174 Environments of intelligence
Cognitive robots, as discussed in the same section, are not in a situation of having to evolve their own informational environments, as their functional structure
is intended to resemble human cognitive abilities in some important respects. Nor
is those robots’ external environment artificially created, as they are supposed
to act within unrestricted environments. Still, an informational environment will
have been created for them, precisely by virtue of simulating some of the patterns of organism-environment relations that are relevant to the human cognitive
functions.
Second Life is the other example in the aforementioned set in which the entire
environment of interaction is, in the fullest and most direct sense, constructed.
Apart from the basic virtual world infrastructure and the general framework of
modes of interaction, residents are involved in creating, along with the shape they
decide to assume and the items they construct, much of the informational relations
that exist in that world, and they will do so with different aims and purposes in
mind. Being a simulated environment, relations of isomorphism between informational relations within the simulations and natural information are relevant, but
remain underdetermined in intriguing ways. Some informational relations within
the simulated environment may not even have a genuine counterpart in the real
world. Given that an avatar of any shape might be operated by a human being of
any race, gender and persuasion but also by a scripted agent, the underdefined
isomorphisms to real-world informational relations involved here make for what
may count as the most sophisticated incarnation of the imitation game, as originally described by Turing.
In all remaining examples, rather than entire environments of interaction being
constructed, artificial elements are added to existing external environments. Additions might be accomplished in material fashion, as in the case of social robotics,
or in simulated or virtual fashion, as for embodied conversational agents, virtual
overlays with gaming purposes (MMMOG) or virtual objects that can be interacted with in non-virtual environments (AR). The elements thus added are likely
to affect the informational environments of those interacting with them, either in
wholesale fashion as, supposedly, in AR, or within clearly circumscribed contexts
of interaction, as for conversational agents and social robots, or within a hybrid
context, as in the case of gaming affordances being embedded in an everyday
environment. The player waiting for the bus home may, at an instance and without changing places, be surprised with a challenge or a fight. Although, being an
MMMOG player, he will be disposed to be thus surprised, and although he also
might be the one to pose the challenge or to solicit the fight with the guy at the
bus stop on the other side of the street, a switching between specific informational
environments obtains without any otherwise perceptible change in the external
environment, apart from the presence and operation of mobile handset and gaming application.
Neither the distinction between the construction of entire environments and the
addition of elements to existing environments nor the different extensions of what
is modified by what means will be reliable predictors of the actual scope of the
artefact-based effects on informational environments. A seemingly minor addition
Cognitive robots, as discussed in the same section, are not in a situation of having to evolve their own informational environments, as their functional structure
is intended to resemble human cognitive abilities in some important respects. Nor
is those robots’ external environment artificially created, as they are supposed
to act within unrestricted environments. Still, an informational environment will
have been created for them, precisely by virtue of simulating some of the patterns of organism-environment relations that are relevant to the human cognitive
functions.
Second Life is the other example in the aforementioned set in which the entire
environment of interaction is, in the fullest and most direct sense, constructed.
Apart from the basic virtual world infrastructure and the general framework of
modes of interaction, residents are involved in creating, along with the shape they
decide to assume and the items they construct, much of the informational relations
that exist in that world, and they will do so with different aims and purposes in
mind. Being a simulated environment, relations of isomorphism between informational relations within the simulations and natural information are relevant, but
remain underdetermined in intriguing ways. Some informational relations within
the simulated environment may not even have a genuine counterpart in the real
world. Given that an avatar of any shape might be operated by a human being of
any race, gender and persuasion but also by a scripted agent, the underdefined
isomorphisms to real-world informational relations involved here make for what
may count as the most sophisticated incarnation of the imitation game, as originally described by Turing.
In all remaining examples, rather than entire environments of interaction being
constructed, artificial elements are added to existing external environments. Additions might be accomplished in material fashion, as in the case of social robotics,
or in simulated or virtual fashion, as for embodied conversational agents, virtual
overlays with gaming purposes (MMMOG) or virtual objects that can be interacted with in non-virtual environments (AR). The elements thus added are likely
to affect the informational environments of those interacting with them, either in
wholesale fashion as, supposedly, in AR, or within clearly circumscribed contexts
of interaction, as for conversational agents and social robots, or within a hybrid
context, as in the case of gaming affordances being embedded in an everyday
environment. The player waiting for the bus home may, at an instance and without changing places, be surprised with a challenge or a fight. Although, being an
MMMOG player, he will be disposed to be thus surprised, and although he also
might be the one to pose the challenge or to solicit the fight with the guy at the
bus stop on the other side of the street, a switching between specific informational
environments obtains without any otherwise perceptible change in the external
environment, apart from the presence and operation of mobile handset and gaming application.
Neither the distinction between the construction of entire environments and the
addition of elements to existing environments nor the different extensions of what
is modified by what means will be reliable predictors of the actual scope of the
artefact-based effects on informational environments. A seemingly minor addition