1. Information Relativity W.J. (Chris) Zhang University of Saskatchewan, Canada East China University of Science and Technology, China

2. Outline  Information  Relativity  Information Relativity  Application  Conclusions

3. Information 5 dollars Context of Chinese American Yuan $

4. Information  Symbols are vehicles to give information (e.g., 5, dollar).  Meaning comes from the context (e.g., 5 dollars).  There are rules among symbols, which ensure the correct perception of meaning by anyone who knows the rules (e.g., 5 dollars, but not dollars 5).  Study of rules is called syntactics  Study of meaning out of rules is called semantics

5. Information  Meaning is a result of consensus among people on a syntax and symbol. For instance, “5” has a meaning of counts, 5 pieces of things. This is based on the consensus of the symbol “5”.  Two or more successive symbols or symbol groups can be combined into an aggregated context (e.g., American dollars, $).

6. Information This is the true The tree grows under the rain and sun The tree is in green due to X Red: what is this and about a fact Green: why does the thing happen, about reason or cause Blue: how does the thing happen about the process

7. Information  Categorize the fact as information but the reason and process as knowledge.  Word “information” is used for both the information and knowledge categories  Information and knowledge are exhibited through symbols.  Data represents both information and knowledge – everything that is exhibited in the form of symbols (e.g., “5” is a data, “5 dollars” is a data, etc.)

8. Relativity  In physics, special relativity and general relativity.  Special relativity: (1) based on two postulates; (2) Postulate I: observer’s motion affects his observation; (3) speed of light in vacuum is the same to all observers regardless of sources of lights.  General relativity: states of an accelerated motion and being at rest are physically identical. Free fall is an inertial motion instead of being exerted by a force – gravitation theory.

9. Generalization (wiki): 1.Measurements of various quantities are relative to the velocities of observers. In particular, space and time can dilate. velocitiesspacetimedilate 2.Space and time should be considered together and in relation to each other. 3.The speed of light is nonetheless invariant, the same for all observers. Relativity

10. Generalization of relativity to information exhibition 1.The relationship between the target information and the observer will affect the exhibition of the information. 2.This relationship changes. 3.There must be some truth or absoluter there to make an observation regardless of observers and creators. Relativity

11. Information Relativity Axiom 1: Information makes sense only in a context. Axiom 2: Context may be the information in another context, and information may be the context for another information. Axiom 3: Information is not the same as its perception and the perception of information is relative to viewers. Axiom 4: Context-insensitive information makes sense based on universal consensus (e.g., 5>4)

12. Information Relativity History Overview: J. M. Smith and D. C. P. Smith, 1977. Database Abstraction: Aggregation and Generalization. ACM Trans. on Database Systems, 2(2):105– 133. Object relativity principle leading to property and type relativity W.J. Zhang, 1994. Doctoral Dissertation at TU Delft, The Netherlands. Information Relativity principle Dave Gray, 2009. Toward a theory of information relativity. Focus on Axiom 3.

13. Application of IR principle Application 1:  Data modeling is the process of creating a model for representing the information existed in a real world. Note that the information has already been existed but needs to be exhibited to facilitate the communication between the humans and human and computer.  Data modeling thus covers both information modeling and knowledge modeling.

14. Application of IR principle Application 1:  Data modeling needs constructs  Constructs: syntactic forms and rules to build a data model Human is a kind of animal human Animal Class =:Animal: type Letter; Class =: Human: type Letter; Human IS-A Animal. B A B IS-A A

15. Application of IR principle Application 1: According to Axiom 1 and Axiom 2 Class =:Animal: type Letter; Class =: Human: type Letter; Human IS-A Animal; Human IS-Context ‘5’ Beach IS-Context Human Human Beach 5 There are 5 people in the beach BA A IS-Context B

16. Application of IR principle Application 1: According to Axiom 3 Class =:Animal: type Letter; Class =: Human: type Letter; Human IS-A Animal; Human IS-Context ‘5’: Viewer: John; Beach IS-Context Human: Viewer: John. According to John’s observation, there are 5 people in the beach Human Beach 5 ‘John’A VIEWER: A

17. Application of IR principle Application 1: 5, 7, 8 …. Weight (property) Type Classification Car weight Airplane weight : weight instance Class 5, 6, 7, 9 -  car weight; car weight becomes a property or type, so class can be a type Two constructs: class and type, and they follow IR

18. Application of IR principle Application 1: Two constructs: property can be type and type can be property Green is a type Green is a property Smith and Smith,1977, ACM

19. Application of IR principle Application 1: Two constructs: instance and type. Instance can be a class/type and class/type can be an instance Q. Li, W.J. Zhang, and S.K. Tso, 2000, computer in industry Machine 1, Machine 2, …. Type Classification instance Machine ABC, XYZ, …. Type

20. Application of IR principle Summary for Application 1: 1.With the IP principle, the data modeling approach is more natural at capturing the real-world information. 2.The forgoing data relativity based in the IR principle has not fully implemented in the current information management system.

21. Application of IR principle Application 2: Intelligent systems to cope with unknown events  Intelligent systems store knowledge that is about the past problems and their solutions.  First, the knowledge repository must represent deep knowledge, which is supposed to be.  Second, the knowledge should be represented comprehensively, which is achieved by the system based on the IR principle.

22. Application of IR principle Application 2: Intelligent systems to cope with unknown events  In particular, both a problem and its context need to be represented, so does the context-free knowledge of knowledge in a generic sense

23. 23

26. Application of IR principle Application 2: Intelligent systems to cope with unknown events  Given a particular unknown problem, first represents it in both context-sensitive and generic forms. Use the generic form to search the knowledge base to find the generic solution of a particular solution  After that, compare the context to fine-tune the solution by taking the contextual difference as input.

27. Application of IR principle Application 3: Facilitating knowledge classification and representation  Effect versus governing principle of a device  Piezoelectric effect: deformation and electricity, which is taken as a solution principle in the context of design  A piezoelectric actuator: the piezoelectric effect relation becomes a governing principle to constrain the actuator’s behavior

28. Conclusions 1.Information Relativity (IR) principle is the fundamental principle for developing intelligent (software) system. 2.With the four axioms of the IR, a comprehensive information or knowledge repository can be developed. 3.The IR facilitates information or knowledge representation. 4.The IR is in fact bio-inspired.