Cells are cognitive entities possessing great computational power. DNA serves as a multivalent information storage medium for these computations at various time scales. Information is stored in sequences, epigenetic modifications, and rapidly changing nucleoprotein complexes. Because DNA must operate through complexes formed with other molecules in the cell, genome functions are inherently interactive and involve two-way communication with various cellular compartments. Both coding sequences and repetitive sequences contribute to the hierarchical systemic organization of the genome. By virtue of nucleoprotein complexes, (...) epigenetic modifications, and natural genetic engineering activities, the genome can serve as a read-write storage system. An interactive informatic conceptualization of the genome allows us to understand the functional importance of DNA that does not code for protein or RNA structure, clarifies the essential multidirectional and systemic nature of genomic information transfer, and emphasizes the need to investigate how cellular computation operates in reproduction and evolution. (shrink)

Informatics and the Foundations of Legal Reasoning represents a close collaboration between a wide range of disciplines and countries. Fourteen papers, together with a long analytical introduction by the editors, were selected from the contributions of legal theorists, computer scientists, philosophers and logicians who were members of an International Working Group supported by the European Commission. The Group was mandated to work towards determining how far the law is amenable to formal modeling, and in what ways computers might assist (...) legal thinking and practice. The book is the result of discussions held by the Group over two and half years. It will help students and researchers from different backgrounds to focus on a common set of topics of increasing general interest. It embodies the results of work in progress and suggests many issues for further discussion. A stimulating text for undergraduate and graduate courses in law, philosophy and computer science departments, as well as for those interested in the place of computers in legal practice, especially at the international level. (shrink)

Many problems in software development can be traced to a narrow understanding of professional responsibility. The author examines ways in which software developers have tried to avoid accepting responsibility for their work. After cataloguing various types of responsibility avoidance, the author introduces an expanded concept of positive responsibility. It is argued that the adoption of this sense of positive responsibility will reduce many problems in software development.

This paper is a revised and extended version of a keynote contribution to a recent conference on Cognitive Informatics. It offers a brief summary of some of the core concerns of other contributions to the conference, highlighting the range of issues under discussion; and argues that many of the central concepts and preoccupations of cognitive informatics as understood by participants--and others in the general field of computation--rely on ill-founded realist assumptions, and what has been termed the functionalist view (...) of representation. Even if such ideas--albeit in a revised form -- can be defended, there must be a more extensive engagement with the literature and issues outside the confines of the computing and computational orthodoxy. (shrink)

The main question in this article deals with the contribution of informatics to development. As an approach to an answer, it is pointed out in the first place, that there is not just one informatics and that “development” does not admit of only one definition. After delimiting the relevant concept of development, it is suggested that if informatics is to collaborate in its achievement it is essential to rely, in the Third World, on socially responsible technicians. Thus, (...) the informatics of underdevelopment will attain the technical capacity and the political will required in order to assure a true concern for development. (shrink)

Informatics is generally understood as a “new technology” and is therewith discussed according to technological aspects such as speed, data retrieval, information control and so on. Its widespread use from home appliances to enterprises and universities is not the result of a clear-cut analysis of its inner possibilities but is rather dependent on all sorts of ideological promises of unlimited progress. We will discuss the theoretical definition of informatics proposed in 1936 by Alan Turing in order to show (...) that it should be taken as final and complete. This definition has no relation to the technology because Turing defines computers as doing the work of solving problems with numbers. This formal definition implies nonetheless a relation to the non-formalized elements around informatics, which we shall discuss through the Greek notion of téchne. (shrink)

The current informal practice of pharmacometrics as a combination art and science makes it hard to appreciate the role that informatics can and should play in the future of the discipline and to comprehend the gaps that exist because of its absence. The development of pharmacometric informatics has important implications for expediting decision making and for improving the reliability of decisions made in model-based development. We argue that well-defined informatics for pharmacometrics can lead to much needed improvements (...) in the efficiency, effectiveness, and reliability of the pharmacometrics process. The purpose of this paper is to provide a description of the pervasive yet often poorly appreciated role of informatics in improving the process of data assembly, a critical task in the delivery of pharmacometric analysis results. First, we provide a brief description of the pharmacometric analysis process. Second, we describe the business processes required to create analysis-ready data sets for the pharmacometrician. Third, we describe selected informatic elements required to support the pharmacometrics and data assembly processes. Finally, we offer specific suggestions for performing a systematic analysis of existing challenges as an approach to defi ning the next generation of pharmacometric informatics. (shrink)

An explicit formal-ontological representation of entities existing at multiple levels of granularity is an urgent requirement for biomedical information processing. We discuss some fundamental principles which can form a basis for such a representation. We also comment on some of the implicit treatments of granularity in currently available ontologies and terminologies (GO, FMA, SNOMED CT).

This book covers the overlap between informatics, computer science, philosophy of causation, and causal inference in epidemiology and population health research. Key concepts covered include how data are generated and interpreted, and how and why concepts in health informatics and the philosophy of science should be integrated in a systems-thinking approach. Furthermore, a formal epistemology for the health sciences and public health is suggested. -/- Causation in Population Health Informatics and Data Science provides a detailed guide of (...) the latest thinking on causal inference in population health informatics. It is therefore a critical resource for all informaticians and epidemiologists interested in the potential benefits of utilising a systems-based approach to causal inference in health informatics. (shrink)

This paper attempts to address the general questionwhether information technologies, as applied in thearea of medicine and health care, have or are likelyto change fundamental concepts regarding disease andhealth. After a short excursion into the domain ofmedical informatics I provide a brief overview of someof the current theories of what a disease is from amore philosophical perspective, i.e. the ``valuefree'' and ``value laden'' view of disease. Next, Iconsider at some length, whether health careinformatics is currently modifying fundamentalconcepts of disease. (...) To this question I will answerlargely in the negative, and I will provide the sketchof some arguments from current research programs inmedical informatics why I think this is the case. Thisargumentation is supported by a detailed account ofhow the disease profile for beriberi heart disease,used in one of the major medical informaticsdiagnostic programs, QMR (and its ancestorINTERNIST-1), was developed, and why at least thisprogram essentially follows received views oftraditional medicine.The one main exception to theconformity of this program to ``received'' views of adisease occurs when the program's designers need tofine-tune a disease definition. This fine-tuning is tocomport with the expert's perspective on the disease,including his or her epistemic values, as well as theprogram's other resources for diagnosing components ofa disease. (shrink)

The article discusses the theory and practice of software development in the light of design theory. It tries to show that the design process cannot be forced into a predefined operational sequence. To underline this, the history of design methods is retraced, showing that such approaches were abolished not only in practice, but also the theory of design. The essay then discusses the cognitive framework of contemporary design theory and closes with the proposal that informatics should redefine itself as (...) a design discipline in order to tackle the problems of interaction design. (shrink)

The development of classical and contemporary informatics, the cross-fertilization between computer science, software engineering, cognitive science, and neuropsychology, has led to a whole range of extremely interesting new research areas known as cognitive informatics. Cognitive informatics is the transdisciplinary study of cognitive and information sciences that investigates into the internal information processing mechanisms and processes of the natural intelligence--human brains and minds. Cognitive informatics is a branch of information and computer science that studies computing by cognitive (...) methodologies and studies cognitive science by informatics and computing theories. Cognitive informatics is a cutting-edge and profound interdisciplinary research area that tackles the fundamental problems of modern informatics, computation, software engineering, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, neuropsychology, and life sciences. Almost all of the hard problems yet to be solved in the above areas share a common root in the understanding of mechanisms of natural intelligence and cognitive processes of the brain. Cognitive informatics is perceived as a new frontier that explores the internal information processing mechanisms of the brain, and their engineering applications in computing and the information technology industry. (shrink)

This paper is a revised and extended version of a keynote contribution to a recent conference on Cognitive Informatics. It offers a brief summary of some of the core concerns of other contributions to the conference, highlighting the range of issues under discussion; and argues that many of the central concepts and preoccupations of cognitive informatics as understood by participants--and others in the general field of computation--rely on ill-founded realist assumptions, and what has been termed the functionalist view (...) of representation. Even if such ideas--albeit in a revised form -- can be defended, there must be a more extensive engagement with the literature and issues outside the confines of the computing and computational orthodoxy. (shrink)

This article is part of a For-Discussion-Section of Methods of Information in Medicine about the paper "Biomedical Informatics: We Are What We Publish", written by Peter L. Elkin, Steven H. Brown, and Graham Wright. It is introduced by an editorial. This article contains the combined commentaries invited to independently comment on the Elkin et al. paper. In subsequent issues the discussion can continue through letters to the editor.

The claim that an information revolution is underway is scrutinized in this paper. Particular attention is given to the notions that new information technology will radically increase human choice and rationality in decision-making. The literature on informatics and technology is selectively reviewed in order to determine whether (1) the present use of technology seems to predict an increased choice and rationality in the future; (2) earlier technologies have had this effect; and (3) past social predictions of this type have (...) proven generally correct. We reach a mixed or negative conclusion in every case. Although the possibility of an information revolution cannot be dismissed, neither can it be readily accepted at this point unless we significantly diminish what is normally meant by a ‘revolution’. (shrink)

Chinese national culture has a glorious past, as does our science, technology, and production. It was in the modern era that, for a variety of reasons, the Chinese national culture fell behind the West in many respects, not keeping up with the demands of the times.

The claim that an information revolution is underway is scrutinized in this paper. Particular attention is given to the notions that new information technology will radically increase human choice and rationality in decision-making. The literature on informatics and technology is selectively reviewed in order to determine whether the present use of technology seems to predict an increased choice and rationality in the future; earlier technologies have had this effect; and past social predictions of this type have proven generally correct. (...) We reach a mixed or negative conclusion in every case. Although the possibility of an information revolution cannot be dismissed, neither can it be readily accepted at this point unless we significantly diminish what is normally meant by a 'revolution'. (shrink)

In this age of DNA computers and artificial intelligence, information is becoming disembodied even as the "bodies" that once carried it vanish into virtuality. While some marvel at these changes, envisioning consciousness downloaded into a computer or humans "beamed" _Star Trek_-style, others view them with horror, seeing monsters brooding in the machines. In _How We Became Posthuman,_ N. Katherine Hayles separates hype from fact, investigating the fate of embodiment in an information age. Hayles relates three interwoven stories: how information lost (...) its body, that is, how it came to be conceptualized as an entity separate from the material forms that carry it; the cultural and technological construction of the cyborg; and the dismantling of the liberal humanist "subject" in cybernetic discourse, along with the emergence of the "posthuman." Ranging widely across the history of technology, cultural studies, and literary criticism, Hayles shows what had to be erased, forgotten, and elided to conceive of information as a disembodied entity. Thus she moves from the post-World War II Macy Conferences on cybernetics to the 1952 novel _Limbo_ by cybernetics aficionado Bernard Wolfe; from the concept of self-making to Philip K. Dick's literary explorations of hallucination and reality; and from artificial life to postmodern novels exploring the implications of seeing humans as cybernetic systems. Although becoming posthuman can be nightmarish, Hayles shows how it can also be liberating. From the birth of cybernetics to artificial life, _How We Became Posthuman_ provides an indispensable account of how we arrived in our virtual age, and of where we might go from here. (shrink)

This article clarifies three principles that should guide the development of any cognitive ontology. First, that an adequate cognitive ontology depends essentially on an adequate task ontology; second, that the goal of developing a cognitive ontology is independent of the goal of finding neural implementations of the processes referred to in the ontology; and third, that cognitive ontologies are neutral regarding the metaphysical relationship between cognitive and neural processes.

В монографии представлена систематизация современных западных и отечественных подходов в исследовании качеств современного человека, таких как креативность и информативность. Для читателей, интересующихся проблемами социальной философии.

Supplementary to matter and energy, information is the third essence for modeling the natural world. An emerging discipline known as cognitive informatics (CI) is developed recently that forms a profound interdisciplinary study of cognitive and information sciences, and tackles the common root problems sharing by informatics, computing, software engineering, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, neuropsychology, philosophy, linguistics, and life science. CI focuses on internal information processing mechanisms and the natural intelligence of the brain. This paper describes the historical development (...) of informatics from the classical information theory and contemporary informatics, to CI. The domain of CI, and its interdisciplinary nature are explored. Foundations of CI, particularly the brain versus the mind, the acquired life functions versus the inherited ones, and generic relationships between information, matter, and energy are investigated. The potential engineering applications of CI and perspectives on future research are discussed. It is expected that the investigation into CI will result in fundamental findings towards the development of next generation IT and software technologies, and new architectures of computing systems. (shrink)

This article lies at the crossroads of education, technology, and culture, examining the assumption that societal cultures can exert influence on educational technologies. It is informed by a hypothesis that educational technology is not merely a matter of education and technology alone but is also about the societal culture wherein that educational technology is implemented. The study explores those societally and culturally informed factors that promote the rejection of educational technologies. It answers the research question: To what extent do societal (...) cultures challenge educational technologies? This question is addressed by carrying out a quantitative enquiry into Israel and Saudi Arabia. Having analyzed the collected data using an exploratory factor analysis, societally and culturally directed factors were revealed that flew in the face of educational technologies. The theoretical proposition that could be drawn from this is that educational technologies can be rejected not based on educational or technological interests alone but rather based on societally and culturally promoted anxieties. The recommendation for research policy is thus that, when researching an educational technology, there should be constant consideration of how societally and culturally compatible it is with the wider societal culture wherein it will be or already is situated. (shrink)

This paper attempts to address the general question whether information technologies, as applied in the area of medicine and health care, have or are likely to change fundamental concepts regarding disease and health. After a short excursion into the domain of medical informatics I provide a brief overview of some of the current theories of what a disease is from a more philosophical perspective, i.e., the "value free" and "value laden" view of disease. Next, I consider at some length, (...) whether health care informatics is currently modifying fundamental concepts of disease. To this question I will answer largely in the negative. (shrink)

The ethics in an information society is discussed from the combined viewpoint of Eastern and Western thoughts. The breakdown of a coherent self threatens the Western ethics and causes nihilism. Francisco Varela, one of the founders of Autopoiesis Theory, tackled this problem and proposed Enactive Cognitive Science by introducing Buddhist middle-way philosophy. Fundamental Informatics gives further insights into the problem, by proposing the concept of a hierarchical autopoietic system. Here the ethics can be described in relation to a community (...) rather than a coherent self. The philosophical bridge between East and West is expected to solve the ethical aporia in the 21st century. (shrink)

The term "social informatics," at least among those who work in one or more of the various fields it helps to unite, unavoidably elicits its originator and greatest advocate, Rob Kling. Kling coined the term in order to help describe a perspective in which information technologies were studied within their social contexts. It was also used to describe a new interdiscipline, one that drew computer science and the social sciences closer together, and that recognized a literature at this nexus (...) as an emergent, cohesive whole. Kling answered the question "What is social informatics?" explicitly not only in widely read articles on the topic, but in public talks and private conversations. As the idea of social informatics has become more widely known, another question follows it: where is social informatics? Has it made an imprint on scholarly institutions? (shrink)

This article is an overview of the philosophy of informatics with a special regard to some Polish philosophers. It juxtaposes the informationistic worldview with the long-prevailing mechanical conceptualization of nature before introducing the metaphysical perspective of the information revolution in sciences. The article shows also how ontic pancomputationalism – regarded as an update to structural realism – could enrich the philosophical research in some classical topics. The paper concludes with a discussion of the philosophy of Jan Salamucha, a philosopher (...) from the Cracow Circle whose ideas could be inspiring for today’s philosophy of informatics in Cracow. (shrink)

Objective: There are benefits and risks of giving patients more granular control of their personal health information in electronic health record (EHR) systems. When designing EHR systems and policies, informaticists and system developers must balance these benefits and risks. Ethical considerations should be an explicit part of this balancing. Our objective was to develop a structured ethics framework to accomplish this. -/- Methods: We reviewed existing literature on the ethical and policy issues, developed an ethics framework called a “Points to (...) Consider” (P2C) document, and convened a national expert panel to review and critique the P2C. -/- Results: We developed the P2C to aid informaticists designing an advanced query tool for an electronic health record (EHR) system in Indianapolis. The P2C consists of six questions (“Points”) that frame important ethical issues, apply accepted principles of bioethics and Fair Information Practices, comment on how questions might be answered, and address implications for patient care. -/- Discussion: The P2C is intended to clarify whatis at stake when designers try to accommodate potentially competing ethical commitments and logistical realities. The P2C was developed to guide informaticists who were designing a query tool in an existing EHR that would permit patient granular control. While consideration of ethical issues is coming to the forefront of medical informatics design and development practices, more reflection is needed to facilitate optimal collaboration between designers and ethicists. This report contributes to that discussion. (shrink)

Background The globalization of medical science carries for doctors worldwide a correlative duty to deepen their understanding of patients' cultural contexts and religious backgrounds, in order to satisfy each as a unique individual. To become better informed, practitioners may turn to MedLine, but it is unclear whether the information found there is an accurate representation of culture and religion. To test MedLine's representation of this field, we chose the topic of death and dying in the three major monotheistic religions. Methods (...) We searched MedLine using PubMed in order to retrieve and thematically analyze full-length scholarly journal papers or case reports dealing with religious traditions and end-of-life care. Our search consisted of a string of words that included the most common denominations of the three religions, the standard heading terms used by the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature (NRCBL), and the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) used by the National Library of Medicine. Eligible articles were limited to English-language papers with an abstract. Results We found that while a bibliographic search in MedLine on this topic produced instant results and some valuable literature, the aggregate reflected a selection bias. American writers were over-represented given the global prevalence of these religious traditions. Denominationally affiliated authors predominated in representing the Christian traditions. The Islamic tradition was under-represented. Conclusion MedLine's capability to identify the most current, reliable and accurate information about purely scientific topics should not be assumed to be the same case when considering the interface of religion, culture and end-of-life care. (shrink)

Supplementary to matter and energy, information is the third essence for modeling the natural world. An emerging discipline known as cognitive informatics is developed recently that forms a profound interdisciplinary study of cognitive and information sciences, and tackles the common root problems sharing by informatics, computing, software engineering, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, neuropsychology, philosophy, linguistics, and life science. CI focuses on internal information processing mechanisms and the natural intelligence of the brain. This paper describes the historical development of (...) informatics from the classical information theory and contemporary informatics, to CI. The domain of CI, and its interdisciplinary nature are explored. Foundations of CI, particularly the brain versus the mind, the acquired life functions versus the inherited ones, and generic relationships between information, matter, and energy are investigated. The potential engineering applications of CI and perspectives on future research are discussed. It is expected that the investigation into CI will result in fundamental findings towards the development of next generation IT and software technologies, and new architectures of computing systems. (shrink)

“Feminicity” is the term for a predicate register that enables feminist work be accounted for as relational “active-points” that collectively can be seen through what they have achieved. But going further, it marks where those active-points contribute to the dynamic field of feminist epistemologies and where change occurs. This article contributes to my larger project’s discussion of this concept. Broadly, feminicity argues that the active-points of feminist practices need to be understood within their situated fields as materialist informatics. In (...) the digital era, examples of the affects of digital feminicity are as identified in works such as those by Wajcman ; Haraway, Hayles, VNSMatrix, Adam, Plant. Collectively, such authors and artists opened a creative, and sometimes radical discourse of the digital field as multidirectional, multidimensional, multitemporal platform of “gender actions”. Taken as a predicated field sense of the term “predicate”), this work contributes to the feminist materialist reappraisal of feminist epistemology, and larger radical feminist deconstructive projects. Thus conceived, the genealogy of digital feminicity problematizes the monopolitical terms of feminism in its collation of actions, enabling a re-situation of feminist practices as positive material interventions and expressions of the ontological constitution of the political sphere. Feminicity does not propose a chronological account of the active-points, but processually and systemically addresses the terms of generational epistemological political change. This article describes the ways in which a materialist constructed register – “feminicity”– can be used to think about encounters between the domains of gender, politics and technology, as manifested by materialist informatics. For reasons of brevity, this article focuses on just two aspects of feminicity: the terms of predication of the female as gendered, and the issue of the image, as digital informatics, comprised of activitypoints of feminist practice. Consequently, these are measurable and offer practical resources for the general problem of gendering politics that operate in governance, resource distribution and a non-equal opportunity social/cultural power structure, under which minorities are disadvantaged. Feminist practice here refers to forms produced through feminist activities, ie, forms generated through relations with the matter of life through specific modalities of needs-based practices. (shrink)