12,080
edits
Changes
Directory:Jon Awbrey/Papers/Inquiry Driven Systems : Part 6 (view source)
Revision as of 15:15, 17 August 2011
, 15:15, 17 August 2011→6.39. Prospective Indices : Pointers to Future Work: + raw text
===6.39. Prospective Indices : Pointers to Future Work===
===6.39. Prospective Indices : Pointers to Future Work===
<pre>
In the effort to unify dynamical, connectionist, and symbolic approaches to intelligent systems, indices supply important stepping stones between the sorts of signs that remain bound to circumscribed theaters of action and the kinds of signs that can function globally as generic symbols. Current technology presents an array of largely accidental discoveries that have been brought into being for implementing indexical systems. Bringing systematic study to bear on this variety of accessory devices and trying to discern within the wealth of incidental features their essential principles and effective ingredients could help to improve the traction this form of bridge affords.
In the points where this project addresses work on the indexical front, a primary task is to show how the "actual connections" promised by the definition of indexical signs can be translated into system theoretic terms and implemented by means of the class of "dynamic connections" that can persist in realistic systems.
An offshoot of this investigation would be to explore how indices like pointer variables could be realized within "connectionist" systems. There is no reason in principle why this cannot be done, but I think that pragmatic reasons and practical success will force the contemplation of higher orders of connectivity than those currently fashioned in two dimensional arrays of connections. To be specific, further advances will require the generative power of genuinely triadic relations to be exploited to the fullest possible degree.
To avert one potential misunderstanding of what this entails, computing with triadic relations is not really a live option unless the algebraic tools and logical calculi needed to do so are developed to greater levels of facility than they are at present. Merely officiating over the storage of "dead letters" in higher dimensional arrays will not do the trick. Turning static sign relations into the orders of dynamic sign processes that can support live inquiries will demand new means of representation and new methods of computation.
To fulfill their intended roles, a formal calculus for sign relations and the associated implementation must be able to address and restore the full dimensionalities of the existential and social matrices in which inquiry takes place. Informational constraints that define objective situations of interest need to be freed from the locally linear confines of the "dia matrix" and reposted within the realm of the "tri matrix", that is, reconstituted in a manner that allows critical reflection on their form and content.
The descriptive and conceptual architectures needed to frame this task must allow space for interlacing forms of "open work", projects that anticipate the desirability of higher order relations and build in the capabilty for higher order reflections at the very beginning, and do not merely hope against hope to arrange these capacities as afterthoughts.
</pre>
===6.40. Dynamic and Evaluative Frameworks===
===6.40. Dynamic and Evaluative Frameworks===