--- title: 'AoIR 4.2.2' date: '2003-10-17T07:37:25-04:00' permalink: /aoir-422/ tags: - conferences --- MY BRAIN JUST EXPLODED The following are the notes I took in Pierre Lévy’s keynote address, “The Collective Intelligence Ontology.” There is little to no commentary here, other than the suggestion that there’s something off-puttingly and simultaneously comprehensive and reductive about the model as briefly sketched out. Here’s hoping someone else (Liz? Jason?) posts a more analytical response to it — most of this is transcriptions/descriptions of slides, and a record of me gazing open-mouthed at them: - Cyberspace and the Future of Culture - In the knowledge society, cyberspace is becoming more and more: a memory repository, a communication medium, an enabler for transactions, a support for Collective Intelligence - In the future, an increasing part of cultural functions \[in the broadest sense, the anthropological sense\] will use cyberspace or will be represented in cyberspace - Techno-economic and Cultural Trends - In the coming decades, bandwidth, storage capacity, computational power and general interconnection will increase at lower costs - In any case, these basic technologic and economic trends will: transform our cultures (in which way?) \[as human cultures were transformed by writing, by the printing press, etc.; transformation not simply in technology but in values\]; aim at a global civilization (but which one?) - The Road to Collective Intelligence - Our challenge: the expansion of cyberspace’s cultural meaning - How can we face this challenge in a responsible way? - By inventing collectively a civilization oriented towards: intercultural dialogue; augmentation of our personal and collective cognitive functions (leading to human development) - By increasing the amount of communities that will practice, study, and improve a tradition of Collective Intelligence - The Collective Intelligence Ontology (CIO) is a scientific model to help us in this matter - Ontologies - A local ontology is a network of concepts mapping a semantic zone - A universal ontology is a network of concepts mapping, or translating, local ontologies - Universal ontologies are useful to deal collectively with common issues - The Collective Intelligence Ontology is a universal ontology, structured like an open, hypertextual, fractal, peer to peer (P2P) network of concepts \[CIO as wiki?\] - Human Development - One of the most important common issues is human development - Some well-known measurable criteria of human development are (in alphabetical order): cultural heritages (transmission of); democracy; health and well-being of a population; human rights; economic prosperity; education; innovation; peace and security; scientific research (fecundity and social benefits of) - Semantic Web and Human Development - Reminder: in the semantic web, the data will be addressed by their meaning and usage - The CIO is the conceptual architecture of an observatory of human development in the semantic web - Except for personal information, digital data can be coded and processed to represent, synthetically and analytically, ecosystemic dynamics of human cultures - The understanding provided by a CI-oriented semantic web will help the development of human communities - Universal Semantic Functions - Many centuries of research on meaning teach us that meaning emerges from the association of three semantic functions - The function *thing*: it produces the referent of the sign, what the sign designates (the res of the scholastics, C.S. Peirce’s object) - The function *sign*: it produces the signifier, a significant phenomenal image (the vox of the scholastics, the foundation of the sign for C.S. Peirce) - The function *being*: it joins a sign and a thing in a cognitive act (the signified of the linguistics, the conceptus of the scholastics, the interpreter of C.S. Peirce) - \[using such “semantic primitives” as the basis for a universal language, for mapping a semantic space; using the link as an operator\] - The Universal Link - Recursive definition: a link is a semantic function connecting one link (the sender) to another link (the receiver) through a channel - 9 Anthropologic Archetypes of the CIO - \[series of ideograms\] being –> thing = world; sign –> thing = time; thing –> thing = space; being –> sign = society; sign –> sign = thought; thing –> sign = truth; being –> being = feeling; sign –> being = message; thing –> being = body - Iconic Version of the 9 Anthropological Archetypes - 9 of the 81 combinations of the Anthropological Archetypes - 9 Semiotic Operations Archetypes of the CIO - to make the world with signs, we name; to make time with signs, we mark; etc. - 9 Technical Functions Archetypes - to make the world with things, we need tools; to make time with things, we need containers; etc. - 9 Social Roles Archetypes - to make the world with being, we need judges; to make time with being we need scribes; to make space with being, we need guards; etc. combinations of the above - Skills Archetypes of the CIO - complex chart: rhetoric/dialectics/grammar; cultivation of semiotic realities/cultivation of human realities/cultivation of technical realities - combinations of the above - General structure of the CIO - Real = signs (document networks), beings (people networks), things (physical networks); Virtual = knowledge (representations networks), will (intentions networks), power (skills networks) \[all interconnected and interacting\] - But also a Collective Intelligence Epistemology - Formal Intelligence (semiotic operations; representations); Emotional Intelligence (social roles; intentions); Practical Intelligence (technical functions; know how) - And a Collective Intelligence Pragmatics - messages (semiotic operations), people (social roles), equipments (technical functions); research traditions (representations), institutions (intentions), professions (know-how) - Collective Intelligence Semantic Web Flowchart - CIO 36 Classes of Links, first as matrix, and then mapped onto semantic web flowchart - General Principles Leading to a Strong CI - The strength of the six matrixes depends on the structure and activities of their networks: connectivity, activation frequency of the links, stability and other factors - Because of their interdependence, the strength of the six matrixes should be dynamically balanced - Conclusion: Toward a Collective Intelligence Consciousness - Collective Intelligence Consciousness: The semantic web of tomorrow will mirror mankind’s Collective Intelligence - Questions: What about disparities of access to the network? What about ambiguity?