IAIS
International Academy of Information Studies
International Academy of Information Studies
INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY OF INFORMATION STUDIES
OUR MISSION
"Fundamental progress has to do with the reinterpretation of basic ideas." Alfred North Whitehead in "American Essays in Social Philosophy" (Harper, 1959).
“The world of the future will be an even more demanding struggle against the limitations of our intelligence.” Norbert Wiener in "The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society" (Houghton Mifflin, 1950).
"If you want to make use of the advantages of civilization but are not prepared to concern yourself with the upholding of civilization—you are done.” José Ortega y Gasset in "Revolt of the Masses" (Norton, 1933).
The International Academy of Information Studies seeks to address a fundamental problem in our societies: knowledge fragmentation resulting from informational disarray. IAIS advocates for a new consilience among the sciences, humanities, and the arts, viewing from the perspective of the concept of information and its natural and artificial processes and flows. Advancing beyond the existing incongruities in the multidisciplinary use of the information concept is one of the primary goals of the Academy. The new developments in AI also demand a reflection in depth on its conceptual information-based foundations.
There has been no systematic attempt yet to put the concept of informational consilience into practice. It would necessitate the creation of a novel economy of thought. By tracing information flows in natural or social scenarios, new bridges should be constructed to interconnect research domains in more coherent ways. From quanta and biomolecules to sensing, sense-making, learning, and memory, from brain processes and natural intelligence to the roots of social complexity, to economic and political infospheres, and the foundations of culture—their internal interconnections should be illuminated, bridging traditional gaps and cultural divides that are often exacerbated by our individual cognitive limitations and outdated paradigms. The conceptual foundations of AI are rarely discussed, and should be included in this informational panorama too.
None of the current knowledge domains are advancing the information studies needed to alleviate the saturation of our social ecologies of knowledge. Tackling this saturation is a joint challenge for the IAIS community.
The Academy aims to attract and engage a global avant-garde of scholars and researchers from various information fields.
The Academy complements the activities of IS4SI, FIS, and other scholarly initiatives & societies—Symmetry, Complexity, Informational Philosophy, Information Theory, Biosemiotics, etc.
Together with IS4SI and FIS, the intellectual foundations for the Academy can be traced to activities of the Inbiosa network with thematic special issues as well as the transdisciplinary philosophical project of Contemporary Natural Philosophy and Philosophies (Part 1, Part 2) with its goal to foster collaboration among the natural, social, and human sciences, the humanities, and the arts.
GOALS AND ACTIVITIES
The Academy's tasks include:
Promotion of focused discussion groups on fundamental issues.
Facilitation of contacts between Fellows.
Organization of workshops, conferences, public debates,
The publication of their proceedings.
Some of the core themes of the Academy include, but are not limited to:
The Information pathway in the natural sciences.
Information-based social sciences and humanities.
The conceptual foundations of AI.
AI impacts on the fabric of social life.
Information science and new social governance.
Toward a post-crisis renaissance of the sciences and other ways of knowing.
Philosophical aspects of information-based knowledge.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ACADEMY
The IAIS Academy is established under the auspices of IS4SI (International Society for the Study of Information). It is conceived as a scholarly body dedicated to fostering a new kind of integrative thinking, a form of consilience grounded in the study of information, its structures, and its natural and artificial processes.