Nature as a Network of Morphological Infocomputational Processes for Cognitive Agents
Journal article, 2017

This paper presents a view of nature as a network of infocomputational agents organised in a dynamical hierarchy of levels. It provides a framework for unification of currently disparate understandings of natural, formal, technical, behavioural and social phenomena based on information as a structure, differences in one system that cause the differences in another system, and computation as its dynamics, i.e. physical process of morphological change in the informational structure. We address some of the frequent misunderstandings regarding the natural/morphological computational models and their relationships to physical systems, especially cognitive systems such as living beings. Natural morphological infocomputation as a conceptual framework necessitates generalisations of models of computation beyond the traditional Turing machine model presenting symbol manipulation, and requires agent-based concurrent resource-sensitive models of computation in order to be able to cover the whole range of phenomena from physics to cognition. The central role of agency, particularly material vs. cognitive agency is highlighted.

infocomputation

computing nature

morphological computing

Author

Gordana Dodig Crnkovic

Chalmers, Applied Information Technology (Chalmers), Cognition and Communication

European Physical Journal: Special Topics

1951-6355 (ISSN) 1951-6401 (eISSN)

Vol. 226 2 181-195

Areas of Advance

Information and Communication Technology

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Subject Categories

Computer and Information Science

Roots

Basic sciences

DOI

10.1140/epjst/e2016-60362-9

More information

Latest update

5/28/2021