René Thom and Semantic Information - Exploring Mathematical Approaches to Meaning

Explore René Thom's contributions to semantic information theory in this lecture by Daniel Bennequin. Delve into Thom's dissatisfaction with the mathematical formulation of information and his proposed solutions, including ideas from topological dynamics and singularity theory applied to biology, linguistics, and philosophy. Examine how Thom's work aimed to understand intelligibility and invention in human societies. Learn about variants of Shannon's theory that address Thom's concerns, focusing on semantic structures in formal languages and their homotopical invariants. Discover the connection between vanishing homology of singular functions and information theory, and investigate recent research on semantic functioning in artificial neural networks. Gain insights into the application of these concepts to psychological experiments on simple concept learning and use.