2014/02/05 by Hector Zenil, Héctor Zenil, Zenil, Hector
Arts and Humanities · Computer Science · Mathematics · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Benford’s Law and Fraud Detection #Cognitive Science and Education Research #Computability, Logic, AI Algorithms #Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics #FOS: Computer and information sciences #General Literature (cs.GL) #Philosophy and Theoretical Science #cs.GL
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1402.1099
A version of the essay published in the Q, the AISB Quarterly bulletin of the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour
arxiv created 2014/02/05 · openalex publication_date 2014/02/05 · arxiv updated 2014/02/06 · openalex created_date 2022/09/05 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In a recent article, Luciano Floridi explains his view of Turing's legacy in connection to the philosophy of information. I will very briefly survey one of Turing's other contributions to the philosophy of information and computation, including similarities to Shannon's own methodological approach to information through communication, showing how crucial they are and have been as methodological strategies to understanding key aspects of these concepts. While Floridi's concept of Levels of Abstraction is related to the novel methodology of Turing's imitation game for tackling the question of machine intelligence, Turing's other main contribution to the philosophy of information runs contrary to it. Indeed, the seminal concept of computation universality strongly suggests the deletion of fundamental differences among seemingly different levels of description. How might we reconcile these apparently contradictory contributions? I will argue that Turing's contribution should prompt us to plot some directions for a philosophy of information and computation, one that closely parallels the most important developments in computer science, one that understands the profound implications of the works of Turing, Shannon and others.