Seven Layers of Computation: Methodological Analysis and Mathematical Modeling

Abstract

We live in an information society where the usage, creation, distribution, manipulation, and integration of information is a significant activity. Computations allow us to process information from various sources in various forms and use the derived knowledge in improving efficiency and resilience in our interactions with each other and with our environment. The general theory of information tells us that information to knowledge is as energy is to matter. Energy has the potential to create or modify material structures and information has the potential to create or modify knowledge structures. In this paper, we analyze computations as a vital technological phenomenon of contemporary society which allows us to process and use information. This analysis allows building classifications of computations based on their characteristics and explication of new types of computations. As a result, we extend the existing typologies of computations by delineating novel forms of information representations. While the traditional approach deals only with two dimensions of computation—symbolic and sub-symbolic, here we describe additional dimensions, namely, super-symbolic computation, hybrid computation, fused computation, blended computation, and symbiotic computation.