical methodology, with references to the so-called maker’s knowledge tradition. Its main thesis is that Plato’s ‘‘user’s... more

This article offers an account and defence of constructionism, both as a metaphilosophical approach and as a philosophical methodology, with references to the so-called maker’s knowledge tradition. Its main thesis is that Plato’s ‘‘user’s knowledge’’ tradition should be complemented, if not replaced, by a constructionist approach to philosophical problems in general and to knowledge in particular. Epistemic agents know something when they are able to build (reproduce, simulate, model, construct, etc.) that something and plug the obtained information into the correct network of relations that account for it. Their epistemic expertise increases with the scope and depth of the questions that they are able to ask and answer. Thus, constructionism deprioritises mimetic, passive, and declarative knowledge that something is the case, in favour of poietic, interactive, and practical knowledge of something being the case. Metaphilosophically, constructionism suggests adding conceptual engineering to conceptual analysis as a fundamental method.

One of the pressing challenges we face today—in a post-Westphalian order (emergence of the state as the modern, political information agent) and post- Bretton Woods world (emergence of non-state multiagent systems or MASs as... more

One of the pressing challenges we face today—in a post-Westphalian order (emergence of the state as the modern, political information agent) and post- Bretton Woods world (emergence of non-state multiagent systems or MASs as ‘‘hyperhistorical’’ players in the global economy and politics)—is how to design the right kind of MAS that can take full advantage of the socio-economic and political progress made so far, while dealing successfully with the new global challenges that are undermining the best legacy of that very progress. This is the topic of the article. In it, I argue that (i) in order to design the right kind of MAS, we need to design the right kind of norms that constitute them; (ii) in order to design the right kind of constitutive norms, we need to identify and adopt the right kind of principles of normative design; (iii) toleration is one of those principles; (iv) unfortunately, its role as a foundation for the design of norms has been undermined by the ‘‘paradox of toleration’’; (v) however, the paradox can be solved; (vi) so toleration can be re- instated as the right kind of foundational principle for the design of the right kind of norms that can constitute the right kind of MAS that can operate across cultures, societies and states, to help us to tackle the new global challenges facing us.

Replication or even modelling of consciousness in machines requires some clarifications and refinements of our concept of consciousness. Design of, construction of, and interaction with artificial systems can itself assist in this... more

Replication or even modelling of consciousness in machines requires some clarifications and refinements of our concept of consciousness. Design of, construction of, and interaction with artificial systems can itself assist in this conceptual development. We start with the tentative hypothesis that although the word “consciousness” has no well-defined meaning, it is used to refer to aspects of human and animal information- processing. We then argue that we can enhance our understanding of what these aspects might be by designing and building virtual-machine architectures capturing various features of consciousness. This activity may in turn nurture the development of our concepts of consciousness, showing how an analysis based on information-processing virtual machines answers old philosophical puzzles as well enriching empirical theories. This process of developing and testing ideas by developing and testing designs leads to gradual refinement of many of our pre-theoretical concepts of mind, showing how they can be construed as implicitly “architecture-based” concepts. Understanding how human- like robots with appropriate architectures are likely to feel puzzled about qualia may help us resolve those puzzles. The concept of “qualia” turns out to be an “architecture-based” concept, while individual qualia concepts are “architecture-driven”.

The behavior of some systems is noncomputable in a precise new sense. One infamous problem is that of the stability of the solar system: Given the initial positions and velocities of several mutually gravitating bodies, will any... more

The behavior of some systems is noncomputable in a precise new sense. One infamous problem is that of the stability of the solar system: Given the initial positions and velocities of several mutually gravitating bodies, will any eventually collide or be thrown off to infinity? Many have made vague suggestions that this and similar problems are undecidable: No finite procedure can reliably determine whether a given configuration will eventually prove unstable. But taken in the most natural way, this is trivial. The state of a system corresponds to a point in a continuous space, and virtually no set of points in space is strictly decidable. A new, more pragmatic concept is therefore introduced: A set is decidable up to measure zero (d.m.z.) if there is a procedure to decide whether a point is in that set and it only fails on some points that form a set of zero volume. This is motivated by the intuitive correspondence between volume and probability: We can ignore a zero-volume set of states because the state of an arbitrary system almost certainly will not fall in that set. D.m.z. is also closer to the intuition of decidability than other notions in the literature, which are either less strict or apply only to special sets, like closed sets. Certain complicated sets are not d.m.z., most remarkably including the set of know stable orbits for planetary systems (the KAM tori). This suggests that the stability problem is indeed undecidable in the precise sense of d.m.z. Carefully extending decidability concepts from idealized models to actual systems, we see that even deterministic aspects of physical behaviour can be undecidable in a clear and significant sense.

Explains that there is magic in higher dimensions.

This article brings together two research fields in applied ethics – namely, information ethics and business ethics– which deal with the ethical impact of information and communication technologies but that, so far, have remained largely... more

This article brings together two research fields in applied ethics – namely, information ethics and business ethics– which deal with the ethical impact of information and communication technologies but that, so far, have remained largely independent. Its goal is to articulate and defend an informational approach to the conceptual foundation of business ethics, by using ideas and methods developed in information ethics, in view of the convergence of the two fields in an increasingly networked society.

The article addresses the problem of how semantic information can be upgraded to knowledge. The introductory section explains the technical terminology and the relevant background. Section 2 argues that, for semantic information to be... more

The article addresses the problem of how semantic information can be upgraded to knowledge. The introductory section explains the technical terminology and the relevant background. Section 2 argues that, for semantic information to be upgraded to knowledge, it is necessary and sufficient to be embedded in a network of questions and answers that correctly accounts for it. Section 3 shows that an information flow network of type A fulfils such a requirement, by warranting that the erotetic deficit, characterising the target semantic information t by default, is correctly satisfied by the information flow of correct answers provided by an informational source s. Section 4 illustrates some of the major advantages of such a Network Theory of Account (NTA) and clears the ground of a few potential difficulties. Section 5 clarifies why NTA and an informational analysis of knowledge, according to which knowledge is accounted semantic information, is not subject to Gettier-type counterexamples. A concluding section briefly summarises the results obtained.

Although software plays an essential role in modern society, its ontolog-ical nature is still unclear. For many, software is just code, but this is not illuminat-ing. Several researchers have attempted to understand the core nature of... more

Although software plays an essential role in modern society, its ontolog-ical nature is still unclear. For many, software is just code, but this is not illuminat-ing. Several researchers have attempted to understand the core nature of software and programs in terms of concepts such as code, copy, medium and execution. More recently, a proposal was made to consider software as an abstract artifact, distinct from code, just because code may change while the software remains the same. We explore in this paper the implications of such a proposal in the light of software engineering and requirements engineering literature. We make a sharp distinction between different kinds of software artifacts (code, program, software system, and software product), and describe the ways they are inter-connected in the context of a software engineering process.

Because of the important roles played by the concept of information, different disciplines deal with it with different approaches according to their different purposes and historical background. Western information studies can be... more

Because of the important roles played by the concept of information, different disciplines deal with it with different approaches according to their different purposes and historical background. Western information studies can be classified into nine types with respect to their research approaches. Mathematic approach aims to provide accurate mathematic methods of measuring the quantity of information represented by the mathematic theory of communication, theory of computation and combination theory. Semantic approach handles the semantic aspect of information ignored by mathematic approach, providing a method of measuring the quantity of semantic content of information. Logic approach applies the concept of information into logic studies which brings logic new lights. Dynamic theories of information concern with the causal dynamic processes of information that aim to articulate the relations between information and causation providing a scientific foundation for science of information. Theory of signaling game tries to solve the problem of emergence of signals with cooperation game theory in naturalistic spirit. Pan-informationalism treats information as a basic property of the universe like matter and energy. Information is not the one which needs to be explained but an explanation for other things. Following steps of Peircean semiotics, semiotic approach proposes insightful theories of information. Philosophical approach focuses on the concept of information and philosophical implications of information including philosophical reflection of information and philosophy of information as first philosophy. Transdisciplinary approach thinks that information is a complex phenomenon with multiple emergent levels and thus needs transdisciplinary studies. Although the concept of information has different meanings in different approaches, they can learn from each

This paper has three goals. The first is to introduce the ‘‘knowledge game’’, a new, simple and yet powerful tool for analysing some intriguing philosophical questions. The second is to apply the knowledge game as an informative test to... more

This paper has three goals. The first is to introduce the ‘‘knowledge game’’, a new, simple and yet powerful tool for analysing some intriguing philosophical questions. The second is to apply the knowledge game as an informative test to discriminate between conscious (human) and conscious-less agents (zombies and robots), depending on which version of the game they can win. And the third is to use a version of the knowledge game to provide an answer to Dretske’s question ‘‘how do you know you are not a zombie?’’.

The "mechanistic view of computation" contends that computational explanations are mechanistic explanations. Mechanists, however, disagree about the precise role that the environment-or the so called "contextual level"-plays for... more

The "mechanistic view of computation" contends that computational explanations are mechanistic explanations. Mechanists, however, disagree about the precise role that the environment-or the so called "contextual level"-plays for computational (mechanistic) explanations. We advance here two claims: (i) Contextual factors essentially determine the computational identity of a computing system (computational externalism); this means that specifying the "intrinsic" mechanism is not sufficient to fix the computational identity of the system. (ii) It is not necessary to specify the causal-mechanistic interaction between the system and its context in order to offer a complete and adequate computational explanation. While the first claim has been discussed before, the second has been practically ignored. After supporting these claims, we discuss the implications of our contextualist view for the mechanistic view of computational explanation. Our aim is to show that some versions of the mechanistic view are consistent with the contextualist view, whilst others are not.

Information plays a major role in any moral action. ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) have revolutionized the life of information, from its production and management to its consumption, thus deeply affecting our moral... more

Information plays a major role in any moral action. ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) have revolutionized the life of information, from its production and management to its consumption, thus deeply affecting our moral lives. Amid the many issues they have raised, a very serious one, discussed in this paper, is labelled the tragedy of the Good Will. This is represented by the increasing pressure that ICT and their deluge of information are putting on any agent who would like to act morally, when informed about actual or potential evils, but who also lacks the resources to do much about them. In the paper, it is argued that the tragedy may be at least mitigated, if not solved, by seeking to re-establish some equilibrium, through ICT themselves, between what agents know about the world and what they can do to improve it.

This paper contributes to the current debate on the nature of semantic information by offering a semantic argument in favour of the veridical thesis according to which p counts as information only if p is true. In the course of the... more

This paper contributes to the current debate on the nature of semantic information by offering a semantic argument in favour of the veridical thesis according to which p counts as information only if p is true. In the course of the analysis, the paper reviews some basic principles and requirements for any theory of semantic information.

Non-functional requirements (NFRs) have been the focus of research in Requirements Engineering (RE) for more than 20 years. Despite this attention, their ontological nature is still an open question, thereby hampering efforts to de- velop... more

Non-functional requirements (NFRs) have been the focus of research in Requirements Engineering (RE) for more than 20 years. Despite this attention, their ontological nature is still an open question, thereby hampering efforts to de- velop concepts, tools and techniques for eliciting, modeling, and analyzing them, in order to produce a specification for a system-to-be. In this paper, we propose to treat NFRs as qualities, based on definitions of the UFO foundational ontology. Furthermore, based on these ontological definitions, we provide guidelines for dis- tinguishing between non-functional and functional requirements, and sketch a syn- tax of a specification language that can be used for capturing NFRs.

The phenomenon of digital computation is explained (often differently) in computer science, computer engineering and more broadly in cognitive science. Although the semantics and implications of malfunctions have received attention in the... more

The phenomenon of digital computation is explained (often differently) in computer science, computer engineering and more broadly in cognitive science. Although the semantics and implications of malfunctions have received attention in the philosophy of biology and philosophy of technology, errors in computational systems remain of interest only to computer science. Miscomputation has not gotten the philosophical attention it deserves. Our paper fills this gap by offering a taxonomy of miscomputations. This taxonomy is underpinned by a conceptual analysis of the design and implementation of conventional computational systems at various levels of abstraction. It shows that ‘malfunction’ as it is typically used in the philosophy of artefacts only represents one type of miscomputation.

, erklärt im Gespräch, wie sich unser Begriff von Arbeit wandelt, welche neuen Tätigkeiten im Zuge der Digitalisierung von Arbeit entstehen können und wo sich der Mensch darin einordnen wird. Digitale Technologien übernehmen immer mehr... more

, erklärt im Gespräch, wie sich unser Begriff von Arbeit wandelt, welche neuen Tätigkeiten im Zuge der Digitalisierung von Arbeit entstehen können und wo sich der Mensch darin einordnen wird. Digitale Technologien übernehmen immer mehr Aufgaben, um die sich früher noch Menschen gekümmert haben. Wie ist es aus philosophischer Sicht zu beurteilen, dass Maschinen immer mehr von diesen Aufgaben übernehmen? Wird der Mensch irgendwann entbehrlich? Hagengruber: Über industrielle bzw. automatisierte Prozesse wird der Mensch kontinuierlich entlastet. Er erfindet Technologien gerade zu diesem Zweck. Der Mensch denkt sich über die Arbeit hinaus! Sie ist ihm lästig, weil sie nur dazu da ist, das Unvermeidliche zu besorgen, damit er sich selbst erhalten kann. Wie Aristoteles feststellte, ist der Mensch für die Muße gemacht. Die Menschen möchten das Leben genießen, sie werden erfinderisch, um ihre Arbeit und die Besorgungen zu vereinfachen. In diesem Problem zwischen knappen Ressourcen und der Liebe zur Nicht-Arbeit, steht der Mensch. Hier erfindet und stellt der Mensch her, um sein Leben einfacher zu gestalten – darauf hat die Philosophin Hannah Arendt schon hingewiesen. Selbst Karl Marx, der Theoretiker der Arbeit, bekannte, dass das eigentliche Ziel sei, von Arbeit frei zu werden, was ihm Hannah Arendt als inneren Widerspruch seiner Theorie nachweist. Vor allem der auf Marx folgende Sozialismus war daran interessiert, zum Wohl des Arbeiters Arbeit durch Technik effizienter, produktiver zu machen, um den Arbeitsaufwand zu minimieren. Der Mensch ist vom Wunsch geleitet, von Arbeit frei zu werden, um sich den Tätigkeiten zu widmen, die wir als die wirklich menschlichen Tätigkeiten ansehen. Das sind Tätigkeiten der Fantasie, der Bildung, der Kreativität. In diesem Sinne wird die maschinelle Arbeit die Arbeit des Menschen ersetzen, aber das ist rein quantitativ gedacht. Die qualitative und kreative Arbeit wird hingegen umso stärker zum Ausdruck kommen und gebraucht werden. In welchen Bereichen wäre der zukünftige Einsatz von Maschinen, die

In this chapter we discuss the following question: Is the Philosophy of Information a philosophy for nowadays? This question arises as relevant due to the accelerated devel- opment of Information and Communication Technologies, and their... more

In this chapter we discuss the following question: Is the Philosophy of Information a philosophy for nowadays? This question arises as relevant due to the accelerated devel- opment of Information and Communication Technologies, and their spread among individuals, which is contributing to the establishment of the “Information Society”. In such, we have new kinds of issues, especially concerning to the relation between action/technology/environment. As we will argue, it is emerging a new way of under- standing the world, the beings, and the relationship between them. Due to the new informational context, we will analyze the thesis according to which it would be re- quired a Philosophy of Information to comprehend current phenomena (FLORIDI, 2002, 2014). We will analyze the core assumptions of this new area of philosophy and some problems that make up its research agenda. Insofar, we seek to contribute to the understanding of new directions of philosophical research on “Information Society”.

Conceptual Modeling is a discipline of great relevance to several areas in Computer Science. In a series of papers (1,2,3) we have been using the General Ontological Language (GOL) and its underlying upper level ontology, proposed in... more

Conceptual Modeling is a discipline of great relevance to several areas in Computer Science. In a series of papers (1,2,3) we have been using the General Ontological Language (GOL) and its underlying upper level ontology, proposed in (4,5), to evaluate the ontological correctness of conceptual models and to develop guidelines for how the constructs of a modeling language (UML) should