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Information and Meaning: Use-Based Models in Arrays of Neural Nets

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Published:01 February 2004Publication History
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Abstract

The goal of philosophy of information is to understand what information is, how it operates, and how to put it to work. But unlike ‘information’ in the technical sense of information theory, what we are interested in is meaningful information. To understand the nature and dynamics of information in this sense we have to understand meaning. What we offer here are simple computational models that show emergence of meaning and information transfer in randomized arrays of neural nets. These we take to be formal instantiations of a tradition of theories of meaning as use. What they offer, we propose, is a glimpse into the origin and dynamics of at least simple forms of meaning and information transfer as properties inherent in behavioral coordination across a community.

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              cover image Minds and Machines
              Minds and Machines  Volume 14, Issue 1
              February 2004
              128 pages

              Copyright © Copyright © 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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              Kluwer Academic Publishers

              United States

              Publication History

              • Published: 1 February 2004

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