Older Material (Some projects integrated and changed.)
My research in philosophy to date has included interdisciplinary commitments across the philosophy of information, scientific metaphysics, scientific realism, and, more recently, topics related to the extended mind, social mindreading, and cognition on the Internet and the World Wide Web. These topics are related to the philosophy of information and the philosophy of science, and to cognitive science and the naturalization of representation, as well as semantic information theories.
I have three broad research programs under consideration and development. The first two are more orientated towards the philosophy of science and information, while the third is more broadly about the ethics of information transmission and the infosphere:
1. The development of information-theoretic scientific metaphysics
This research project is an extension of my PhD thesis and I have several papers (a, b, e, and f below) currently under review and in preparation.
Research Objective/Problem
The objective is to investigate and try to break the current stalemate between structuralist-realist and epistemic-constructivist-instrumentalist anti-realisms about science and scientific epistemic power by deferring to the principles of information transmission and dynamics. I am currently investigating the possibility of deploying a logic/calculus of information dynamics which captures information dynamics, coupled with a causal interpretation of semantic information, in order to explore and challenge problems concerning the limits of what various kinds of scientific realists can be realist about.
Rationale/Motivation
- The general importance of, and the longstanding/long-running debate about, what scientists and philosophers should claim that scientists and everyone else can be realist about.
- Advances in computing, computer architectures (especially quantum computing) an AI, especially with respect to the power of simulations, and their application to advanced problem solving in such disciplines as black hole physics, quantum physics, protein folding (including quantum effects), quantum biology, and cosmology: all mean that it is becoming increasingly important to determine a coherent ontological conception or view of the nature of information and its place in a scientific metaphysics.
- Conceptual and semantic confusion about structure and information in nature may slow scientific research or introduce needless obfuscation.
- Larger metaphysical questions about whether and how the universe and world might ultimately reduce to or be ontologically existentially dependent upon mathematics, information, and/or informational structure in some way. This will no longer be a metaphysical curiosity, and is already becoming a central question for disciplines such as black hole physics.
2. Information Transmission, The Extended Mind, The Small Network Model, and Social Mindreading on the Internet/Web
This research project introduces significant overlap with the philosophy of computer science and the philosophy of cognitive science. Its focus is information transmission from brain-mind to brain-mind via information transmission sustained by digital and other technologies, with a view to understanding the dynamics of such outcomes as social mindreading, group-think, and extended cognition among users of social media and other network implementations incorporating the Internet and World Wide Web. This includes investigating the increasing the impact on the abovementioned factors of the prevalence of online AI implementations such as chatbots.
3. Information transmission in the infosphere and The Ethics of information transmission in the infosphere
This proposed research project has the greatest proportion of liberal arts and continental philosophical disquisitions and discourses. It’s a hybrid of analytical normative ethical theory and metaethics, continental philosophical criticism and critical theory, and the philosophy of information.
Proposed Schedule (Outline)
I propose a schedule of four six month semester periods, with a view to possible adjustments, and more specific scheduling when an opportunity arises.In the case of proposal 1, I have already done an enormous amount of preparatory work and have several papers in review and published that are focussed upon this area. It could be adapted to be interdisciplinary with elements of proposals 2 or 3. It would require very little lead time to set up and is highly amenable to an XPhi element involving gauging the intuitions of working scientists. If an XPhi component were included, this could be the second or third period. The same for an interdisciplinary commitment.
Proposals 2 and 3 might require about 3 months of initial exploration and preparation of an additional paper for submission to a leading journal. They are also amenable to XPhi orientated research elements, and also to interdisciplinarity with psychology, ethics, and computer science.
Because all three proposals are interdisciplinary by nature, it might well be worthwhile including a 4 to 6 month exploration phase in order to deliver interdisciplinary output and insights for applications in academia, or else for applications outside in government and/or technology industries, or in domains where ethical concerns about information transmission and storage, and about strong AI and big data, are of importance. This could occur in the first or second semester.
PUBLISHED WORK
Long, Bruce. 2018. “ISR Is Still a Digital Ontology.” Erkenntnis 41 (July). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-018-0041-5.My MPhil in English incorporates continental philosophy and modern-postmodern literary theory https://goo.gl/2KAejP
Long, Bruce R. 2010. “Complex Science for a Complex World.” Metascience 19 (3):441–444. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-010-9427-y. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11016-010-9427-y
Papers in review:
a) “Formalism Driven Ontic Descent in ISR” (Metaphysics of Information/Structural Realism)
b) “Social Signaling and Mindreading Onlife” (Joint Paper with Dr Simon D’Alfonso - preparation)
c) “A Logic of Information Dynamics” (Logic and The Philosophy of Information)
d) “A Proposed Informational Measure for Ockham’s Razor” (Philosophy of Information/Science)
e) “Information Theoretic Support for Hacking’s Corroboration Argument” (Philosophy of Information/Science)
f) “Informationist Philosophy of Mathematics” (Philosophy of Information/Mathematics)
g) “A Calculus for a Unified Conception of Information for Molecular Bioscience”
a) “Formalism Driven Ontic Descent in ISR” (Metaphysics of Information/Structural Realism)
b) “Social Signaling and Mindreading Onlife” (Joint Paper with Dr Simon D’Alfonso - preparation)
c) “A Logic of Information Dynamics” (Logic and The Philosophy of Information)
d) “A Proposed Informational Measure for Ockham’s Razor” (Philosophy of Information/Science)
e) “Information Theoretic Support for Hacking’s Corroboration Argument” (Philosophy of Information/Science)
f) “Informationist Philosophy of Mathematics” (Philosophy of Information/Mathematics)
g) “A Calculus for a Unified Conception of Information for Molecular Bioscience”