CANCELED/ Seminar Series - Dr. Jaime F. Cárdenas-García
Visiting Research Scientist, ME department, UMBC
The Fundamental Problem of the Science of Information
Abstract
The concept of information has been extensively studied and written about, yet no consensus on a unified definition of information has to date been reached. This talk seeks to establish the basis for a unified definition of information. We claim a biosemiotics perspective, based on Gregory Bateson’s definition of information, provides a footing on which to build because the frame this provides has applicability to both the sciences and humanities.
A key issue in reaching a unified definition of information is the fundamental problem of identifying how a human organism, in a self-referential process, develops from a state in which its knowledge of the human-organism-in-its- environment is almost non-existent to a state in which the human organism not only recognizes the existence of the environment but also sees itself as part of the human-organism-in-its-environment system. This allows a human organism not only to self-referentially engage with the environment and navigate through it, but also to transform it in its own image and likeness. In other words, the Fundamental Problem of the Science of Information concerns the phylogenetic development process, as well as the ontogenetic development process of Homo sapiens sapiens from a single cell to our current multicellular selves, all in a changing long-term and short-term environment, respectively.
About the Speaker
Jaime F. Cárdenas-García in his retirement is a Visiting Research Scientist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland – Baltimore County, and a Member of the Academy of Sciences of Ecuador. After obtaining his BSME, MS and PhD degrees from the University of Maryland in College Park he joined the faculty at Colorado State University as an Assistant Professor. After which Prof. Cárdenas-García transferred to Texas Tech University where he spent the majority of his academic career as Assistant, Associate and Full Professor. Other academic appointments have been at the University of Maryland in College Park, University of Florida in Shalimar and the University of Texas in Brownsville. His research interests cover a wide spectrum in Science and the Humanities.