AoIR 4.2.2

• 17 October 2003
• 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?

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