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Scientific Paradigm of Informatics as a Third Culture

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Abstract—

The first results of the creation of the scientific paradigm of informatics, which unites a wide range of information and computer sciences, are described. The subject domain of informatics is considered within Paul Rosenbloom’s concept of polyadic computing. The main goal of this article is to construct fragments of the upper levels of two classifications of the entities of the subject domain of informatics as a third culture (along with the natural sciences and the humanities, which C.P. Snow referred to as the two cultures). In this way, a number of already known bases are used to construct three levels of classification of objects of the subject domain (the first classification) and two levels of classification of transformations of these objects (the second classification). Both classifications are planned to be used to create a scientific paradigm of informatics as the third culture. The proposed fragments of classifications are positioned as the initial stage of the process of formation of the whole paradigm. The context and prerequisites for the creation of the proposed paradigm are considered, along with how the first results of its formation can be useful today.

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Notes

  1. There is a new version of the European Commission’s Digital Education Action Plan (2021–2027) [27].

  2. Preparation for the monitoring started in 2013. It took 2 years to collect data. Based on the results of the monitoring, the Report [28] was published in 2017.

  3. If a country has a unified education system in the field of informatics, then the country is the AU. If a country has regions with autonomous education systems, the regions of that country are AUs, e.g., Bavaria. There are 3 such regions in Belgium, 4 in the United Kingdom, 15 in Spain, and 16 in Germany.

  4. The structured description of the state of the informatics education system in the Russian Federation is given on pages 196 and 197 of the Report [28].

  5. The first of the three sources for the ECE strategy is an article by Kristen Nygaard (University of Oslo), which he presented at the Congress of the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) in Dublin in 1986.

  6. The modern Merriam-Webster online dictionary gives the following definition under the number 2c for the term phenomenon: “A fact or event of scientific interest susceptible to scientific description and explanation” [36]. This definition corresponds to Nygaard’s interpretation, but it does not explicitly divide phenomena into the cognitive the sensory perceptual.

  7. From the point of view of the semiotic triangle (subject–concept–word) for objective entities, the primary vertex of the triangle is the subject, as a result of studying which concept and word appear. For intersubjective entities, the primary vertex is concept, whose definitional options should be discussed to reach consensus. If it can be reached, it is in the process of discussion that the thought subject, the word denoting it, and the concept expressing it appear, which together form a semiotic triangle as a result of the genesis of intersubjective entity.

  8. Some 800 experts and leaders from the information and communication technology industry contributed to this report, which was developed under the auspices of the World Economic Forum (Davos, Switzerland).

  9. For example, natural DNA translation models created by microbiologists are used in informatics to develop recording methods and tools for the long-term storage of large-volume data using synthesized DNA strands.

  10. The tabular classification of informatics interfaces was given in [54].

  11. The division into personal, collective, organizational, and conventional knowledge [14] (conventional is called social by Schrader [48]) is not considered in this article.

  12. A notational sign system is combining verbal signs with nonverbal signs (languages of musical notation, maps, tables, etc.).

  13. Note that the translation of a text from one language into another as a first-order sign transformation belongs to the class of second-order nature transformations of the upper level of the classification of transformations of objects belonging to two media of different nature: sensory perceptual and digital media for machine translation and mental, and sensory perceptual media for a human translator.

  14. We will also call the calculation of the characteristics of texts sign transformations.

  15. The basis of the reversibility/irreversibility of multistage transformations of concrete objects into abstract ones discussed in [6–8] is planned to be added to the classification of transformations of objects of the subject domain of informatics in the future.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The research was carried out using the Center for Collective Use of the Federal Research Center Computer Science and Control of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

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This work was supported by ongoing institutional funding. No additional grants to carry out or direct this particular research were obtained.

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  1. Institute of Informatics Problems, Federal Research Center Computer Science and Control, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    I. M. Zatsman

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Zatsman, I.M. Scientific Paradigm of Informatics as a Third Culture. Sci. Tech. Inf. Proc. 50, 246–258 (2023). https://doi.org/10.3103/S0147688223040111

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