Introduction

The problem of biospherical compatibility of cities is being studied in Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Science during the last decade. This problem is discussed in the paper from both civilizational and philosophical points of view.

Method of comparing the duration of survival of civilization , with its attitude towards the natural environment.

According to the investigations of Kuzik and Yakovetz [1] about 25 civilizations existed during the last 5 thousand years, for example Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Roma and many others. But only two of them are vivid up today at the same place with the same ethnos- they are India and China which are the symbols of Eastern civilizations.

These great countries consider Nature as the God, of course in different manners. The very powerful imperator in China was only the Son of Heaven. Gods in India represented some visible part of surrounding space from local territory up to cosmos. By the way, Indian Sanskrit is very close to Russian language, and some Sanskrit’s Gods have practically the same names as ancient Slavic Gods before the Christian age.

So, people and authority of China and India consider priority of Nature before humankind, hence people should serve Nature.

People in the West believe that they can use and reorganize Nature, because Nature is created for mankind’s needs. People in the West are extraverted, they try first to understand the World and then, they try to comprehend themselves. People in the East are introverted and they try first to grasp themselves and then, they try to understand the world.

Both civilizations know all about the World and Humankind but their knowledge are quite different and theirs ways of learning are just opposite.

Last half of the century western scientists [2] spoke more and more about ecological problems, sustainable development and so on.

We also started our investigation with the fact that the Nature created a human being, hence people are the element of Nature and they have to serve their Mother. Following to I. A. Malmigin we made the next step, we supposed that the Biosphere is a vivid creature, which mankind may have conversations with. This assumptions has no practical influence at the moment, but nevertheless it is very important for future.

Results and Discussion

Combining modern knowledge and some ideas of both civilizations we worked out the paradigm of biospherical compatibility of cities which would develop people. The result is a matrix with 3x3 elements presented in [3].

1. Symbiosis of cities and the Nature, According of Consciousness;
2. Comparison of external (exploitation of resources, waste disposal) and internal (human potential) aspects of city life;
3. Humanitarian Balance of Biosphere, i.e. threefold balances of population, places for satisfying the needs of the population, Life Potential of Biosphere;
4. Legislature fixation of Humanitarian Balance of Biotechnosphere or a phased transition towards this balance: earth, water, air, energy and social criteria;
5. Knowledge as a basis for city management: professionalism, intelligence, information, suggestions on development, elimination of factors, hindering development. Result: Program of transformation of pathology into resource of development;
6. Comparison of planned environmental factors and level of human development with the reality;
7. Functions of a city which satisfy human needs: livelihood, entertainment, authorities, charity, education, creation, connection with the Nature;
8. Reliability “Constitution” of the city and other laws, traditions of an ethnic groups, councils of elders, Social union, etc. Result, control, balance, efficiency;
9. Cognition as a basis for policy, power structures, interactions of all with all, the holidays, style of the city.

All elements are known, but here is the system, hierarchy of subjects and each element may be calculated in one or another way. So, life of city may be presented numerically. According to the author’s opinion the main result of such approach will be possibility to predict in volume what happened if one or other ruling decision to realize, reaching the global aim- biospherically compatible city, developing people. Compatible means preventing ecological disasters for centuries. Summarized results of calculations on several cities in Russia presented in the book [4].

Conclusions

This approach may lead to many unusual consequences and for example there is pair of them.

People can’t produce water, sand, air, oil, etc. All these resources are produced by Earth, and Earth is owner of then. People should buy these raw materials from the producer and owner. What is the price? According to the theory of Adam Smith the price should be sufficient for the reproduction of this materials.

To whom to pay? If we involve natural materials into economy of humanity as resources then it is necessary to recognize the Earth as a legal entity. The representative of it would be the Government of the country and Government will spend money for treatment of Nature.

Acknowledgments

The author is grateful Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Science for the statement of the theme and the opportunity to conduct research.

References and Notes

1. Kuzik B.N., Yakovetz Yu.V. Civilizations: theory, history, dialog, future. Moscow. Institute of economic strategy, 2006
2. D.H. Meadows, J. Randers, D.L. Meadows. Limits to Growth. The 30-years Update. Chealsea Green Publishing Company. White River Junction. Vermont, 2004.
3. V.A. Ilychev, The guidelines for creating a new city structure which would be compatible with the Biosphere and make for the development of man. Ӧsterreichishe Ingenieur- und Architekten-Zeitschrift, 157. Jahrgang Heft 1-6/2012.
4. Principles of transforming of cities into biospherical compatible and developing man. V.A. Ilyichev, S.G. Emelyanov, V.I. Kolchunov, V.A. Gordon, N.V. Bakaeva. Scientific issuu, - Moscow, Publishing House ASV, 2015-184 p.

Due to the high importance of information theory to human kinds and the un-satisfaction toward the Shannon Theory of information, there have been hot discussions worldwide during the past decades over the subject of what information and information science should be. Numerals of forum, workshop, and conference have been organized and thousands of paper, journal and book published whereas the feeling of un-satisfaction is not decreasing yet.

Having recognized the positive contributions from the discussions during the past, we have also noticed the following lessons associated with the discussions that need necessarily be overcome and improved, in the information studies in the future.

Lesson 1: Background Issue. It is noted that different researchers joining in the discussions may have different backgrounds for their studies of information science. So, when speaking of the same term ‘information’, they may mean different things. This leads to big difficulties in mutual understanding among discussants.

Lesson 2: Issue of View Angle. It is also noted that different researchers joining in the discussions may have different angle of view in their research of information science so that they can, in fact, acquire rather different impressions from the same information. This also makes difficulties and obstacles for achieving agreements.

Lesson 3: Methodological Issue. More importantly, the methodology labeled by “reductionism”, or by “divide and conquer”, has made severe consequence to the information research, not only making the research being divided into a number of different schools but also making the schools diversified and hard to be integrated.

As is well known, some authoritative scholar had once made comments on information science studies, by saying that information science is not yet qualified to be called ‘a science’ as it has not invented any laws concerning with the nature and/or society.

Taking in mind the lessons, we have made continuous efforts for decades in information studies and have achieved a number of progresses among which the most significant one is the discovery of the “law of information conversion and intelligence creation” through the employment of the new methodology.

In what follows, we will share with readers our results, including (1) a number of fundamental concepts closely related to the law, such as ontological information, epistemological information, knowledge, intelligent strategy, etc., (2) three theories supporting the law, that is the theory of comprehensive information, the theory of knowledge ecology, and the theory of intelligence formulation, (3) three categories of conversion needed for the law, consisting of the conversion from ontological information to epistemological information, the conversion from the epistemological information to knowledge, and the conversion from epistemological information, knowledge, and goal to intelligent strategy, and (4) explanation on the significance of the law and concluding remarks.

References

1. Shannon C E. A Mathematical Theory of Communication [J], BSTJ, Vol.27, p.379-423, p.632-656, 1948
2. Zhong Y X. Principles of Information Science (in Chinese) [M], Beijing: BUPT Press. 1988, reprint in 1996, 2002, 2005, and 2013
3. Zadeh L. Fuzzy Sets Theory, Information and Control, 8, p.338-353, 1965
4. Feigenbaum A. et al. The Art of Artificial Intelligence: Themes and Case studies in Knowledge Engineering, IJCAI 5, 1014-1029, 1977
5. Fayad U. et al. Advances in Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining [M]. MIT Press, 1996
6. Zhong Y X. A Framework of Knowledge Theory [J], Journal of China Engineering Science, Vol.2, p.50-64, 2000
7. Nilsson, N. J., Artificial Intelligence: A New Synthesis [M], Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 1998
8. Russell, S. J. and P. Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach [M], Pearson Education, Inc., as Prentice Hall, Inc, and Tsinghua University Press. 2006
9. Zhong Y X. Principles of Cognetics (in Chinese) [M], Beijing: Science Press. 2007
10. Zhong Y X. Advanced Theory of Artificial Intelligence (in Chinese) [M], Beijing: Science Press, 2014

Introduction

Research in IT security often comes with decisions and possibilities that may or may not be considered ethical. However, it is often hard for young researchers to estimate the impact of their work, possible consequences and overall morality, as well as to where to draw the line. In some cases it is likely that more than hundreds of thousands of users will be affected, and it is unclear what is in their best interest: removal of a threat? Or rather a deeper analysis of the threat, which could prevent further vulnerabilities or attacks that are similar? In most cases, this decision is then left to the advisor who may have conflicting interests.

Methods

In this talk we will present recent borderline papers from the ethical point of view, and their implications on users. These papers are either directly or indirectly related to our own work, meaning that we will put our own perceptions on morality and ethics in perspective. We will furthermore present fundamental ethical principles which should not only be considered for IT security research, but can be applied to research in general. We argue that the establishment of ethical guidelines or frameworks without prior discussion and consensus in the research community probably would not lead to clarity on which lines in academic research should not be crossed. Especially the world-wide context of IT research poses challenges which are not easy to overcome: while researchers at US institutions are often forced to go through an IRB approval, nothing comparable exists in the broader context of European research. On the other hand, Europe with its much stronger privacy laws has nothing comparable within the US or Asia.

A good example is the analysis of a botnet [1]: malicious software which is run on thousands of computers, operated by unsuspecting users. These computers are then used for sending spam e-mails, collecting banking information, and many more severe malicious activities. The researcher is now in the dilemma: shut down the botnet which is just one among many more, or conducting a deeper analysis of the botnet? Another option would be to sanitize the computer and fix the underlying vulnerabilities of the computer, to prevent similar and future infections. Or should the user be warned, and made aware of the fact that the system is running malware including instructions on how to get rid of it?

The interest of the user, in particular for experiments where the user is not informed (or asked for consensus), has to be the highest priority. Another priority should be in our opinion that watching users getting harmed is not acceptable. Watching how their personal information is stolen or their computers are being abused for sending spam e-mails is not acceptable. But where to draw the line? What is acceptable, and what isn’t? And how can unethical research be punished, when the decision for publication is made by very few, namely the chair of a program committee or the editor of a journal?

Another good example is the Tor network [2], an anonymity network used by thousands of people on a daily basis to stay anonymous on the Internet. Due to the open design of the Tor network and the possibility that everyone can become part of the network and relay traffic for users, it can be tempting to modify traffic in the users best interest, e.g. by blocking malicious domains, inspecting and modifying file transfers or attacking the Tor network by trying to deanonymize its users. But how can deanonymization attacks be evaluated without assessing the impact on real users? In particular for complex systems, simulation is not always possible, and while there are simulation frameworks available for Tor, how can the researcher be sure that all important parameters of the simulation are correct and within expectation?

Conclusions

Neither researchers nor research subjects, e.g. malware authors, users or online services are currently in a position where they can refer to ethical principles that are accepted in the research community as well as on a larger scale. This talk is hopefully another step towards a guideline which is acceptable for all parties. However, much more research is needed in that direction, and the different interests of all stakeholders have to be balanced.

Acknowledgments

This talk extends prior work by the authors published in 2013 [3].

References and Notes

1. Stone-Gross, Brett, et al. “Your botnet is my botnet: analysis of a botnet takeover.” Proceedings of the 16th ACM conference on Computer and communications security. ACM, 2009.
2. Dingledine, Mathewson, et al. “Tor: The Second-generation Onion Router” Proceedings of the 13th Conference on USENIX Security Symposium, 2004
3. Schrittwieser, Sebastian, Martin Mulazzani, and Edgar Weippl. “Ethics in security research which lines should not be crossed?” Security and Privacy Workshops (SPW), 2013 IEEE. IEEE, 2013.

What is the really appropriate definition of information? This is always the No.1 issue in the study of information science doubtlessly. Precise definition of information is by all means the most significant foundation for information studies. Unfortunately, researchers with different backgrounds, and thus different view angles, have already proposed variety of definitions of information in different disciplines. This has led to difficulties for the successful studies of information science.

What is wrong with the information defining then? Is it possible to have a proper definition of information able to unify all the others? Is there existed any unity over the diversity in the information studies? This paper will tackle with these problems.

To start with, some representative, and thus most influential, definitions of information are reviewed, including the definitions respectively presented by Norbert Wiener in 1948, which says that information is neither matter nor energy, by Claude Shannon in 1948 which means that information is something that can be used for uncertainty removal, and by Gregory Bateson in 1972, which considers that information is the difference that makes difference.

It is realized through the reviews that the methodology of “divide and conquer” is the common root for producing the diversity and is no longer suitable for the information science studies though it had been successful in physical science studies. The methodology for information science studies should base on the view of information, the view of system, the view of ecology, and the view of interaction between subject and object.

Employing the new methodology, an ecological model of information process is established. Based on the methodology for information science and the new model of information process, both the ontological and epistemological definitions of information are derived, which are able to unify the other definitions, including the ones mentioned above. This indicates that the definitions of ontological information and epistemological information are appropriate ones and can serve as the foundation for information studies.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In section 2, reviews and comments on some typical definitions of information are made and the improper methodological issue governing the information defining is revealed. In section 3, the methodology for the information studies is summarized and the ecological model of information process is thus established. In section 4 the new definitions of information, able to unify the other definitions, are derived from the new methodology and new model. Finally, some concluding remarks concerning the model and the definitions are made in section 5.

References

1. Wiener N. Cybernetics [M]. Boston: MIT Press, 1948.
2. Wiener N. Cybernetics and Society [M]. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1950.
3. Shannon C. A Mathematical Theory of Communication [J], BSTJ, Vol.27, p.379-423, p.632-656, 1948
4. Bertalanffy L. General System Theory [M]. New york: George Braziller, 1973
5. Brillouin L. Science and Information [M]. New York: Academic Press Inc, 1956.
6. Ashby R. Introduction to Cybernetics [M]. New York: Wiley, 1956.
7. Bateson A. Steps to An Ecology of Mind [M]. New Jersey: Jason Aronson Inc. 1987
8. Zhong Y X. The Law of Information Conversion and Intelligence Creation [C]. IS4IS Summit Vienna, June 6-9, 2015.

Introduction

For the better and the worse, data govern our life. Information and communication, primarily based on language make us human and give us an unbeatable advantage as a species. The digitalized world introduced a technology that changed the value of information fundamentally. Huge data storage are Pandora’s box and treasure chests combined. Information is accessible everywhere, easily to be spied but free opinions cannot be suppressed. Health information these days comes with a similar Janus face: huge data amounts generated by new and sophisticated technologies will enable for preventive instead of therapeutic medicine and are becoming individualized. The perspectives and the technological consequences of a data driven medicine need to be reflected. The future of medicine is already a battlefield for its commercial exploration of the health care industry (1). The potential to diagnose, predict, and prevent rare and common diseases is huge. How we will use health information is a social, political, and economic issue of enormous relevance.

Results and Discussion

Life itself has a disappointing consequence, birth implies disease and death. Medicine fights diseases based on experience and the observation of the individual phenotype such as fever, pain, and blood pressure. With the genetic information at hand, we now can gain insight into the genetic disposition, with the recordings from various “Omics”-technologies. We can monitor the state of an individual biological system including its genome. With the medical record available, we can correlate the genetic disposition, the influence of environment and life style, and the medical history of the patient to the disease state. We can monitor success of therapy and evaluate its economic efficiency. The detailed analysis of the benefit of a therapy enables rationale decisions to guide the health care system. The “one fits all” therapeutic classification will be replaced by personalized, data driven, rationale decisions, even down to the individual genetic level, also coined as precision medicine.

The biomedical literature comprises millions of publications every year. For the individual scientist, to stay abreast of one’s own field has become impossible. Omics-technologies record a very large number of parameters and conditions. To build and structure biological information systematically and to identify causes for the onset and progress of diseases is more challenging than trying to solve a very large puzzle (2). To deal with data spaces of many thousands of parameters, to cope with the dimensions of time, space and history in biological data means to solve complex problems and to reflect novel concepts to distinguish the solvable from the unsolvable problems.

The new world of a better, more efficient, and precise treatment arrives with huge promises for a better, healthier life. Not unlike the promise of endless growth and wealth, there are obstacles to be jumped over: given the data, can we make the right prediction for the outcome of a treatment? This question comes with an even more fundamental one: is life in any way predictable? Given the information of all parameters gathered from the patient, what can be done for the better of the patient and the society?

Conclusions

In my talk, I will address some basic questions on disease mechanisms and the “homo informaticus” as the subject – the scientist - and object –the patient - of data driven medicine.

Acknowledgments

I like to acknowledge Felix Tretter, Thomas Werner and Dan Rujescu for many stimulating discussions on the conditions how genes and the environment interact and shape our body and mind.

References and Notes

1. Krol, A.; J. Craig Venter’s Latest Venture Has Ambitions Across Human Lifespan. Bio.IT World, March 4, 2014
2. Mewes, H.-W.; Perspectives of a systems biology of the brain: The big data conundrum understanding psychiatric diseases. Pharmacopsychiatry, 2013, 46, S2-S9 (2013)

Introduction

During the past decade, social media platforms, such as blogs, microblogs, content communities, social networking sites became core communication tools for public debate. The global financial crisis plagued several European countries such as Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy and UK whose governments, and in the case of Greece under the rule of international organizations, implemented austerity policies as a measure of crisis management. The impact of these policies gave rise to widespread public discontent and rage against public authorities and institutions on national as well as European levels. Moreover, the economic crisis increased antagonisms between EU members and limited the power of nation-states. In this context, the mainstream media have received ample critique for promoting the elites and not producing rich public spheres to debate the crisis. However, new media and social movements play today a particularly important role in shifting dominants' narratives and representations of the crisis in Europe, hence helping construct a variety of public spheres.

ICTs (particularly social media) transform the ways in which citizens demonstrate, protest and collaborate. With the use of digital technologies, publics increase their autonomy, join local or global networks and develop robust social bonds. Even though these networks consist of people with different aims and incentives, they are based on a sense of belonging and promote solidarity and cooperation among their members. Under these circumstances, individuals prepare the background and create the conditions towards direct democracy for both themselves and the next generations.

Methods

In this paper, we focus on social movements that have emerged in Europe since the outbreak of the crisis. In particular, we examine their political claims and ideological dispositions through the filters of continuity and change. We look at both the diachronous and the synchronous evolution of the movements. The diachronous perspective concerns the historical evolution of social movements by focusing on the common core that the movements share over time and across borders, as well as the social conditions that alter their dynamics. The synchronous perspective concentrates on the structural evolution of particular social movements, their interconnections with other movements of the same period, their influences and aspirations. Our aim is to explore the ways in which social movements in Europe build, promote and reinforce transnational dialogue, as a form of governance of the Commons towards their realization. The Commons is a kind of social good that is based on mutual agreement and social reciprocity, forming in the social ICT environment. To frame this discussion, the following research question will guide the paper: “how do the citizens govern their political communicative spaces”?

We apply Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), in order to understand the political contexts within which the texts of social movements are produced, distributed and received. In doing so, we follow Norman Fairclough’s systematic method of analysis (1992, 1995, 2004). Fairclough aims to reveal the ideological and power patterns that exist in discourses and displays the ways in which the discourses are involved in systems of power. Adopting this method in our paper, we observe how the texts construct reality, social identity and social relations, as well as how they are produced, distributed and consumed, and finally what are the social, political, institutional conditions that affect them. For us, discourses have power to raise awareness and develop consciousness on an issue contributing in this way both in social change and social emancipation.

The data comprises six social movements that arose in Greece, Spain and the UK during the economic crisis. The “Indignant Citizens movement” started in 2011 both in Greece (“Aganaktismenoi movement”) and Spain (“Indignados movement”), protesting against austerity politics and for a democratic rebirth, equality, justice and dignity. Both movements paved the way for the emergence of a range of social, self-organized solidarity movements-initiatives across Europe that still have an impact on peoples’ lives. In particular, we discuss the Greek “We don’t pay movement” (initially against the highway tolls), “Without middlemen movement” (against the market intermediaries) and the “Anti-gold mining movement-Skouries movement” (against ore mining for the protection of the environment) in parallel with the Spanish “Stop Desahancios Platform” (against eviction), the British “NHS social movement” (against the privatization of health system) and the Romanian “Save Rosia Montana movement” (against the Rosia Montana mining project). Our investigation explores the commonalities, correlations and interconnections between these movements, by analysing the official statements of the movements found in their blogs or websites and the comments (included videos) stated by their participants in their Facebook and/or Twitter accounts. In this way, we shed light on how people communicate particular meanings on specific social issues which under certain circumstances become large and universal.

References

1. Castells Manuel (2012); Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age, Cambridge: Polity Press.
2. Castells, M. (2008); The New Public Sphere: Global Civil Society, Communication Networks, and Global Governance. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 616(1), 78-93.
3. Chakravartty, P. & Sarikakis, K. (2006); Media Policy and Globalization. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
4. Donatella della Porta and Mario Diani (2006); Social Movements: An Introduction, Oxford: Blackwell.
5. Fairclough, N. (1989); Language and Power. London and New York: Longman.
6. Fairclough, N. (1992); Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
7. Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. New York: Longman.
8. Fairclough, Norman (2003); Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge.
9. Hofkirchner Wolfgang (2014), Idiotism and the Logic of the Third. In Maximilian Lakitsch (Ed.) (2014); Political Power Reconsidered State Power and Civic Activism between Legitimacy and Violence. Peace Report 2013, Reihe: Dialog.
10. Hofkirchner W. (2014), The Commons from a Critical Social Systems Perspective, Recerca, Revista de Pensament I Analisi, N. 14, pp. 73-91.
11. Melucci, A. (1996); Challenging Codes: Collective Action in the Information Age. London: Cambridge University Press.
12. Sarikakis, K. (2004); Powers in Media Policy: The Challenge of the European Parliament. Oxford: Peter Lang.
13. Sarikakis, K. (2012); Securitisation and Legitimacy in Global Media Governance: Spaces, Jurisdictions and Tensions. In Volkmer, I. (Ed). Handbook of Global Media Research – Handbooks in Communication and Media. Malden,MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
14. Shirky Clay (2011); The Political Power of Social Media. Foreign Affairs 90 (1):28-41.

 Informational civilization is emerging a new form of civilization based on informational technology with the development of human society’s informtionnalization and digitalization. It does similar to the post-industry society and informational society in usages.But there are some differences between them in semantics. Informational civilization stresses the transformation of civilization. The challenges to philosophy in the time of information are as follows .

(1) Ontological Challenges.  the discussion of problems in ontology is extending from being and theoretical reality to things which are forming. They are not the being itself but the products of interaction in time. They are a dynamic existence in their changing. Therefore when the data become information, information becomes knowledge, and knowledge becomes a basis of policy, the domain of ontology extends from intrinsic existence to dynamic existence, from actual space to virtual space, from the pursuing to determinacy to indeterminacy.

(2) Epistemological challenges. The problems of epistemology discuss the problem of origin of knowledge and how to get truth about objective in traditional epistemology. With the development of technology of cloud calculation and digital dig, the cognition based on relevance has the meaning of epistemology. So our discussion about the problems of epistemology has to change from the relationship between theory and world to relationship between data and cognition.

(3) Ethical challenges. Facebook, micro-information micro-blog and internet make the way of our thinking from individual to group in the time of information. We are entering a new time of sharing in knowledge, creativity, and expertise. This will bring a lot moral problems which we must focus.

Introduction

In this presentation, we want to discuss the essential and disconcerting role of information and communication technology (ICT) in the current military doctrines and strategies establishing a “Revolution in Military Affairs”.

Life is going to be digital, so is warfare. The concept of Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) describes how military doctrines and strategies change fundamentally if new military technologies arise. Under President George W. Bush, RMA has become the baseline of defense policy and armament planning of the Unites States (cf. Joint Vision 2010 [1] and Joint Vision 2020 [2]). Its objectives are a global network of battle units including unmanned combat vehicles, precision strikes to minimize collateral effects and remote operations to spare own soldiers lives. The necessary key technologies are computers (synonym for ICT) with ICT–driven weapon development and the further establishment of command-control-communication-intelligence infrastructures (C3I).

Computers and weapon technology: a quick walk through history

First computers came up in the 1940s: Konrad Zuse´s developments financed by Deutsche Wehrmacht; similar military developments in Great Britain and the United States. In the following three decades after World War 2, the classical case of dual-use dominates: military-driven develop–ment of ICT with rapid evolvement of civil computer applications. Computer professionals became aware of the massive use of computers in weapons not before the 1980s. The political situation in Germany and, in particular, the deployment of Tomahawk (cruise missile, early kind of drone) and Pershing II (ballistic missile) triggered the foundation of FIfF (Forum Computer Professionals for Peace and Social responsibility) in 1984. (See [3,4] for more details.)

Dual-use reversed into its contrary

Today´s military computers and communication systems are mainly based on civil technology. Hardware and software technologies are too complex to be designed from scratch, they need a kind of evolution. The maturing of technology has been based on a myriad of civil applications. ICT–driven weapon technology is inevitably based on civil research and development, resulting in a spreading grey area:

Example 1: drones, controlled via global communication networks, vision sensor technology, etc.,

Example 2: autonomous unmanned combat vehicles (popularly called killer robots), driving force for RoboCup etc.

Concerning the security euphemism (security research, security architecture, security technology, etc.), industrial strategies and government policies support that the demarcations between civil and military security become blurred:

Example 1: integration of the Forschungsgesellschaft für Angewandte Naturwissenschaften (FGAN) in die Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (FhG) with the establishment of the Fraunhofer Group for Defense and Security, civil and military security research now under one roof, cross-fertilization explicitly intended,

Example 2: BMBF (Ministry of Education and Research) research strategy, BMBF and BMVg (Ministry of Defense) minister`s recent statements,

Example 3: the European Commission’s security research program (1 400 000 000 €).

The consequences for universities and federal research facilities are that they make profit from trickle–down effect simultaneously undermining civil clauses due to loss of transparency. The consequences for the individual computer professional are the difficulty of reasoning and the uncertainty of taking bearing in their professional environment. (Confer [5,6].)

Intrinsic challenges of ICT-based weapon systems and military infrastructures

Complexity and invisibility of embedded ICT tends to blur public conscience by misinformation and disinformation. Hiding real warfare behind computer screens lowers the threshold for approval. The consequence for global political developments is that weapons with effects remaining under the public perception threshold constitute a grey area of proliferating non-declared wars (e.g. cyber attacks, drone strikes).

Example 1: cyber weapons in face of the vulnerability of civil life due to increasing penetration by ICT infrastructures,

Example 2: drones from 'civil' applications to stealth missions; excessive pool of ICT inside and behind, inexorable development towards autonomous combat air vehicles.

Evolving technology, driven by research in Artificial Intelligence, is a core business of computer science. The further development of armed robots and robot arms will lead to weapons that decide autonomously what they destroy and whom they kill. Therefore, a debate on ethics arises unavoidably: Who is responsible? How can the laws of war (like the Geneva Convention) be respected by machines? Is ‘computer ethics’ an option? (Confer [7,8].)

Message to the concerned computer professional

Stop sleepwalking into a technology-driven "defense" policy, and try to recognize a potential involvement in weapon development, military budget resources etc., contribute to public awareness. Consider to foster a rigorous ban of all weapon systems which shirk public control like is demanded for autonomous combat vehicles by the International Committee for Robot Arms Control (ICRAC). Unveil the abuse of the dual-use term, and employ your expert knowledge to enhance public awareness.

A more elaborated discussion can be found in [9].

References

1. Department of Defense (USA): Joint Vision 2010, 1996, http://www.dtic.mil/jv2010/jv2010.pdf
2. Department of Defense (USA): Joint Vision 2020, 2000, http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/concepts/ccjo_jointforce2020.pdf
3. Bickenbach, J., Keil-Slawik, R.; Löwe, M.; Wilhelm, R. (Eds.) Militarisierte Informatik, Schriftenreihe Wissenschaft und Frieden 4, Berlin, 1985.
4. Kreowski, H.-J. Informatik und Militär: Zusammen in den Abgrund, In Umdenken in der Informatik, 2. Jahrestagung des Forums Informatiker für Frieden und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung 1986., Löwe, M.; Schmidt, G.; Wilhelm, R., Eds., Verlag für Ausbildung und Studium in der Elefanten Press, Berlin, 1987, pp. 37-42, reprint in FIfF-Kommunikation 2011, 4, pp. 51–54.
5. Meyer-Ebrecht, D.: Dual-use und die Zivilklausel: ‚Sicherheitsforschung’ – oder wie Rüstungsforschung zivile Forschung vereinnahmt. FIfF-Kommunikation 2012, 4, pp. 56–58.
6. Töpfer, E. Zivil-militärische Sicherheitsforschung. Wissenschaft und Frieden 2012, 4, pp. 16–19
7. Arkin, R.C. Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots, Chapman & Hall/CRC 2009
8. Kreowski, H.-J.: Gehören Killerroboter vor ein Kriegsgericht?, FIfF-Kommunikation 2011 28,4, pp. 27-29.
9. Kreowski, H.-J.; Meyer-Ebrecht, D. Der Missbrauch der Informationstechnik für die ‚Revolution’ des Kriegsgeschäfts. In Gesellschaftliche Verantwortung in der digital vernetzten Welt, Bittner, P.; Hügel, S.; Kreowski, H.-J.; Meyer-Ebrecht, D.; Schinzel, B. , Eds., LIT Verlag, Münster, 1914, pp. 81 – 88.

Is needless to insist on the significant increase of the complexity we are living in. Whereas the social order arisen with modernity encompassed –at the level of the nation-states– a reduction of social complexity through cultural normalization, the new social and political order is nowadays to be intercultural, multilingual and even multi-national. National life is more and more entangled with international relations, and cannot be conceived anymore with our backs turned to nature. All this makes that the traditional context of posing ethical questions is rather different. The universality paradigm that pervaded many classical approaches in ethics is not so convincing anymore. Anthropology, ethnography, intercultural ethics has shown the fragility of such pretentious positions.

As in any other cultural change, it is quite clear that at the age of information we need a new way of addressing the issues of the proper behavior, the deep question of the good live in the complexity that is proper to our society. We may encounter a way of diminishing the complexity at the level of the human agency, as it was the case of cultural normalization in modernity, but we have to do it in another way. The subsidiarity principle represents a way to decrease complexity at the level of the agents while preserving the complexity at the global level. Something that is equally performed in the living organism or in the organization of decentralized political systems [1-2]. E-subsidiarity was essayed in Allende’s Chile and thereafter in the organization of multinational corporations and successful cooperative organizations, e.g. in the Basque country [3-6]. Could it become a new ethical paradigm at the information age?

The argumentation follows the problems and approach argued in [1]-[3] and [6]. The e-Subsidiarity model is based on the Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model, depicted in figure 1 and briefly discussed in [4]. The context of Basque cooperatives is summarily described and analysed in [5]. These works provide further sources to dig deeper in the subject.

Figure 1. Viable System Model (Source: Nick Green at the English language Wikipedia).

(see PDF version for the Figure).

Acknowledgments

This work has been partially done under support of Senescyt’s Postdoc programme Prometeo, linked to a research appointment in Santa Elena University (UPSE), Ecuador. University of León, Spain, has also supported the work.

References and Notes

1. Díaz Nafría, J.M.; Alfonso, J; Panizo, L. Building up eParticipatory decision-making from the local to the global scale. Study case at the European Higher Education Area. Computers in Human Behavior 2015, 47, 26-41.
2. Díaz Nafría, J.M. Ethics at the age of information. Systema 2015, (accepted, in press)
3. Díaz Nafría, J.M. The Need for an Informational Systems Approach to Security. TripleC 2011, 9(1), 93-122
4. Flood, R. L.; Carson, E. R. Dealing with Complexity. NY, USA: Plenum Press, 1993; pp. 77-96.
5. Narvarte Arregui, P.A. The Cooperative Experience of Mondragon: a Study of the Organisational Viability in the Context of the Basque Country. CIRIEC-España, Revista de Economía Pública, Social y Cooperativa 2006, 54, 231-255.
6. Ortiz Osorio, H.M.; Díaz Nafría, J.M. Cybersyn project as a paradigm for managing and learning in complexity. Systema 2015, (accepted, in press)

Introduction

This paper deals with the Arabic translation taṣawwur in Averroes' Great Commentary of the term τῶν ἀδιαιρέτων νόησις (thinking of the indivisibles) in Aristotle's De anima and the Latin translation from Arabic with (in-)formatio as quoted by Albertus Magnus. I briefly report on the development of the ontological (informatio materiae) and epistemological meanings of informatio in the Middle Ages as well as on the loss of the ontological meaning in Modernity. Eventually, I interpret informatio in the context of Heidegger's "hermeneutical as". In the conclusion I suggest a future research dealing with Heidegger and Mullā Sadrā and point to Barbara Cassin's concept of the "untranslatables" as a possible path of thinking concerning "Capurro's trilemma".

Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Persian Roots of the Concept of Information

For a detailed analysis of what follows see (Capurro 2014).

Taṣawwur and  taṣdīq in Averroes‘ Great Commentary of Aristotle‘s De anima, were translated into Latin by Michael Scot with (in)formatio and fides. The first concept addresses the representation of "indivisible things" (the "ideas") while the second concept means the predicative judgement (logos apophantikos) about things using the composition of names or signs where there is right and wrong.

Informatio or just formatio or "conception" (Alain de Libera),  as apposed to fides or "assentiment" (Alain de Libera) means the "thinking of the indivisible" or of the "simple objects of thought", the Greek term being: τῶν ἀδιαιρέτων νόησις. There is no single Greek term in Aristotle's De Anima corresponding to the Latin translation  by Michael Scot of the Arabic term(s) used by Averroes in his Great Commentary quoted by Albertus Magnus.

Albertus Magnus (1193-1206) makes a short comment on the concept of informatio "apud Arabes" in the context of Aristotle's De anima and indirectly to Averroes, called „the Commentator“:

"Indivisibilium quidem igitur, quae sunt incomplexa intelligentia sive intelligere, quod est actus intelligendi, in omnibus his est circa quae non est falsum, eo quod, sicut INFERIUS ostendemus, numquam accidit error intelligibilium in talium intellectu. Hic autem intellectus vocatur apud Arabes informatio, eo quod intelligere talia est informari intellectum possibilem naturis formalibus eorum."

Aristotle's νόησις or, more precisely, νόησις τῶν ἀδιαιρέτων, thinking the indivisibles, that was translated from Greek into Arabic with taṣawwur, from Arabic into Hebrew with ẓiyyur, and from Arabic into Latin with (in-)formatio is an example of a complex history of translations of a Latin concept that has become paradigmatic for our age.

Throughout the Middle Ages informatio and informo are commonly used in epistemological, ontological, and pedagogical contexts by several authors (see Capurro 1978 and Capurro 2009 for details). The Aristotelian influence on the higher-level philosophical concept of informatio is shown at best in the work of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). Schütz (1958) distinguishes in his Thomas-Lexikon between informatio in the sense of "providing something with a form" in an epistemological or ontological context and the pedagogical sense of education or instruction.

Probably the most intriguing question from the point of view of the history of ideas concerns the ontological use of informatio — both in the lower-level sense of "molding matter" as well as in the higher-level sense used by Scholastics as informatio materiae — which became obsolete not only in modern languages that, like English, inherited the Latin word and slightly transformed it into information, retaining the epistemological meaning (Capurro and Hjørland 2003).

Information in Modernity

In the following I summarize some findings from (Capurro and Hjørland 2003, Capurro 2009 and Capurro 1978).

The modern uses of information show a transition period in which the medieval ontological concept of "molding matter" is not just abandoned but reshaped under empirical and epistemological premises.

The action of 'informing' with some active or essential quality" had, according to the Oxford English Dictionary "a quite restrictive use" not only in English, but also in other modern European languages, and references on "formation or molding of the mind or character, training, instruction, teaching" date from the 14th century.

This transition from Middle Ages to Modernity in the use of the concept of information — from "giving a (substantial) form to matter" to "communicating something to someone" — can be detected in the natural philosophy of René Descartes (1596-1650), who calls ideas the "forms of thought," not in the sense that these are "pictured" ("depictae") in some part of the brain, but "as far as they inform the spirit itself oriented to this part of the brain" ("sed tantum quatenus mentem ipsam in allem cerebri partem conversam informant." (Descartes 1996, VII, 161). but also, for instance, in German where the word Information was actually used in the sense of education and communication since the 15th century.Informatio was literally translated — first in a mystical context as in-Bildunge or in-Formunge; later on in a general pedagogical sense, such as used by Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813) — with Bildung, a term heavily charged with higher-level meaning (Capurro 1978, p. 176).

A plausible explanation for the loss of the ontological higher-level sense is the decline of  Scholastic philosophy caused by the rise of modern science.

Nevertheless, the concept of information ceases to be a higher-level concept until the rise of information theory in the 20th century. Philosophers such as Francis Bacon (1561-1626), John Locke (1632-1704), George Berkeley (1685-1753), David Hume (1711-1776), and Thomas Reid (1711-1796) criticize scholastic hylomorphism and particularly the theory of abstraction.

It is interesting to observe how the concept of information is closely connected to views of knowledge. This conclusion is important with regard to the use of the concept of information in information science, because it indicates a severly neglected connection between theories of information and theories of knowledge (Capurro and Hjørland 2003).

Information as Hermeneutic As

The Aristotelian „thinking (of) the indivisible“(„νόησις τῶν ἀδιαιρέτων) (taṣawwur, (in-)formatio) that precedes the action of the intellect dealing with the composition in predication  (taṣdīq, fides), can be translated into Heidegger's difference between the "hermeneutical as" and the „apophantic as“. The philosopher and theologian Thomas Sheehan writes in his "Hermeneia and Apophansis: The early Heidegger on Aristotle": 

"The noun hermeneia (or the verb hermeneuo) in Aristotle has a generic meaning and two specifications. Generically it means expression, manifestation, or communication (semainein). In increasingly determinate specification it can then mean: verbal semainein, called lexis or dialectos; and declarative verbal semainein, called apophansis or logos apophantikos.

That is: hermeneia-1 hermeneia-2 hermeneia-3 [semainein]: [legein]: [apophainesthai]:

self-expression or communication in any form;

self-expression or communication in discourse;

self-expression or communication in declarative sentences.

To synthesize is to distinguish, and the assertoric synthesis-distinction (the "apophantic as" operative in hermeneia-3) rests on the prepredicative synthesis-distinction of entities and their practical essence; and for Heidegger that composition and division is performed on the basis of the original (i.e. the hermeneutical) as. This unified as-structure, rooted in praxis, that Heidegger retrieved from Aristotle's discussion of hermeneia led to the issues of transcendence and ultimately temporality. Heidegger interpreted human beings, insofar as they already know the beingness-dimension of entities, as transcendence, i.e., as being already beyond entities and disclosive of the possibilities in terms of which entities can be understood. This kinetic exceeding of entities he called the human being's Immer-schon-vorweg-sein, his condition of being "always already ahead" of entities. 

This movement is the co-performance of disclosure in humanely primordial sense, and it corresponds to the diairesis-moment of the hermeneutical as. In the oral version of his course Die Grundbegriffe der Metaphysik (February 27, 1930) Heidegger said that diairesis, seen as human transcendence, "pulls us as under, as it [p. 80] were, and grants us a stretching-ahead, takes us away into the possible... ." But at the same time the human being returns from that transcendence to entities so as to know them in terms of possibility, i.e., "so as to allow the possible - as what empowers the actual - to speak back to the actual in a binding way... , binding or bonding it: synthesis. Clearly the unity of diairesis as transcendence to the essence of beings and synthesis as the return to beings in their essence points to the kinetic structure that grounds the hermeneutical as, just as the hermeneutical as in turn makes possible the truth and falsehood of Aristotle's hermeneia-3." (Sheehan 2008)

In other words, the „thinking (of) the indivisible„ that was translated into arabic as taṣawwur and into Latin as „(in-formatio)“ meaning that what precedes the action of the intellect dealing with the composition and division that takes place in predication (taṣdīq, fides), can be translated into Heidegger's difference between "hermeneutical as" and  "apophantic as“.

Conclusions

The insight into human existence as time is metaphysically and theologically preceded by understanding humans as already being and becoming part, after death, of a divine being with or without their individuality, an issue that was and is controversial and fundamental for Greek, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian thinkers of the Middle Ages no less than in the Islamic and Western tradition after Averroes all the way up until today.

A comparison between Mullā Sadrā (1572-1640) and Martin Heidegger seems to me an interesting topic for future research not only concerning the relation between essence and existence but also with regard to the relation between understanding and pre-understanding and tasawwur and tasdiq.

I quote from Wikipedia (Mullā Sadrā)

"Mullā Sadrā [...] was the most prominent Iranian Shia Islamic philosopher, theologian and ‘Ālim who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the 17th century. According to Oliver Leaman, Mulla Sadra is arguably the single most important and influential philosopher in the Muslim world in the last four hundred years.
[...] Mullā Sadrā metaphysics gave priority "Ab initio" to existence, over quiddity. That is to say, essences are determined and variable according to existential "intensity", (to use Henry Corbin's definition), and as such essences are not immutable. The advantage to this schema is that it is acceptable to the fundamental statements of the Qur'an, even as it does not necessarily debilitate any previous Islamic philosopher's Aristotelian or Platonic foundations.“

What is information? It is one of the „untranslatables“ addressed by Barbara Cassin in her „Vocabulaire européen des Philosophies. Dictionnaire des intraduisibles“ (Paris 2004) when she writes:

„Parler d‘intraduisibles n‘implique nullement que les termes en question, ou les expressions, les tours syntaxiques et grammaticaux, ne soient pas traduits et ne puissent pas l‘être – l’intraduisible, c’est plutôt ce qu’on ne cesse pas de (ne pas) traduire. Mais cela signale que leur traduction, dans une langue ou dans l’autre, fait problème, au point de susciter parfois un néologisme ou l’imposition d’un nouveau sens sur un vieux mot: c’est un indice de la manière don’t, d’une langue à l’autre, tant les mots que les réseaux conceptuels ne sont pas superposables […]” (p. xvii-xviii)

This might be a path of thought (and action) for dealing with „Capurro‘s trilemma“ as addressed by Peter Fleissner and Wolfgang Hofkirchner.

The concept of information may have:

• The same reference in all contexts, such that qualitative changes are not grasped.
• Similar aspects between the references. In this case there a question arises about the primary or basic reference to which analogical concepts refer. 
• Finally, qualitatively distinct references may exist. In this case  the concepts of information are equivocal. (Fleissner and Hofkirchner 1995)

This research is not just historically relevant but also a key issue for an intercultural philosophical dialogue about the information society.

Acknowledgments

I thank Joseph Brenner for critical comments.

References and Note

The following presentation is based on my „Apud Arabes. Notes on the Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Persian Roots of the Concept of Information“ (Capurro 2014), that goes back to my PhD thesis "Information" (Capurro 1978), as well as on Rafael Capurro and Birger Hjørland: The Concept of Information (Capurro and Hjørland 2003) and Rafael Capurro: Past, present and future of the concept of information (Capurro 2009). References not listed can be found in these sources.

1. Capurro, R. Apud Arabes. Notes on the Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Persian Roots of the Concept of Information. 2014 http://www.capurro.de/iran.html
2. Capurro, R. Information. Munich: Saur 1978. http://www.capurro.de/info.html
3. Capurro, R. Past, present and future of the concept of information. tripleC2009, 7, 125-141. http://www.capurro.de/infoconcept.pdf
4. Capurro, R.; Hjørland, B. The Concept of Information. In Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST), B. Cronin Ed.; Information Today: Medford, New Jersey, 2003, pp. 343-411. http://www.capurro.de/infoconcept.html
5. Cassin, B. Vocabulaire européen des Philosophies. Dictionnaire des intraduisibles. Paris: Seuil, 2004.
6. Fleissner, P.; Hofkirchner, W. In-formatio revisited. Wider dem dinglichen Informationsbegriff. Informatik Forum 1995, 8, 126-131.
7. Sheehan, Th. Hermeneia and Apophansis: The early Heidegger on Aristotle. In  Heidegger et l'idée de la phénoménologie, Franco Volpi et al Eds.;., Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1988; pp. 67-80. https://ucursosadi.ing.uchile.cl/filosofia/2011/2/386100820/1/material_docente/previsualizar?id_material=474722
8. Wikipedia: Mula Sadra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulla_Sadra