Is Information a Sufficient Basis for Cognition?  Part 2: Physical Foundations

José María Díaz Nafría; Mario Pérez-Montoro

doi:10.31269/triplec.v9i2.286

José María Díaz Nafría Science of Information Institute, Washington, U.S.A; Universidad de León, Spain
Mario Pérez-Montoro Department of Information Science, University of Barcelona, Spain

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v9i2.286

Keywords: Physics of observation, Waves, Inverse problem, Theory of perception, Biophysics, Epistemology, Cognition

Abstract

In this second part of our inquiry into the relation between information and cognition, we delve into the physical limits of the manifestation of an arbitrary object first with independence of any observer, then considering the nature of perception. The analysis of the manifestations of an object in a homogeneous environment by means of wave phenomena shows that the information carried by such manifestations offers a constitutive fuzziness and ambiguity of the observed object. On the one hand, the details that can be specified concerning the object are strictly limited by the wave length; on the other hand, the volumetric details of the object (i.e. its bowls) are outlawed to the observer, not in virtue of the object opacity, but to the very dimension or complexity of the wave phenomenon in the space surrounding the object. The analysis of perception, considering this physical boundary and the specificity of the animal sensitivity, shows the combined role of other concurrent or previous percept and some a priori knowledge in the perception and awareness of reality.

Author Biographies

José María Díaz Nafría, Science of Information Institute, Washington, U.S.A; Universidad de León, Spain

José María Díaz Nafría obtained M.Sc. in Telecommunication Engineering from the Universidad del País Vasco, Spain, and received his PhD in Telecommunication Engineering from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain, with a dissertation on "Contributions to the electromagnetic inverse problem". He was also awarded with a M.A. in Philosophy by the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED). He is currently visiting professor at the Munich University of Applied Sciences, investigator at the University of León and part of the board of directors of the Science of Information Institute, where he is also scientific advisor. He is member as well of several international scientific societies in the field of information theories. He was research fellow at the Vienna University of Technology and at the Technical University of Madrid. He also served as professor at the University Alfonso X el Sabio in Madrid between 1997 and 2009. He has been visiting lecturer at the Uni-versity of Furtwangen, Sankt Pölten University of Applied Sciences. Co-director of the “First International Meeting of Experts in Information Theories” (León, Spain, 2008) and the “Colloquium BITae” (León, Spain, 2009) currently coordinates an interdisciplinary research group meted around the BITrum project (Elucidation of the information concept) and co-edits with F. Salto and M. Pérez-Montoro the Glossarium BITri: glossary of concepts, metaphors, theories and problems concerning information (Universidad de León, 2010, http://glossarium.bitrum.unileon.es), where he authors several articles.

Mario Pérez-Montoro, Department of Information Science, University of Barcelona, Spain

Mario Pérez-Montoro Gutierrez, Doctor in Philosophy and Education Sciences by the University of Barcelona, where he has been researcher at the Depar-tamento de Lógica, Historia y Filosofía de la Ciencia. He studied in the Istituto di Discipline della Comunicazione in the Università di Bologna and was Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI) at Stanford University. He has been docent and researcher in several universities: Complutense de Madrid, Autònoma de Barcelona, Oberta de Catalunya and he is currently at the Department of Information Science at the University of Barcelona. One of his most known works is the book: The Phenomenon of Information (Scarecrow Press, 2007, published in Spanish by Trotta). He co-edits with J.M. Díaz and F. Salto the Glossarium BITri: glossary of concepts, metaphors, theories and problems concerning information (Universidad de León, 2010, http://glossarium.bitrum.unileon.es), where he authors several articles.