The Semantic Sphere 1: Computation, Cognition and Information Economy

Chapter 13

Hermeneutic Memory

13.1. Toward a semantic organization of memory

The Hypercortex can be seen as a memory, since it contains and organizes data. It functions as a hermeneutic memory that allows the application of multiple interpretation strategies. As we will see in this chapter, this memory is perspectivist – it integrates many distinct points of view – and is structured in layers of increasing complexity (data, information, knowledge). Different creative conversations can generate automatable functions in it as they see fit. Some of these functions will categorize and evaluate data, thus producing semantic information units, which are formal representations of ideas. Other functions will situate these information units in encompassing theoretical or narrative contexts that will specify or transform their meaning. The combinations of these hermeneutic functions form a multitude of collective interpretation games. It is thanks to the existence of a common metalanguage for computable semantics (IEML), which, as we have seen, provides a system of coordinates for the world of ideas, that all these games can converse and exchange their cognitive resources in the same general semantic information economy. The Hypercortex will thus function as a collaborative tool for enhancing individual and social knowledge management¹.

Figure 13.1 shows the location of Chapter 13 in the discussion of the general structure of reflexive collective intelligence. Neither the semantic machine ...