Special session on the

Semiotics of Autonomous Information Systems

`http://www.c3.lanl.gov/~joslyn/ISAS98`

for the

1998 Joint Conferences:
Intelligent Control
International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation
Intelligent Systems and Semiotics
(ISIC/CIRA/ISAS 98)

`http://isd.cme.nist.gov/proj/is98`

September 14-17, 1998
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, Maryland U.S.A.

Session Chairs:
Cliff Joslyn and Luis Rocha
Los Alamos National Laboratory

A crucial aspect of the modern Information Sciences, from robotics to self-organizing databases, is the manner and extent to which information systems can be said to be "autonomous". Of course, there are many different sense of autonomy, from mere physical separation to the establishment of complex functional relations sufficient to allow the identification of the systems as "independent actors". But in any event, some sense of closure of the system's activities, or identification of closed loops of information processing, is required. These closures can also take many forms, including physical boundaries, dynamic self-organization like autocatalytic chemical cycles, and informational "boundaries" as in elementary sensor-affector functioning loops.

For many classes of information systems, closures are of a semiotic nature, where there is now a closure of meaning through interaction with the environment. Here issues arise concerning the use and interpretation of symbols ("symbol grounding"), representations, and/or internal models (whether explicit or implicit) by the system; and the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic relations among the sign tokens, their interpretations, and their use or function for the systems in question. This is the case, for example, with biological systems, whose autonomy is enabled by their own genetic information as used in the context of their environments; and with control systems, where autonomy is enabled by the information in their engineered construction and use by human operators.

The aim of this session is to collect scientific, conceptual, and engineering advances about the important open questions concerning the relations, if any, between autonomy and semiotics in information systems. ISAS 98 overall is the premier conference for technical or applied semiotic research in information systems.

Examples of potential domains of focus include in:

Robotics and Control Systems: where physical autonomy is more or less assumed, but where issues of semantic grounding are paramount; what is the required degree of semiotic grounding in these systems? how is it related to issues of distributed vs. localized control, and individual vs. social or collective organizations?
Intelligent Systems: is the property of autonomy granted to the system by the designer? or it can somehow emerge no matter what the designed had on his (her) mind?
Agent-Based Technology: where functional forms of autonomy are intended, but again crucial semiotic questions remain, for example if agents built with more self-organizing, bottom-up, architectures (e.g. situated robots) represent their environments?
Artificial Life: which has struggled to develop meaningful senses of autonomy in relation to semiotic categories; and finally in
Web-Based Information Systems and Virtual Environments: where we hope to imbue our information systems with significant forms of autonomy and emergent semantics.

In each of these cases, there are significant open questions concerning the sense of autonomy which is meant, or might be achievable; and whether there may or must be consideration of the semiotic properties of these systems, including the nature of symbol generation, manipulation, and interpretation.

Topics of Interest:

Systems which address issues in semiotics and autonomy:

Agent-Based Systems
Situated Robotics and Embodiment
Distributed Intelligence Systems
Artificial Life, Adaptive and Evolutionary Systems
Web-Based (Internet) Systems and Data-Mining
Autonomous Control Systems
Theoretical issues (the nature and degrees of autonomy; autonomy versus planning; learning, adaptation, and autonomy; embodiment and autopoiesis)

Speakers:

Foundational Issues
Session 1, Tuesday, September 15, 2:45 - 5:00 PM

Cliff Joslyn: Los Alamos National Laboratory (Systems Science, session chair): "Models, Controls, and Levels of Autonomy"
Chris Landaeur and Kirstie Bellman: Aerospace Integration Science Center, Aerospace Corporation: "Situation Assessment in Computational Semiotics"
Lars Lofgren: University of Lund (Information Technology): "Phenomena of Autonomy, with Explanations in Introspective Language"
George Farre: Georgetown University (Philosophy): "Information Into Intlligence: An Interaction Between Two Dynamical Processes"

Biological Systems
Session 2, Wednesday, September 15, 10:15 AM - 12:45 PM

Luis Rocha: Los Alamos National Laboratory (Systems Science, session chair): "Syntactic Autonomy"
Erich Prem: Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (Computer Science): "Semiosis in Embodied Autonomous Systems"
Peter Cariani: Eaton Peabody Laboratory of Auditory Physiology (Systems Science): "General Strategies For Realizing Greater Epistemic Autonomy In Organisms And Devices"
Stan Salthe: Natural Systems (Biology): "Semiosis as Development"
Alexei Sharov: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Entemology): "Signs and Values"

Engineered Systems
Session 3, Wednesday, September 16, 2:45 - 5:15 PM

Ben Goertzel: Intelligenisis: "Meaning Is A Web Of Fuzzy Patterns: Some Lessons Learned And Applied In The Design Of An Intelligent Knowledge Management System"
Alexander Chislenko and Madan Ramakrishnan: MIT Media Lab: "Hyper-Economy: Combining Price And Utility Communication In Multi-Agent Systems"
Rodrigo Goncalves and Ricardo Gudwin: State University Campinas (Computer Engineering): "Semiotic Intelligent Systems Engineering"
Christian Gerber: German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) (Computer Science): "Self-Adaption as an Expression for the Autonomy Degree in Multi-Agent Societies" (Abstract)

Special session on the

Semiotics of Autonomous Information Systems

http://www.c3.lanl.gov/~joslyn/ISAS98

for the

1998 Joint Conferences: Intelligent Control International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation Intelligent Systems and Semiotics (ISIC/CIRA/ISAS 98)

http://isd.cme.nist.gov/proj/is98

September 14-17, 1998 National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, Maryland U.S.A.

Session Chairs: Cliff Joslyn and Luis Rocha Los Alamos National Laboratory