Sciences of Observation

Philosophies

Fields, Chris¹ 

[1] 23 rue des Lavandières, 11160 Caunes Minervois, France

关键词: awareness;    cognition;    computation;    cybernetics;    differentiation;    fitness;    holographic encoding;    memory;    perception;    quantum information;    signal transduction;    spatial representation;    thermodynamics;    unitarity;   

DOI  :  10.3390/philosophies3040029

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Multiple sciences have converged, in the past two decades, on a hitherto mostly unremarked question: what is observation? Here, I examine this evolution, focusing on three sciences: physics, especially quantum information theory, developmental biology, especially its molecular and “evo-devo” branches, and cognitive science, especially perceptual psychology and robotics. I trace the history of this question to the late 19th century, and through the conceptual revolutions of the 20th century. I show how the increasing interdisciplinary focus on the process of extracting information from an environment provides an opportunity for conceptual unification, and sketch an outline of what such a unification might look like.

【 授权许可】

CC BY