Dear All,
I return to the original definition of this project because I am not satisfied
with its evolution. There are points in Professor Zhong's perspective on
(natural) intelligence that I still would like to call attention to, apart from
the connection between intelligence and information.
1. "intelligence as wealth" implies something acquired, a posteriori, from
experience, as well as some innate capacity for processing that experience.
There are thus two aspects and their interaction to be taken into account.
2. "the secrets of intelligence, human thinking in particular" could be sought
in the above.
3. "how intelligence is produced by brains". Neurology and cognitive science
have provided fantastic new insights, and even possible semi-quantitative
measures of intelligence as capacity for processing some simple stimuli, but
something is still being missed.
I therefore make this plea for a phenomenological approach, recognizing that
since Petitot and Varela, responsible phenomenology, like responsible dualism,
can be naturalized, that is, made part of science.
A coherent phenomenological approach might for example distinguish between the
operation of intelligence leading to a variety of options vs. a simple
cognitive process ending in a more or less clear-cut thought.
In any case, I have taken to heart comments that suggest that I am trying
somehow to overturn the results, and subvert the use, of the scientific method.
As a physical scientist, I can only conclude that I have badly expressed my
intention, which is to support physical science by pointing out aspects and
implications that may have been missed, due to a reliance on classical logic.
Thus I have a positive reaction to Pedro's concept of "trialism", since my
logical approach is "ternary", but the connection should be explored in another
thread.
Thanks and best wishes,
Joseph
----- Original Message -----
From: Pedro C. Marijuan
To: fis@listas.unizar.es
Sent: Friday, November 05, 2010 1:55 PM
Subject: [Fis] INTELLIGENCE & INFORMATION (by Y.X.Zhong)
Intelligence and Information
Yi-Xin-Zhong
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing100876, China
yxzh...@ieee.org
1. The Study of Intelligence Science
Intelligence has been very well regarded as the most valuable wealth for
mankind, compared with other attributions like constitution and strength, and
the study of intelligence science should therefore be the greatest issue in
modern science and most urgent demand from human society, particularly for the
21st century.
The study of intelligence is consisted of two branches, i.e., natural
intelligence study and artificial intelligence study. The aim for the former is
to explore the secrets of intelligence, human thinking in particular.
Neurological science and cognitive science are typical disciplines in this
field. The aim for the latter is to create intelligent machines based on the
understanding of the secrets of intelligence. The two branches are closely
related to, and mutually interacted to, each other.
The crucial problem that is still widely open to the study of intelligence is
the great mystery on how it is produced by brains. The major problem that the
study of artificial intelligence confronts is how to effectively reproduce
intelligence on computing machineries.
During the past decades, the studies of both branches have made good progresses
but at the same time faced difficulties and challenges too. For the information
about the progress made in neurology and cognitive science, please see the
reference [1] and for the detailed progress in artificial intelligence, please
refer to the references [2-3].
2. The Problems of Artificial Intelligence
One of the major problems and challenges that the study of artificial
intelligence confronts is that there have been three schools carrying on the
same study with different approaches, namely the structuralism approach (neural
network systems), the functionalism approach (expert systems), and the
behaviorism approach (sensor-motor systems), and they never cooperate with each
other. There has been no unified theory in the field so far. Moreover, none of
the three schools have paid necessary attentions to such issues as
consciousness, emotion and cognition that are extremely fundamental to the
study of intelligence. In the meantime, there is little cooperation with the
study of natural intelligence.
Another big problem existing in the fields of intelligence study, also in other
scientific fields of course, is the methodological issue. Researchers have been
used to the traditional methodology called "divide and conquer". They divided
the study of intelligence into different respects (the structural respect, the
functional respect, and the behavioral respect), and carried on the research
within the limits of each respect of intelligence. As a result, each one of
them cannot individually get the global picture of the intelligence study and
cannot accept the progress made from other respects. This is the basic cause of
why they failed to have a unified theory of intelligence among the three
schools [3].
It is worth of mentioning that the methodology of "divide and conquer" has made
great contributions to the modern science but it is not quite sufficient for
the study of intelligence science and information science. Because of the
limitation of the space for this text, we will not discuss this issue in detail
here (but we can do it later, during the general discussion).
3. The Study of Information Science
It has been realized that intelligence in general should come from knowledge
and it is generally impossible to have intelligence without any knowledge. On
the other hand, it has also been proved that knowledge in general should come
from information and it is also impossible to have knowledge without any
information. Hence, the study of information science would be most meaningful
and most urgent, as meaningful and urgent as that of intelligence science.
One of the crucial achievements in this field is the Information Theory, or
"Mathematical Theory of Communication", established by C. E. Shannon in 1948
[4]. But it is only a special case of Information Science and can only be
applied in the cases where the statistical axioms are valid, like the ones in
communication engineering where only the signal waveform is needed to be
considered and the content and value factors of information are ignored.
In response to the needs of intelligence science study, the concept of
information should be concerned not only with the "form" factor but also with
the "content" and "value" factors, which we named Comprehensive Information. In
other words, comprehensive information is a trinity of form, content, and value
factors of information. A brief outline on the necessary interrelationship
between Information Science and Advanced Artificial Intelligence can be seen in
the references [5] and [6].
In addition, there are many issues related to the study of information science
that are still open.
4. Problems To Be Discussed
For effectively pushing forward the study of both intelligence and information
science, the followings points are suggested to be discussed in depth:
. What is the correct concept of intelligence?
. What is the correct concept of information?
. What is the precise relation between intelligence and information?
. How do you evaluate the current state of the art in the study of
intelligence science?
. How do you evaluate the current state of the art in the study of
information science?
. Do you agree with the statement that intelligence comes from knowledge
and the latter from information?
. What, do you think, is the feasible mechanism of intelligence growth?
. Do you think it possible to have information being conversed to knowledge
and even to intelligence?
Coda
It may be necessary to mention once again that the relative completeness of the
scope and the systematic structure of the study in Information Science will be
of importance. The reason for this consideration is that many deep laws and
principles of Information Science may not be discovered if the study has only
parts of its scope. It is therefore suggested that the entire process of the
Information-Knowledge-Intelligence conversion be regarded as the baseline of
Information Science study, containing the theoretical study, general study, as
well as applied study as its major branches.
References
[1] Y. J. LUO, Textbook on Cognitive Neurology, Peking University Press,
Beijing, 2006.
[2] S. J. Russell et al, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Pearson
Education Limited Asia, 2003.
[3] The Proceedings of International Conference on Artificial Intelligence,
Beijing, August 1-3, 2006.
[4] C. E. Shannon, Mathematical Theory of Communication, MIP Press. 1949.
[5] Y. X. ZHONG, Principles of Information Science. BUPT Press, Beijing, 2002.
[6] Y. X. ZHONG, Principles of COGNETICS in Machine, Science Press, 2007.
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