Papers by Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic
IGI Global eBooks, Jan 18, 2011
The electronic networking of physical space promises wide-ranging advances in science, medicine, ... more The electronic networking of physical space promises wide-ranging advances in science, medicine, delivery of services, environmental monitoring and remediation, industrial production, and the monitoring of persons and machines. It can also lead to new forms of social interaction [..]. However, without appropriate architecture and regulatory controls it can also subvert democratic values. Information technology is not in fact neutral in its values; we must be intentional about design for democracy. Information and communication technology, ICT, has led to the emergence of global web societies. The subject of this article is privacy and its protection in the process of urbanization and socialization of the global digital web society referred to as the e-polis. Privacy is a fundamental human right recognized in all major international agreements regarding human rights such as Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948), and it will be discussed in the chapter under the heading Different Views of Privacy. Today's computer network technologies are sociologically founded on huntergatherer principles. As a result, common users may be possible subjects of surveillance and sophisticated Internet-based attacks. A user may be completely unaware of such privacy breaches taking place. At the same time, ICT offers the technical possibilities of embedded privacy protection obtained by making technology trustworthy and legitimate by design. This means incorporating options for socially acceptable behavior in technical systems, and making privacy protection rights and responsibilities transparent to the user. The ideals of democratic government must be respected and even further developed in the future e-government. Ethical questions and privacy of communications require careful analysis, as they have far-reaching consequences affecting the basic principles of e-democracy.
IGI Global eBooks, Jan 18, 2011
Knowledge generation can be naturalized by adopting computational model of cognition and evolutio... more Knowledge generation can be naturalized by adopting computational model of cognition and evolutionary approach. In this framework knowledge is seen as a result of the structuring of input data (data → information → knowledge) by an interactive computational process going on in the agent during the adaptive interplay with the environment, which clearly presents developmental advantage by increasing agent's ability to cope with the situation dynamics. This paper addresses the mechanism of knowledge generation, a process that may be modeled as natural computation in order to be better understood and improved.
arXiv (Cornell University), Feb 5, 2018
As an envisaged future of transportation, self-driving cars are being discussed from various pers... more As an envisaged future of transportation, self-driving cars are being discussed from various perspectives, including social, economical, engineering, computer science, design, and ethics. On the one hand, self-driving cars present new engineering problems that are being gradually successfully solved. On the other hand, social and ethical problems are typically being presented in the form of an idealized unsolvable decision-making problem, the so-called trolley problem, which is grossly misleading. We argue that an applied engineering ethical approach for the development of new technology is what is needed; the approach should be applied, meaning that it should focus on the analysis of complex real-world engineering problems. Software plays a crucial role for the control of self-driving cars; therefore, software engineering solutions should seriously handle ethical and social considerations. In this paper we take a closer look at the regulative instruments, standards, design, and implementations of components, systems, and services and we present practical social and ethical challenges that have to be met, as well as novel expectations for software engineering.
Studies in applied philosophy, epistemology and rational ethics, 2013
Alan Turing's pioneering work on computability, and his ideas on morphological computing support ... more Alan Turing's pioneering work on computability, and his ideas on morphological computing support Andrew Hodges' view of Turing as a natural philosopher. Turing's natural philosophy differs importantly from Galileo's view that the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics (The Assayer, 1623). Computing is more than a language of nature as computation produces real time physical behaviors. This article presents the framework of Natural Info-computationalism as a contemporary natural philosophy that builds on the legacy of Turing's computationalism. Info-computationalism is a synthesis of Informational Structural Realism (the view that nature is a web of informational structures) and Natural Computationalism (the view that nature physically computes its own time development). It presents a framework for the development of a unified approach to nature, with common interpretation of inanimate nature as well as living organisms and their social networks. Computing is understood as information processing that drives all the changes on different levels of organization of information and can be modeled as morphological computing on data sets pertinent to informational structures. The use of infocomputational conceptualizations, models and tools makes possible for the first time in history the study of complex selforganizing adaptive systems, including basic characteristics and functions of living systems, intelligence, and cognition.
Filosofskie problemy informacionnyh tehnologij i kiberprostranstva, Jul 14, 2021
Аннотация. Современная натурфилософия динамично развивается как сфера науки и является основой дл... more Аннотация. Современная натурфилософия динамично развивается как сфера науки и является основой для комплексного подхода к рассмотрению естественных, искусственных практик и социально-гуманитарного знания. Как теоретические, так и практические знания приобретаются, систематизируются, накапливаются в активном и пассивном виде в процессе обучения. В данной статье рассматривается взаимосвязь между современными достижениями в понимании процесса обучения в различных научных сферах: прикладных науках об искусственном интеллекте (глубокое обучение, робототехника), естественных науках (нейробиология, когнитивистика, биология) и философии (вычислительная философия, философия сознания, 1
Information and Computation
ABSTRACT http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/7637
"De-Anthropomorphizing the Mind: Life as a Cognitive Spectrum. A Unified Framework for Biological Minds" - Preprint, 2025
The nature of cognition, intelligence, and consciousness has long been a topic of debate across m... more The nature of cognition, intelligence, and consciousness has long been a topic of debate across multiple disciplines, often constrained by anthropocentric perspectives. This paper challenges these traditional views by proposing a unifying framework that considers cognition as a broad spectrum encompassing all living organisms, from bacteria to humans. By de-anthropomorphizing the concept of the mind, we explore cognition as an emergent process that manifests through diverse mechanisms, including neural and non-neural systems. We examine the continuum of sentience, intelligence, and awareness across various biological entities, emphasizing their role in adaptive behavior and decision-making. The study further discusses the implications of this framework for artificial intelligence, philosophy, and ethics, highlighting the necessity of precise conceptual definitions. Ultimately, this work aims to refine our understanding of intelligence and cognition, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and advancing the development of artificial cognitive systems.
Deleted Journal, Jan 31, 2023
This review essay analyzes the book by Giuseppe Primiero, On the foundations of computing. Oxford... more This review essay analyzes the book by Giuseppe Primiero, On the foundations of computing. Oxford: Oxford University Press (ISBN 978-0-19-883564-6/hbk; 978-0-19-883565-3/pbk). xix, 296 p. ( ). It gives a critical view from the perspective of physical computing as a foundation of computing and argues that the neglected pillar of material computation (Stepney) should be brought centerstage and computing recognized as the fourth great domain of science (Denning).
An exact shell-model treatment of α-clustering and absolute α-decay
Nuclear Physics, Sep 1, 1989
The alpha clustering and corresponding alpha decay of 212Po is studied within the framework of a ... more The alpha clustering and corresponding alpha decay of 212Po is studied within the framework of a multistep shell-model method. All interactions among the four nucleons that constitute the alpha particle are included and a large single-particle representation is used. It is found that this approach is not sufficient to explain the available experimental data.
Cognitive Architectures Based on Natural Info-Computation
Springer eBooks, 2022
The basic idea of natural computing is learning from nature. Naturalist framework provides info-c... more The basic idea of natural computing is learning from nature. Naturalist framework provides info-computational architecture for cognizing agents, modelling living organisms as informational structures with computational dynamics. Intrinsic natural information processes can be used as natural ecosystem services to perform resource-efficient computation, instead of explicitly controlling every step of computational process. In robotics, morphological computing is using inherent material properties to produce behavior like passive walking or grasping. In general, morphology (structure, shape, form, material) is self-organizing into dynamic structures resulting in growth, development, and decision-making that represent processes of embodied cognition and constitute naturalized basis of intelligent behavior.
IGI Global eBooks, May 24, 2011
The electronic networking of physical space promises wide-ranging advances in science, medicine, ... more The electronic networking of physical space promises wide-ranging advances in science, medicine, delivery of services, environmental monitoring and remediation, industrial production, and the monitoring of persons and machines. It can also lead to new forms of social interaction [..]. However, without appropriate architecture and regulatory controls it can also subvert democratic values. Information technology is not in fact neutral in its values; we must be intentional about design for democracy. Information and communication technology, ICT, has led to the emergence of global web societies. The subject of this article is privacy and its protection in the process of urbanization and socialization of the global digital web society referred to as the e-polis. Privacy is a fundamental human right recognized in all major international agreements regarding human rights such as Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948), and it will be discussed in the chapter under the heading Different Views of Privacy. Today's computer network technologies are sociologically founded on huntergatherer principles. As a result, common users may be possible subjects of surveillance and sophisticated Internet-based attacks. A user may be completely unaware of such privacy breaches taking place. At the same time, ICT offers the technical possibilities of embedded privacy protection obtained by making technology trustworthy and legitimate by design. This means incorporating options for socially acceptable behavior in technical systems, and making privacy protection rights and responsibilities transparent to the user. The ideals of democratic government must be respected and even further developed in the future e-government. Ethical questions and privacy of communications require careful analysis, as they have far-reaching consequences affecting the basic principles of e-democracy.
Springer eBooks, 2016
This paper connects information with computation and cognition via concept of agents that appear ... more This paper connects information with computation and cognition via concept of agents that appear at variety of levels of organization of physical/chemical/cognitive systems -from elementary particles to atoms, molecules, life-like chemical systems, to cognitive systems starting with living cells, up to organisms and ecologies. In order to obtain this generalized framework, concepts of information, computation and cognition are generalized. In this framework, nature can be seen as informational structure with computational dynamics, where an (info-computational) agent is needed for the potential information of the world to actualize. Starting from the definition of information as the difference in one physical system that makes a difference in another physical system -which combines Bateson and Hewitt's definitions, the argument is advanced for natural computation as a computational model of the dynamics of the physical world, where information processing is constantly going on, on a variety of levels of organization. This setting helps us to elucidate the relationships between computation, information, agency and cognition, within the common conceptual framework, with special relevance for biology and robotics.
Information, Nov 26, 2012
WORLD SCIENTIFIC eBooks, Jun 1, 2011
The dialogue develops arguments for and against adopting a new world system -info-computationalis... more The dialogue develops arguments for and against adopting a new world system -info-computationalist naturalism -that is poised to replace the traditional mechanistic world system. We try to figure out what the info-computational paradigm would mean, in particular its pancomputationalism. We make some steps towards developing the notion of computing that is necessary here, especially in relation to traditional notions. We investigate whether pancomputationalism can possibly provide the basic causal structure to the world, whether the overall research programme appears productive and whether it can revigorate computationalism in the philosophy of mind.
Book Review, Philosophy of Computing and Information - 5 Questions
Cybernetics and Human Knowing, 2009
ABSTRACT Philosophy of Computing and Information -- 5 Questions. Edited by Luciano Floridi. Autom... more ABSTRACT Philosophy of Computing and Information -- 5 Questions. Edited by Luciano Floridi. Automatic Press / VIP, 2008, 204 pp. ISBN-10: 8792130097; ISBN-13: 978-8792130099. Contributors: Margaret A. Boden, Valentino Braitenberg, Brian Cantwell-Smith, Gregory Chaitin, Daniel C. Dennett, Keith Devlin, Fred Dretske, Hubert L. Dreyfus, Luciano Floridi, Tony Hoare, John McCarthy, John R. Searle, Aaron Sloman, Patrick Suppes, Johan van Benthem,Terry Winograd,
Theoretical Information Studies: Information in the World
Some intriguing questions such as: What is reality for an agent? How does reality of a bacterium ... more Some intriguing questions such as: What is reality for an agent? How does reality of a bacterium differ from a reality of a human brain? Do we need representation in order to understand reality? are still widely debated. Starting with the presentation of the computing nature as an info-computational framework, where information is defined as a structure, and computation as information processing, I will address questions of evolution of increasingly complex living agents through interactions with the environment. In this context, the concept of computation will be discussed and the sense in which computation is observer-relative. Using the results on morphological/morphogenetic computation as information selforganization I argue that reality for an agent is a result of networked agent-based computation. Consciousness is a (computational) process of information integration that evolved in organisms with nervous system. I present an argument why pancomputationalism (computing nature) is a sound scientific strategy and why panpsychism is not. 1
Wikileaks and Ethics of Whistle Blowing
1. Extended Abstract In a time in which the Internet pervades everyday life and information publi... more 1. Extended Abstract In a time in which the Internet pervades everyday life and information published is readable all over the world, it becomes very important to deal with ethical problems related to whistle blowing via the Internet. Although there are basic concepts like anonymity, privacy and freedom of speech, for every new kind of phenomenon we have to discuss its ethical aspects (Kizza, 2010)(Nadler and Schulman, 2006). A current example is the platform WikiLeaks which publishes a vast amount of secret documents. will apply the following ethical approaches: The Utilitarian Approach, focusing on the consequences that the publications of WikiLeaks have on the well-being of all parties that are affected directly or indirectly, so there are two sides to consider: • On the one hand, the uncovering of misconduct and the increased transparency of the government are of such importance that the publications benefit society as a whole. So it alleviates the opinion making and leads to a greater understanding of governmental work. • On the other hand the publications may threaten the national security and so harm society. They lead to a society with decreased integrity which may eventually result in less communication, more technical restrictions and so in less freedom. To achieve a balance between both sides a potential approach could be that WikiLeaks reduces their amount of published data and classify the data more in detail. Further they could contact the company or government concerned before the publication, so that this party itself could acknowledge the misconduct. The Virtue Ethics Approach, focusing on attitudes that develop our human potentials such as e.g. honesty, courage, faithfulness, trustworthiness and integrity. It is easy to see that WikiLeaks disregards these virtues in many different contexts. They are
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Papers by Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic