*Intelligence and Information*
*Yi-Xin-Zhong*
/Beijing// University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing100876, China/
yxzh...@ieee.org
*
****1. The Study of Intelligence Science
*
Intelligence has been very well regarded as the most valuable wealth for
mankind, compared with other attributions like constitution and
strength, and the study of intelligence science should therefore be the
greatest issue in modern science and most urgent demand from human
society, particularly for the 21^st century.
The study of intelligence is consisted of two branches, i.e., natural
intelligence study and artificial intelligence study. The aim for the
former is to explore the secrets of intelligence, human thinking in
particular. Neurological science and cognitive science are typical
disciplines in this field. The aim for the latter is to create
intelligent machines based on the understanding of the secrets of
intelligence. The two branches are closely related to, and mutually
interacted to, each other.
The crucial problem that is still widely open to the study of
intelligence is the great mystery on how it is produced by brains. The
major problem that the study of artificial intelligence confronts is how
to effectively reproduce intelligence on computing machineries.
During the past decades, the studies of both branches have made good
progresses but at the same time faced difficulties and challenges too.
For the information about the progress made in neurology and cognitive
science, please see the reference [1] and for the detailed progress in
artificial intelligence, please refer to the references [2-3].
*2. The Problems of Artificial Intelligence*
One of the major problems and challenges that the study of artificial
intelligence confronts is that there have been three schools carrying on
the same study with different approaches, namely the structuralism
approach (neural network systems), the functionalism approach (expert
systems), and the behaviorism approach (sensor-motor systems), and they
never cooperate with each other. There has been no unified theory in the
field so far. Moreover, none of the three schools have paid necessary
attentions to such issues as consciousness, emotion and cognition that
are extremely fundamental to the study of intelligence. In the meantime,
there is little cooperation with the study of natural intelligence.
Another big problem existing in the fields of intelligence study, also
in other scientific fields of course, is the methodological issue.
Researchers have been used to the traditional methodology called "divide
and conquer". They divided the study of intelligence into different
respects (the structural respect, the functional respect, and the
behavioral respect), and carried on the research within the limits of
each respect of intelligence. As a result, each one of them cannot
individually get the global picture of the intelligence study and cannot
accept the progress made from other respects. This is the basic cause of
why they failed to have a unified theory of intelligence among the three
schools [3].
It is worth of mentioning that the methodology of "divide and conquer"
has made great contributions to the modern science but it is not quite
sufficient for the study of intelligence science and information
science. Because of the limitation of the space for this text, we will
not discuss this issue in detail here (but we can do it later, during
the general discussion).
*
3. The Study of Information Science
*
It has been realized that intelligence in general should come from
knowledge and it is generally impossible to have intelligence without
any knowledge. On the other hand, it has also been proved that knowledge
in general should come from information and it is also impossible to
have knowledge without any information. Hence, the study of information
science would be most meaningful and most urgent, as meaningful and
urgent as that of intelligence science.
One of the crucial achievements in this field is the Information Theory,
or "Mathematical Theory of Communication", established by C. E. Shannon
in 1948 [4]. But it is only a special case of Information Science and
can only be applied in the cases where the statistical axioms are valid,
like the ones in communication engineering where only the signal
waveform is needed to be considered and the content and value factors of
information are ignored.
In response to the needs of intelligence science study, the concept of
information should be concerned not only with the "form" factor but also
with the "content" and "value" factors, which we named Comprehensive
Information. In other words, comprehensive information is a trinity of
form, content, and value factors of information. A brief outline on the
necessary interrelationship between Information Science and Advanced
Artificial Intelligence can be seen in the references [5] and [6].
In addition, there are many issues related to the study of information
science that are still open.
*4. Problems To Be Discussed
*
For effectively pushing forward the study of both intelligence and
information science, the followings points are suggested to be discussed
in depth:
. What is the correct concept of intelligence?
. What is the correct concept of information?
. What is the precise relation between intelligence and information?
. How do you evaluate the current state of the art in the study of
intelligence science?
. How do you evaluate the current state of the art in the study of
information science?
. Do you agree with the statement that intelligence comes from
knowledge and the latter from information?
. What, do you think, is the feasible mechanism of intelligence growth?
. Do you think it possible to have information being conversed to
knowledge and even to intelligence?
*Coda*
It may be necessary to mention once again that the relative completeness
of the scope and the systematic structure of the study in Information
Science will be of importance. The reason for this consideration is that
many deep laws and principles of Information Science may not be
discovered if the study has only parts of its scope. It is therefore
suggested that the entire process of the
Information-Knowledge-Intelligence conversion be regarded as the
baseline of Information Science study, containing the theoretical study,
general study, as well as applied study as its major branches.
*
References
*[1] Y. J. LUO, Textbook on Cognitive Neurology, Peking University
Press, Beijing, 2006.
[2] S. J. Russell et al, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach,
Pearson Education Limited Asia, 2003.
[3] The Proceedings of International Conference on Artificial
Intelligence, Beijing, August 1-3, 2006.
[4] C. E. Shannon, Mathematical Theory of Communication, MIP Press. 1949.
[5] Y. X. ZHONG, Principles of Information Science. BUPT Press, Beijing,
2002.
[6] Y. X. ZHONG, Principles of COGNETICS in Machine, Science Press, 2007.
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